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| Paul
Malcom, March
27- April 2, 1998 |
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| On
a lighter note [at the South by Southwest Film Festival] was director Bob
Byington's second feature, the hilariously deadpan OLYMPIA. The film's
offbeat story begins when Olympia (Carmen Nogales), a soap-opera star in
Mexico, heads north to follow her lifelong dream of becoming an Olympic
javelin thrower. Once across the border, this intensely insular, driven
woman sparks the ambition of a directionless loser (Jason Andrews) who
becomes her coach. In addition to Andrews' sublime performance, this 82-minute
film is so packed with little human touches that it's easy to overlook
the unlikely circumstances that hold the two main characters together. |
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| Tony
Kaye, November 21, 1998 |
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| This
is a film with a sneaky, ineffable charm that's tough to describe. Character-driven
in the extreme and shot in a utilitarian, quasi-documentary style, its
story sort of maunders serenely along like a milk cow blocking traffic
on a country road. Funny scenes abound, ranging from Ed's sulfurous rants
to zany situational humor arising from the guys' responses to the truculent,
single-minded Olympia. . . . [The film] definitely has - as one of the
characters says of Olympia herself - "a certain je ne sais whatchamacallit." |
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