The Delinquents

Rating TBA.
Dir: Rodrigo Moreno.
Argentina/Brazil/Luxembourg/Chile, 2023, 189 min.
Daniel Elías, Esteban Bigliardi, Margarita Molfino.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

“The lives of two employees in a drab, stifling Buenos Aires bank are intertwined – and upended – when one of them, Moran, steals several hundred thousand dollars from the vault and persuades the other, Ramon, to hide the money until Moran has served the resulting prison sentence. It is a fairly familiar crime thriller setup, yet this playful, effortlessly engrossing picture takes a series of deliciously confounding turns. Leisurely, elliptical, enigmatic but guided with a sure hand, the film is preoccupied with duality: work versus leisure, routine versus spontaneity, restriction versus freedom, familiarity versus discovery… This is a rewarding, humorous fable that meanders between the city and the Cordoba hills, via lakes, hills and a stint in prison.” –Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“Breezy and unhurried in a way that invites your mind to wander around without being leashed to the usual obligations of plot, The Delinquents is less interested in the details of Morán’s theft than it is in how the very idea behind it begins to remap Román’s entire worldview. The gym bag full of money doesn’t provoke his greed so much as his imagination.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire