Billed as the coming-of-age story of the year, and a winner at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, “Nico and Dani,” a film directed by Cesc Gay has drawn critical praise from both sides of the Atlantic.
Perhaps better described as a venture into the bizarre European sexual psyche, “Nico And Dani” tells the story of two Spanish boys and the summer they spent enjoying and exploring their own sexuality.
Dani (Fernando Ramallo), left by his vacationing parents at their posh Mediterranean summerhouse, decides to invite his school pal Nico (Jordi Vilches) to help him pass the time.
Dani, who is intent on spending his days hunting and fishing with Nico, finds his friend sidetracked when the two meet Elena (Marieta Orozco) and her best friend Berta (Esther Nubiola).
Determined to lose their virginity by 17, Nico and Dani spend most of their afternoons courting Berta and Elena, and most of their nights engaged in self-indulgent sexual behavior.
Exploring the limits of sex and friendship, the two boys bounce around the sexual spectrum enough to make one dizzy.
At times comical, and at other times disgusting, “Nico and Dani” charms viewers with the boys’ innocent folly, while shocking them with the boy’s sexual exploits. The most notable example of this paradox is an incident taking place between Dani and Elena, where Dani forces sex on Elana while she is passed out.
What is it about foreign films that enable the director to portray a rape scene as an act of childhood innocence? What makes it worse is that seemingly all the critics have thus far praised the scene. If this film were made by big American studio, instead of a small independent filmmaker, it would be criticized and most likely ran out of town. But since the film is foreign, it is hailed as an “exceptional coming of age film.”
What would us silly, arrogant Americans do without the European community here to set us straight about what is art and what is not.
