Heroic Losers

Heroic Losers (Spanish: La odisea de los giles) is a 2019 Argentine heist film co-written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein, based on the novel La noche de la Usina (The Night of the Heroic Losers) by Eduardo Sacheri, who also co-wrote the screenplay. It features an ensemble cast including Ricardo Darín, Luis Brandoni, Chino Darín, Verónica Llinás, Daniel Aráoz, Carlos Belloso, Marco Caponi, Rita Cortese, and Andrés Parra.

Heroic Losers
Argentine theatrical release poster
SpanishLa odisea de los giles
Directed bySebastián Borensztein
Produced by
Written by
Based onLa noche de la Usina
by Eduardo Sacheri
Starring
Music byFederico Jusid
CinematographyRodrigo Pulpeiro
Edited byAlejandro Carrillo Penovi
Production
companies
  • Kramer & Sigman Films
  • Kenya Films
  • Mod Producciones
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • 15 August 2019 (2019-08-15) (Argentina)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryArgentina
LanguageSpanish
Box office$7.2 million[1]

Heroic Losers was released in Argentina on 15 August 2019, and it held its international premiere as part of the Special Presentations section at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film received praise for its performances, and critics compared it to How to Steal a Million (1966) and Ocean's Eleven (2001). It was selected as the Argentine entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[2]

Plot

In August 2001, in the small town of Villa Alsina, Fermín Perlassi, his wife Lidia and his friend Antonio Fontana come up with a plan to reopen "La Metodica", an agricultural cooperative which went bankrupt over ten years ago. To do so, they learn the minimal investment to cover the initial costs reaches 300,000 pesos and bring the idea to the town's residents: mechanic Rolo Belaúnde, self-employed fix-it brothers Gómez, unemployed riparian Medina and Carmén Lorgio, the town's shipping company's owner, who all agree and chip in. They manage to reach 158,653 pesos, which Fermín deposits in the bank vault in Villagrán.

A few days later, Alvarado, the bank manager, summons Fermín to the bank and manipulatively convinces him to deposit the money in his own account, claiming the central bank will probably not approve his loan request without a warranty on the debt. Fermín complies and travels back to Alsina, but the financial crisis reaches its peak the next day as the President announces the implement of the corralitos, which practically freezes every U.S. dollar-denominated accounts in Argentina and prohibits any weekly withdrawals over 250 pesos. Soon after, they learn Alvarado knew about the incoming government measures beforehand and personally approved a loan request by a lawyer named Fortunato Manzi, who converted the credit to U.S. dollars and withdrew all deposited dollar bills only a few minutes after Fermín left the bank. Fermín and Lidia travel to Villagrán to confront Alvarado, to no avail; in the way back, their car is run off the road by a truck, which results in Lidia's death and a severely injured Fermín.

One year later, Belaúnde and Fontana learn Manzi has contracted a construction worker to dig a 10 square feet hole in the middle of a nearby rural area and become convinced it serves as an underground burial vault to store the dollars. Fermín, his son Rodrigo, Fontana, Medina, the Gómez brothers, Carmen and her son, Hernán, reunite and decide to devise a plan to crack the vault and retrieve their "stolen" money. They soon learn Manzi has installed an impenetrable alarm device around the vault, which makes it impossible to break in; however, after rewatching a scene from How to Steal a Million, Fermín comes up with the idea to set off the alarm multiple times in order to force Manzi to disconnect it from its battery, which coupled with a power supply cut, would allow the crew to enter the vault. Meanwhile, Rodrigo poses as a gardener assigned to work at Manzi's office lawn to keep track of him.

Fermín and Fontana track the power cables and succeed in installing a junction box, repeatedly cutting and restoring the area's power supply and causing the alarm to set off multiple times a day. Manzi eventually disconnects the battery, but Florencia, his secretary, realizes Rodrigo is not a gardener, which prompts him to confess her their plans. Fermín calls off the heist in fear she will tell Manzi about it, but Rodrigo reassures him otherwise and they carry on with the plan.

That night, the crew splits into two groups: Belaúnde and Medina are tasked with destroying the power generator that supplies the area while Fermin, Rodrigo and Hernán will break into the safe when the lights go off; however, Medina miscontrols the toy car carrying the dynamite and creates an explosion that destroys all generators, causing a massive blackout. Manzi, who is in a party affected by the power outage, suspects something is wrong and heads to the vault. Meanwhile, Fermín and the others successfully break into the vault and find millions of dollars in cash, proceeding to retrieve the money. Manzi arrives soon after, but his car gets stuck in a mud barricade set by Fontana. The crew flees with the money as Manzi curses and threatens them by a distance. Later, they separate the money in two cars: one driven by Rodrigo and other by Hernán, and return to Alsina.

