Tincho
2020 · 21m · Argentina
Directed by Ezequiel Pelaez
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
Juan, a sixteen-year-old dealing with ordinary teenage problems, is led by a series of situations to a truth that will change his life.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Coming-of-age revelation plot—it's the bones everyone's been using since forever, and Pelaez doesn't seem interested in breaking them; the premise promises a truth-bomb but delivers something I've already seen in a dozen festival submissions.
A formally measured meditation on adolescent discovery that respects the grammar of contemplative cinema, positioning itself thoughtfully within the lineage of tender realist drama, though the vagueness of its "truth" keeps it from arriving at the formal clarity where the best work lives.
What catches is how Pelaez lets those "series of situations" accumulate through small behavioral choices rather than plot mechanics—the film trusts its actor and rhythm enough to let meaning arrive in the spaces between, which is the entire difference between competent and alive.