Review: The clever satire of Official Competition

Actors rehearse under a giant boulder dangling from a crane in the film Official Competition. Photo / Supplied

Official Competition (115mins) (rating R) in cinemas now
Directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat
In Spanish with subtitles
Reviewed by Jen Shieff

Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008, Parallel Mothers, 2021) is very entertaining in Official Competition, playing film director Lola Cuevas, a big-haired, eccentric director with a huge ego.

Lola seems calm on the surface, super-organised. But when rehearsals begin, she slowly reveals her obsessive perfectionism, pushing her actors Felix Rivero (Antonio Banderas, Mask of Zorro, 1998, Legend of Zorro, 2005) and Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez, Argentinian Academy Award winner, 2008, 2014, 2016), to the brink.

Felix and Iván play jealous brothers in a film within a film. Doing that should be easy for them considering, as actors, Felix and Iván detest each other.

They mock each other's lifestyles, wives and acting techniques but playing their roles is not easy for them, largely because of Lola.

The script, written by the film's directors, Argentinians Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, allows Lola to do anything she likes in order to get the best performances out of her actors and she stops at nothing.

The film is mainly about rivalry but also about the ways in which directors can literally make or break their actors.

There are no big surprises in the opening scenes: a pharmaceutical baron wants to create a legacy film, buys the rights to a book about rivalry between brothers, hires a top director, gives her an unlimited budget and leaves her to it.

It's a dream job for a director and everyone, including the chosen director herself, knows she's the best in the business.

In rehearsal, Lola demands endless repetition of simple lines, and suddenly, things become increasingly crazy; the film has clearly become a satire, a very clever one.

Lola terrifies the actors by requiring them to rehearse under a giant boulder dangling from a crane directly above them.

Later, Iván practises his Oscar acceptance speech in front of a mirror in his dressing room, immediately after he's said he despises both the awards themselves and people like Felix who brag about having them.

Lola can be cruel, but somehow Cohn and Duprat cleverly keep lightness and humour front and centre.

Eventually, Felix's vanity and Iván's anarchy turn Lola into a pent-up volcano, likely to blow at any moment. And when she blows, it's spectacular and crushing, and also extremely funny.

In her efforts to get to the psychological truth of a situation, it could appear that Lola only exists if she's filmmaking, that she's not real. But she's as real as anyone who risks letting celluloid or social media take charge of them.

The competition is on, between the fictional brothers, the actors playing them and, behind the scenes, between Lola and her film.

At the last moment, when almost all seems lost, Lola rallies. Despite her often shocking behaviour, it's a pleasure to see her win.

Highly recommended.

Movies are rated: Avoid, Recommended, Highly recommended and Must see.

The first person to bring an image or hardcopy of this review to Starlight Cinema Taupo qualifies for a free ticket to

Official Competition.