Damp squib

Ay, caramba!

I'M GONNA EXPLODE/ VOY A EXPLOTAR
Directed by Gerardo Naranjo. Starring Juan Pablo de Santiago, Maria Deschamps, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Pedro González, Rebecca Jones 15A cert, lim release, 106 min

YOU WAIT endlessly for an unsatisfactory tribute to early Jean-Luc Godard and then, just when you’re set to give up, two come along in the space of a month.

Like the recent Unmade Beds, I'm Gonna Explode(awful English- language title, incidentally) follows young Spanish-speaking youths as they pinball about in the manner of the characters in Godard's À Bout de Souffleand Bande à Part. As in Beds, the pose quickly becomes tiresome and the film ends up being no more experimental than an average episode of Last of the Summer Wine.

Here’s the plot. Roman (Juan Pablo de Santiago), stroppy son of a slimy Mexican oligarch, and Maru (Maria Deschamps), a girl from a more humble background, decide to withdraw from society. The mighty strop has the look of a kidnapping – Roman snatching Maru that is – but it remains clear that they are both committed to the flight from conformity. Why, look. They have a photograph of Morrissey (really) amid their sparse belongings.

It initially seem as if, aping influences such as Badlands, the film is going to take its heroes on the road. Instead, they retire to the roof of Roman’s family home and, fired up on wine from the cellar, snigger as search parties comb Mexico.

As is so often the case with recent Mexican cinema, the picture has a gorgeous, fuzzy look to it. But the performances are insufficiently nuanced and the characterisation too vague to justify the inertness of the non-plot and the dubiousness of the teen sex scenes.

You explode if you want to. I’m gonna have a doze.