10s Movie Review - No

Director: Pablo Larraín
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 118 minutes
Year: 2012
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Nestor Cantillana, Antonia Zegers

Description: An advertising executive (Gael Garcia Bernal) comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile’s 1988 referendum.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 48: A MOVIE SET BU SOUTH-AMERICA
 
Review: René Saveedra is doing well: his career is running smoothly and he makes commercials for anyone who offers enough money. He is a man who deep inside still has ideals but manages to hide them away within his professional life. We meet him in 1988 on the eve of a referendum that will decide the country’s future. The United Nations has forced the dictator Pinochet’s regime to call this referendum: with a simple yes or no. Chileans must decide whether or not to keep the man who has been the country’s undisputed leader since 1973.

René is asked to collaborate in the no campaign. The campaigns gets to fill 15 minutes each day leading yp to the referendum with a message against Pinochet’s regime. René knows that taking this job may mean losing his well-to-do position in society but lets his ideals overcome him; he accepts the challenge. He will have to endure much, the main obstacles being the intimidation of the Pinochet regime and the divisions within the members of the No campaign: a motley crew of communists, democrats and anarchists.

Director Pablo Larraín has tried to capture the zeitgeist of the 1980s with every detail of the film. Every little detail has been thought of: fro the clothes and the way the characters speak to the film material used. Parts of the film were filmed with the U-Matic video format. U-Matic was the name of a video cassette that recorded in analog. The footage shows little detail bit is functional. This gives the film an authentic feel and resembles a documentary shot at the time of the No campaign. Gael Garcia Bernal, who plays René, is fantastic in the film. He is an underrated actor.

“No” is a bit slow at times, which is the only downside to the film. This movie is a great study of a period in history not known to many people.

Rating: 4/ 5