Thesis (1996)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

While working on her Thesis regarding the fascination for violence in the media and entertainment, a student uncovers a snuff movie and suspects the people involved in its making may have ties to her university.Despite its gruesome subject, this film plays very much like an 80s whodunnit classic. In fact, the camera work in several sequences reminded me of the early thrillers directed by Brian DePalma.What makes this film is interesting is that for its release time (1996) the film in a way foreshadows what was to come as far as violence and how it is portrayed and promoted in the wave of filmmakers. Amenábar wisely elects to keep most of the violence off screen. Sometimes, it's almost as if you were watching a torture porn film while covering your eyes with your hand during the torture scenes.The social commentary is great but unfortunately takes a backseat to the whodunnit mystery. We do understand that Angela, the student, is quite conflicted when it comes to violence. She is both fascinated and repulsed by displays of violence and other morbid topics. Two other characters help form a triangle of sort. Angela befriends, Chema an amateur of questionable movies who fully acknowledges his own attraction to violence. Chema is very much a typical, socially awkward person but as the movie progresses, it is nice to see the relationship between him and Angela evolve. The third character is Bosco, played admirably by Eduardo Noriega. Angela suspects Bosco may be involved in the production of snuff movies yet falls for his charming ways.There are several other characters but Amenábar only brushes on the surface of those. What we are left with is a good movie with some tense scenes but unfortunately also a movie that feels a bit dated. If Amenábar had explored the Thesis angle a little more, this might have been a classic. Instead, he focuses on the mystery aspect and a few thrills.A solid debut by this director who did much better later in his career.

Tesis , starts off with a journalism student who is doing a thesis on audiovisual violence, gets pulled into a gore scandal that has her running away from it but at the same time getting draw to the mystery. Two suspects, a surprise killer and a tight screenplay all packed in a two hour thriller has been attempted many times but has rarely succeeded like this. Not a moment in this thriller feels unwanted or stretched, even the humor falls neatly in place. The acting is nothing to rave about but in all honestly it suited just fine for this movie. Ana Torrent as 'Angela' is a character that had been written so well that her intentions are are mysterious as the suspects'. Not many thrillers that come out these days can match the quality of movies like these. While we have our finger's crossed for Hollywood to bring out another 'Silence of lambs' in this post-Hitchcock era, movies like this can comfort a person with good taste for them.

What a terrific film. It scares the hell out of me every time I watch it. It's cleverly made, and the subject matter is one of terrifying myth. We all like to think that because we've never seem a snuff film, they don't exist, but they probably do, and if we really want to, and if we scour the planet for years, we'll probably find at least one. So, they're out there, and the premise in this film is that the next one could star you! I thought the script was solid, and the acting was superb. Not many films manage to scare me, but this one certainly did. All the factors were more than decent, and thus contributed to a wonderful film, full of surprises and suspense.

Amenabar in The Others was a gem. With that expectation I watched this. And what I got was a lot of promises, showing the signs that this person will, after some time make a great movie, but not a great movie itself. It has quite a lot of those youth eccentricities, starting from the incident of Castro as the name of the teacher, and in reality there in the Academy a teacher having that name, the very youthful tendency of talking in multiple removes, starting from the very concept of the circular structure, a film about gore around 'snuff' films being made in a 'mass communication' academy, that is, a film study center. Continuously the 'mass communication' thing cross reference is there. Quite a lot of them are very witty, like, the list of camera buyers including the name of the director, and interplay of happenings between TV and film, and many more. But, after all, they have that 'terrible infant' effect, while I was expecting the mature master touch of 'The Others'. Quite a lot of the thrill thing was technical thrill, not a product of internal tension. Anyway, a good film, and showing the making of a talent.