One of my top discoveries from the first half of the 2024 Venice Film Festival is an Argentinian film called Kill the Jockey, originally known as El Jockey in Spanish. It’s the latest cinematic creation from artsy, talented Argentinian filmmaker Luis Ortega, already known for his other films Damn Summer, Lulu, and El Angel previously. The film is premiering in the Main Competition at Venice – within the first 15 minutes after the screening began, I knew why they picked this film to play in this prestigious section at the festival. It really is a fantastic film, with complex filmmaking, slick storytelling and vivid pacing, and a very precise, clean style. It’s also an impressive 97 minutes (which in Venice is refreshing because almost everything else is 2 to 3 hours long), never overstaying its welcome and moving along at such a swift pace it almost feels like they’re leaving out major moments of this story. But that’s actually part of what makes it potent – the taut, minimalistic narrative keeps it fascinating, you really have to keep up to understand where it’s going & what the story is saying following this jockey as he attempts to escape from his horse racing lifestyle in Argentina. // Continue Reading ›
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