Summary
This gentle, low-key gem finds bittersweet beauty in the quiet missteps of adolescence.
Fernando Eimbcke’s early films, including Temporada de patos and Club Sandwich, established his knack for capturing the quiet, awkward moments of adolescence. After a detour with anthology Berlin, I Love You, Eimbcke returns to familiar territory with OLMO, a tender, understated coming-of-age story.
It’s 1979, and 14-year-old Olmo (Aivan Uttapa) is stuck at home caring for his bedridden father (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), who is living with multiple sclerosis. While his mother works multiple shifts to cover overdue rent and his sister Ana (Rosa Armendáriz) tries to fit in with her peers, Olmo dreams of impressing his neighbour Nina (Melanie Frometa).
He gets his chance when Nina asks to borrow his stereo (actually his dad’s) for a party. So begins a modest odyssey, as Olmo and his newly cowboy-booted friend Miguel (Diego Olmedo) embark on a series of misadventures in a bid to deliver the music.
On paper, this US-Mexican co-production might sound like it fits neatly into the well-worn tropes of adolescent urgency and summer quests. And to some extent, it does. But even at a lean 84 minutes, Eimbcke is in no rush to get anywhere, if there’s even a destination at all. The film opens with a minor catastrophe involving a urine-soaked mattress, played for laughs, but quietly underscores the family’s precarious financial state. From there, OLMO hovers in a liminal space between humour and hardship. The boys accidentally showing up to a funeral instead of a party is a prime example of how easily the tone pivots from comic to poignant.
Despite regularly trying to shirk his caregiving responsibilities, Uttapa’s Olmo never comes across as bratty or entitled. His performance is grounded in quiet yearning and genuine awkwardness. Veteran actor Sánchez Parra, whose resume spans over 90 films since Amores perros (2000), conveys volumes—of rage, regret and helplessness from a bed. There’s a lovely moment where he briefly lights up over a stereo repair, and for a fleeting instant, the whole room erupts in joy.
Neither Olmo nor the film receives a grand resolution, and that feels entirely right. Eimbcke instead offers a hazy, affectionate snapshot of youth, where sadness and comedy coexist and nothing quite goes as planned. OLMO may be about the past, but it understands how formative those uncertain, in-between moments can be.
2025 | USA, Mexico | DIRECTOR: Fernando Eimbcke | WRITERS: Fernando Eimbcke, Vanesa Garnica | CAST: Aivan Uttapa, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Diego Olmedo | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, The Festival Agency | RUNNING TIME: 84 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025)
