3/5 Argentinean Ennui
  by Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas)
"Smoker's Only"

Argentinean Ennui

Amos Lassen

Boredom in Argentina is the focus of "Smoker's Only" and it is characterized by Cecilia Bangolea as Reni. Reni is a rootless, thin and other worldly Bohemian who is in her early 20's. She sings with a rock band that has had some success but she has reached the point in her life that she cannot decide what her next movie should be. When the band kicks her out and she is at her most vulnerable, she meets Andres (Leonardo Brezciki), a male prostitute as he is turning a trick in an ATM station. She is hypnotized by what she sees and she approaches Andres and the two become fast friends. She also learns from Andres, who claims to be bisexual, that being paid for sex is a power trip for him and feeling love for him, decides to join him and the two begin hustling as a pair.
The two are outsiders who enter the underworld where shady dealings are the rule and divorce from the mainstream is the way of life, What we get here is a film that needs more character development; we just do not get to now Reni and Andres and if we would learn more about them, we would probably be drawn into the film. Just as they were set apart from society was I set apart from the film. Made in the stream of consciousness style, we see some very strange dream sequences which really added nothing to the plot. The film looks at Reni's poor choice of falling for a hustler with a kind of sad seriousness and the dark side of Argentina is hardly shown to us. The film is a look at the struggle between love and sex and it reaches the same tired and old conclusion that sex minus love has no meaning even if it is profitable. Even though Andres feels liberated, we see that this is really not much more than a cover for his gear of genuine and emotional commitment.


5/5 Not for the slow witted or for those with Attention Deficit Disorder
  by Aparato SuperSonico (Orlando, FL)
It doesn;t boast a Hollywood budget, and the film could have been improved in a few ways here and there, still it is a very good film that impressed me enough to but the DVD as soon as it came out. No regrets. This is an art film, with a sort of twisted romantic side, in the merciless and gritty streets of Buenos Aires. I appreciated this film even more since it did not deal with the usual subjects: The Dirty War, The Economic Depression, Peronism, or The General Misery the People (everyone looks old and disheveled in 90% of Argentine films). Worth the money, worth the time, I would like to see, eventually a sequel, and more films by Ms. Chen (director) and this fine cast, especially Ms. Bengolea. At thye time of this review I saw that "Agua" ("Water"), was just released in Feb 2007 in a film festival, Veronica Chen's second feature film. I hope it is a good one. Since I live in Orlando, FL, it is almost impossible to see a film like this in a movie theater, therefore I can either go to Miami to see them, or wait until they come out on DVD. Those of you who live in larger cities, count yourselves lucky!

5/5 Indeed a great film!
  by
I found this film great as it deals with a subject that is complex but yet simple...love.
This film will make you feel the love that the two main characters have and also the realistic heartbreak that they will have to endure in the end.
You'll feel it if you follow it correctly.

3/5 A glimpse of street life in Argentina
  by Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
SMOKERS ONLY is a low budget film that creates a mood, an insider's view of street existence of alienated kids in Argentina. Simply stated, this is the story of a young male hustler who sells himself in ATM areas in full view of the public, that public including a young girl singer who is an 'outsider'. She observes his tricking in public places with whatever men are interested in the dalliance and approaches the hustler in his own environment. She does not want to pay for for physical love but is clearly attracted to him, as he is to her. She meets his fellow hustlers, eventually does a three way as a street walker, but has fallen in love with her hustler and dreams of something better. The hustler admits that his vocation makes him feel desired and important and he is loathe to give it up. The girl is last seen aboard a train, just staring at the moving landscape.

A great movie, no. But Director Chen has used a very straight-forward approach in her examination of kids of the streets. Her camera man gets a bit carried away with movement but does seek out and find the sleezy nocturnal void that represents the lives of these 'children of the night'. In Spanish with subtitles. Not rated but while the film is about street life physical encounters, the seemy side of activity is sensitively and discretely shown in black and white as 'captured' by a guard video camera: documented reality but strangely otherworldly. The music score is as bizarre as the tale.......

1/5 Boooooring....
  by
Don't waste your money and time on this one.
No disernible plot, little character development, no consequence.
Ignore the hype, there's nothing here.