It never stops being darkly funny even as we see how the dishonest Félix’s tendency to be a diva took a suddenly dangerous turn. He does so in a fit of rage by pushing him off a roof after he heard the disparaging comments the man who was supposed to be his co-star was making about how amateurish he is. This is because, right before shooting on the actual filming is supposed to begin, Félix attacks Iván.
More than just winking at the audience, it is all very boisterous and silly before shifting into a fittingly bleak conclusion that lays bare the brutality of being an artist. Their command of the characters makes it a playful deconstruction of art, cinema, celebrity, creativity, popularity, and pride that is as darkly funny as it is incisive. Think of the line from Tropic Thunder: "I'm a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude," crossed with a more serious sensibility, and you've got some idea of what is playing out here. However, we all know people who have an outsized ego, and we all can recognize when they are captured on screen. After all, most movie-going audiences aren’t particularly familiar with the process of making films and the quirks that make the jokes land as well as they do. There was some concern raised when the film first premiered that it would be too inside baseball in its humor. It is their presence that ensures the characters being skewered feel real. Their work ensures the ridiculousness of making art is deeply felt, pushing the characters further and further into creative chaos. Both Banderas and Martínez are similarly committed, making their portrayal of actors caught up in acting feel note-perfect. In the aforementioned scene where she destroys all the awards, something she calls “an exercise on the ego” meant to “transform” them, she plays the character with a sense of grace and glee. Cruz is both serious and sincere in her deadpan delivery, making each scene consistently chuckle-worthy. However, it is the way that all of this is delivered that really brings it home. This is all part of the film’s dry humor, all of which is sharply written and bursting with a sense of snark. As she outlines all the supposedly different meanings such a phrase can carry, it makes it hilarious when he delivers the line again with only the slightest more emphasis, and it is suddenly satisfactory. One of the best scenes comes early in the film, where Iván reads the line “good evening” multiple times at Lola’s urging, each basically indistinguishable from the last. RELATED: ‘Official Competition’ Trailer Reveals Penélope Cruz as an Eccentric Filmmaker Tormenting Antonio Banderas
Even though we have no idea if this has any artistic merit that will help the film, the performances make it uproariously funny. Cruz plays the character with a cutting sense of charm as she finds more and more creative ways to essentially torture the two men. Later, she wraps them together in plastic and destroys Félix’s awards while he screams to no avail. She will then have them act out a scene with what they think is a giant boulder dangling precariously over their head. She starts out by rather fortuitously describing the characters as cherries that are bound together, falling to the ground when she drops them. You can’t help smiling at the silliness of it all as we see Cruz put her actors through more and more strange sequences.
Ostensibly, this is all about getting them prepared for the actual shoot of the film though you strain to see some kind of method to the madness. The majority of the story plays out with the trio doing increasingly absurd acting exercises and rehearsals in an isolated building.
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