The next day, Fermin is consoling Cármen: Hernán ran away with nearly 2 million dollars in his car and haven't made contact since. In spite of that, they use the money to reopen La Metodica, which guarantees a better life for everyone in Alsina.

In a mid-credits scene, Manzi arrives at Fontana's auto shop with a flat tire. Fontana unzips his pants, rubs his mate's bombilla against his crotch, places it in the gourd and offers it to Manzi, who drinks it as his tire is swapped.

Cast

Ale Gigena and Guillermo Jacubowicz also appear as the Gómez brothers,[3] while Luciano Cazaux and Ailín Zaninovich appear as Alvarado and Florencia, respectively.[4]

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100% with an average score of 7.17/10, based on 10 reviews.[5] TodasLasCríticas, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100 based on 56 critics.[6]

Pablo Scholz of Clarín called the film a "great adaptation" of Sacheri's novel, and praised the cast as "impressively even and talented."[7] María Fernanda Mugica of La Nación wrote, "The script achieves an entertaining plot, interspersed with a reflection about human behavior and featuring characters with whom it is impossible not to empathize," and compared the plot and casting of familiar faces to Ocean's Eleven, although she noted the humor as the weakest aspect of the film.[8]

Further comparisons to Ocean's Eleven appeared throughout English-speaking reviews—referring to Darín's character as "an Argentinean Danny Ocean"—, which also noted the inspiration drawn from How to Steal a Million.[9] Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail gave the film three out of four stars, and called it "a thoroughly entertaining, if not especially enthralling, cinematic caper".[10] Variety's Scott Tobias wrote, "At close to a full two hours, 'Heroic Losers' takes too much time in the wind-up without the emotional payoffs Borensztein labors so hard to get." However, he praised "its expression of national character."[9] Writing for Screen Daily, Sarah Ward said, "Heroic Losers isn’t heavy on surprises; not in its comfortable rhythms, warm-hued look at rural Argentine struggles, overt fist-pumping moments or reliable performances. Borensztein’s feature also starts slowly, pads out its narrative and doesn’t quite know when to end. And yet, in transforming bleak reality into an uplifting fantasy, this remains a thoroughly likeable movie."[11]

In a more critical review, Luciano Monteagudo of Página/12 considered the film "a new step-back for big-budget Argentine cinema that in recent years—with few exceptions—has taken refuge in the most tested and conservative formulas."[12]

Awards
Award Date of Ceremony Category Recipient(s)/Nominee(s) Result Ref.
San Sebastián International Film Festival September 28, 2019 Golden Shell Heroic Losers Nominated [13]
Palm Springs International Film Festival January 11, 2020 Best Foreign Language Film Pending [14]
Goya Awards January 25, 2020 Best Iberoamerican Film Won [15][16]

See also

References
  1. "Heroic Losers". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  2. Mango, Agustin (24 September 2019). "Oscars: Argentina Selects 'Heroic Losers' for International Feature Film Category". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  3. Monti, Agus (14 August 2019). "La Odisea de los Giles: la crisis del 2001, el corralito y la venganza de un pueblo" (in Spanish). A24. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  4. DeFore, John (19 September 2019). "'Heroic Losers' ('La odisea de los giles'): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  5. "Heroic Losers (La odisea de los giles) (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  6. "La odisea de los giles". Todas Las Críticas (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  7. Scholz, Pablo O. (14 August 2019). "Crítica de La odisea de los giles: Todos unidos triunfaremos". Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  8. Mugica, María Fernanda (15 August 2019). "La odisea de los giles: gran producción local que cruza a ladrones vengadores con el corralito". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  9. Tobias, Scott (7 September 2019). "Film Review: 'Heroic Losers'". Variety. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  10. Hertz, Barry. "Elevator Pitch: Ocean's 11 meets How to Steal a Million". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  11. Ward, Sarah (8 September 2019). "'Heroic Losers': Toronto Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  12. Monteagudo, Luciano (15 August 2019). "La odisea de los giles: el corralito y la bóveda". Página/12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  13. Hopewell, John; Lang, Jamie (September 28, 2019). "'Pacified' Wins Golden Shell at San Sebastian". Variety. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  14. "31st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Announces Festival Line-Up". Palm Springs International Film Festival. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  15. "'Dolor y gloria' y 'Mientras dure la guerra' acaparan las nominaciones a los Goya 2020". eldiario.es (in Spanish). December 2, 2019. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  16. "Premios Goya 2020: lista completa de ganadores". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved January 27, 2020.
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