iGilbert features on this year’s Durban International Film Festival DIFF 2021 which is being screened virtually from Thursday July 22 until Sunday August 1, 2021.
Director: Adrian Martinez
Cast: Adrian Martinez, Dascha Polanco, Raul
Castillo, Socorro Santiago, Mozhan Marno, Emilio Delgado
Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10
English and Spanish with English subtitles
Once Upon a Time in Venice and Focus actor Adrian Martinez writes, directs and acts in his directorial debut film iGilbert about a diabetic overweight man who lives with his overprotective mother in a Manhattan brownstone and secretly takes pictures of beautiful woman while also spying on his mother’s tenant the voluptuous exotic dancer Jana wonderfully played by Dascha Polanca (Joy, In the Heights).
Psychologically iGilbert is a fascinatingly complex film yet Martinez as writer, director and actor of this film, unfortunately cannot view himself from a distance, so there are unexpected directorial flourishes which detract from the overall narrative. Nevertheless, iGilbert is interesting and disturbing.
It’s a bizarre tale of morally flawed characters that are all cloying at each other’s emotional boundaries, tear drinkers, waiting for the final combustion to occur. There is Jana’s aggressive boyfriend Tony, well played by Raul Castillo who is both possessive and unhinged, an ex-Army War veteran suffering from severe PTSD.
There is Gilbert Gonzalez’s mother Carmen who constantly plies her overweight son with more food despite his obesity, feeding his own insecurities and heightening his secretive voyeuristic tendencies. Carmen is expertly played by Socorro Santiago last seen in director Steve McQueen’s heist film Widows back in 2018.
Then there is detective Rivera who comes to Gilbert’s aid when he reports a rapist to the police. Detective Rivera is played by character TV actress Mozhan Marno who soon realizes that Gilbert has lots of psychological issues which he needs to explore and play out.
There is also Gilbert’s late stepfather who appears to him in surreal dream sequences: Rodolfo Delgado, a bizarre Charlie Chaplinesque type figure that antagonizes Gilbert adding to his psychological angst and his neurotic voyeuristic tendencies.
Most of the action takes place in and around a Manhattan brownstone, so if audiences are looking for an angst-ridden, claustrophobic psychological drama then iGilbert is both entertaining and disturbing.
As a director Adrian Martinez should have handed the project to someone with more experience although he doesn’t do a bad job but his talent is nowhere near the likes of actors-turned-directors like Ben Affleck, Kenneth Branagh and Clint Eastwood. Acting, directing and writing your own story is a tough act to follow.
iGilbert gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10 and is an unsettling piece of urban cinema all set in New York City. – David Walker
For more information on the Durban International Film Festival visit https://ccadiff.ukzn.ac.za/
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