Line-Up
2014 · 20m · España
Directed by Àlex Julià Rich
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, surreal, whimsical
A boy who works in a record store in Detroit lives a unique experience thanks to a mysterious vinyl; from then on his life will take a 180-degree turn that will affect his whole environment, but is he really prepared to live something like this?
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A vinyl-as-MacGuffin conceit that could've been treacly indie whimsy—but Rich leans into genuine strangeness instead, letting the surreal and the mundane collide without explaining either one, which is exactly the move most people would've chickened out of.
Rich's framing situates the record store as liminal threshold in a lineage stretching back through magical-object cinema, but what distinguishes this is the restraint: the film trusts mise-en-scène and editing rhythm over exposition, a discipline that feels increasingly rare.
The decision to keep the vinyl's actual magic deliberately ambiguous—is it real transformation or psychological spiral?—hinges entirely on a single performance note from the lead, a micro-expression that rewires how you read every scene after, the kind of subtle acting choice that makes a 20-minute film feel complete.