Film Forum

In Santiago, Chile, Chola and Football are two homeless dogs – who aren’t homeless at all. Scrappy, adorable mutts, they live in Los Reyes, the city’s oldest skateboard park, kept company by dozens of teenage boys who are constantly in motion. (Surely the film’s title also refers to the dogs, truly kings of their quirky world.) One dog constantly schleps around a deflated football (or golf ball or empty soda bottle); the other romps alongside him day and night. The voices of the young skaters, set against the noises of the city, form a soundscape: bragging, complaining, joking, sharing the daily experiences of working-class kids. One day, two dog houses miraculously appear in the park – just in time to provide shelter for the coming winter. A touching film about the mysteries and joys of friendship: 2-legged on wheels and 4-legged on the ground. “An extraordinary film.” – Jonathan Romney, Film Comment

CHILE / GERMANY    2018    78 MINS.    IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES    GRASSHOPPER FILM

Reviews

“Critic’s Pick. In this beautiful film, two canines while away the time as life goes on around them. (The dogs) are mesmerizing to look at… (with) enormously expressive eyes. (The film) allows us to better appreciate the mystery of existence… (and) immerses us in a sense of life lived at the languid pace of an afternoon daydream.”
– Bilge Ebiri, The New York Times

“An extraordinary film. Mesmerizing. The dogs are never filmed in such a way as to make them look endearing or ‘characterful.’ It seems an outrageous, even perverse challenge: 75 minutes in a skate park, watching two dogs do nothing exceptional. But like the best films about the everyday, LOS REYES makes us reassess our ideas of what is and isn’t interesting in the world. Pablo Valdes’s intensely sharp photography is full of striking compositions that make the ordinary beautiful without falsely aestheticizing it. There are sound dynamics to match. Sound designer Janis Grossmann… has created a vividly textured collage. A film about life lived up close. What the film tells us so wonderfully is that... a dog, seemingly no more unique than an other - but also that any animal, looked at attentively and patiently enough, becomes not just exemplary, but the living, hearing, seeing center of the world.”
– Jonathan Romney, Film Comment

“Sets a new standard for dog movies… allowing audiences to appreciate the distinct beauty and charm of man’s best friend while never anthropomorphizing its subjects, or presenting them in an overly sentimental light.”
– Beatrice Loayza, Remezcla

“Wonderful. The film conveys a rare, animal sense of being, feeling out their existential space without lapsing into human psychology. That being said, if what Futbol and Chola have isn’t friendship, I’m not sure what is. LOS REYES doesn’t flinch from recognizing the loss that is the risk of any close bond. I said I wouldn’t, but now I think I’m tearing up.”
– Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment

“Refreshing. A blissful documentary portrait. A quietly radical attempt to view the world from a non-human perspective that also doubles as a chilled-out buddy comedy of sorts... Chola and Football radiate nothing less than the same iconic slacker vibes of Bill and Ted or Cheech and Chong. The film captures moments of vitality, beauty, and hilarity.”
– Keith Watson, SLANT