El nombre
2023 · 2m · Francia
Directed by Alexander Aguilar
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Conflicted and alienated by his given name, a young man struggles to live a double life in secret, fearing that coming out could shatter his relationship with his mother.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A competent identity-crisis narrative that hits all the expected beats—alienation, secrecy, maternal tension—without finding an angle that actually surprises or provokes; it's the safe version of a story that demands to be unsafe.
Aguilar locates the film within a clear lineage of intimate coming-of-age cinema, and the restraint in the editing—lingering on silences, small gestural moments—suggests formal awareness; the two minutes feel deliberately constructed rather than truncated.
The real film lives in the sound design and how Aguilar lets negative space do the emotional work—the mother's presence often felt through what *isn't* said, with one small vocal crack doing more than any monologue could; that economy of gesture is what makes two minutes feel complete.