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Argentina, 1985 Movie Review

Argentina, 1985 is a 2022 Argentine courtroom drama film directed by Santiago Mitre and starring Ricardo Darin. It is a somewhat standard, but very well made period piece.

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“The history was not made by guys like me“

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It tells the true story of how a public prosecutor, a young lawyer, and their inexperienced legal team dared to prosecute the heads of Argentina’s bloody military dictatorship. First off, this is a well-trodden subject for Argentine movies as anybody who has seen any of the country’s output would be familiar with it. This was the darkest period in their history with so many disappearances and turmoil, so it is obvious that it would influence many filmmakers.

And the movie is hardly original or truly great at anything that it does, which still doesn’t mean it’s bad, but just that it wasn’t really elevated by any singular aspect. But it is competently made across the board, so ultimately it would be difficult to find anyone who would dislike this movie as it’s just so well executed throughout.

Ricardo Darin is excellent in the main role and he is by far the acting standout here. Others are also solid, but it is Darin who delivered most in the film’s most interesting role. The film also differentiates itself from others of its type due to its emphasis on family drama as well. The family dynamics were a lot of fun and quite charming and their house felt very much lived-in due to meticulous production design on display.

Argentina, 1985 features very strong courtroom scenes, thus it is one of the best of the recent courtroom dramas. The dialogue is superb from start to finish while the sporadic humor helped ease the tone significantly. This is, similar to Austria’s ‘Corsage’ from the same year, a more lightweight and more engaging period piece, and this is a great set in the right direction for this usually tedious genre.

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Santiago Mitre directed the movie well, but he failed to elevate it to a more cinematic and great status. Too often the movie felt limited in its scale and approach, which was a problem to me, but at least the characters that it did focus on were well developed and the same goes for the overall story. The film is overlong at over two hours, but solid, quicker than usual pacing made it more palatable to viewers.