QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN

Those looking to escape the cold at this time of year will feel the heat in more ways than one, as filmmaker Matías Szulanski takes us to Argentina for the frantic comedy-drama A Summer Tale. Fabián Arenillas stars as Jorge, a hustler shaking down businesses for money on behalf of his boss. Pouring with sweat as he paces the streets of Buenos Aires for his next job, a life of indulgence eventually catches up with him when he has a near-fatal heart attack.

Back on the streets after cheating death, he has two purposes: to find a way to reconnect with his estranged daughter, and to repay $6,000 of his boss’ money that was stolen during the heart attack. His chaotic methods, and selfish core, send both journeys into chaos. The plot has superficial parallels to the Safdie Brothers’ 2019 thriller Uncut Gems, another story of a luckless man running from one catastrophe to another. However, this is no imitation. While we follow Jorge in his frenetic quest for something between redemption and survival, what unfolds is the story of a man succumbing to his worst demons.

Some of them are lifestyle-related, as the story is punctuated with montages of him chain-smoking and eating grotesque fast-food concoctions, but most are personal. The slow realisation sinks in that this is a man who thinks he is trying to reform, but in fact he is simply serving himself under another pretence. His exploitation of all those around him makes his downfall infuriatingly inevitable, but mesmerising to watch.

This sort of film doesn’t work without a first-class performance in the lead. The camera follows Jorge almost constantly, and so it’s a great relief that the veteran actor is sensational. Arenillas is compellingly repugnant, if you can imagine such a thing. Purposefully lacking charisma but full of the streetwise savvy someone like him needs to survive, this most unique of antiheroes drags the viewer through the streets with him, finding opportunities to exploit all those around him, from his own family to business acquaintances, all just to get back to square one. Funny, pitiful, and engaging all at once, it’s a textured performance worthy of a veteran of the screen.

While it’s his show, Inés Urdinez stands out among the support as a prostitute Jorge frequents and eventually manipulates when he smells the opportunity to make some quick cash. Moving from casual indifference to fierce anger, she makes an interesting duo with Arenillas in the film’s latter stages, with her own story of hopelessness becoming just as compelling.

This taut film, at a precise 79 minutes, may leave you gasping for breath just like its protagonist, with the conflict and twists making this a ride fit for the most adventurous of cinema lovers. However, those who can keep pace will find a flawless character study that packs a lasting punch.

A Summer Tale just premiered in the Critics’s Picks strand of the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.