Copper

Directed by Nicolás Pereda, Copper follows Lázaro G. Rodríguez’s Lázaro as he discovers a dead body and attempts to receive treatment for a breathing issue. Filmmaker Pereda, armed with his and Juan Francisco Maldonado’s screenplay, delivers a thoroughly and aggressively avant-garde piece of work that contains virtually no redeeming qualities, as the film, which runs a short-but-not-nearly-short-enough 78 minutes, proceeds at a snail’s pace through a nonexistent plot that contains little in the way of an entry point – with the perpetually arms-length atmosphere heightened by Rodríguez’s gratingly impassive performance and a complete and total lack of forward momentum. Pereda’s decision to suffuse Copper with painfully pointless interludes (eg Lázaro goes for a drive with his friends, Lázaro eats an orange in the most non-traditional way possible, etc) quickly transforms it into an often astonishingly interminable experience, and it’s ultimately impossible not to wonder what Lázaro set out to do (or what he’s trying to prove) with this worthless waste of time.

no stars out of ****