‘Too Late’ a stellar coming-of-age film
An unusual coming-of-age film, writer-director Dominga Sotomayor Castillo’s award-winning “Too Late to Die Young” takes place in the early 1990s in the mountains above Santiago, Chile, where a small group of artist-musicians has established a modest commune of homes in various states of construction, one without walls. It is a metaphor for how close humans are to nature in these woods, especially for the kids, who run wild all day.
For these post-Pinochet families, the biggest concerns are electricity, which is supplied by battery and generator, and water, which arrives through hoses, although a dead horse at the source has created a health threat. In addition to house pets, some families also have horses and cows. In opening scenes, 10-yearold Clara (Magdalena Totoro) loses her sheepdog Frida and starts a campaign to retrieve her by posting fliers with Frida’s photo.
The film’s protagonist is the brooding, beautiful adolescent Sofia (Demian Hernandez, who has the face of a movie star). An avid smoker, Sofia lives with her father, a luthier, whose house has walls, a second story and is constructed of stone and tile. Sofia’s father keeps to himself and does not talk much. Sofia longs to move in with her presumably more extroverted mother, a famous singer, who lives with her band’s bass player. Sofia is seen in opening scenes kissing with Lucas (Antar Machado), a young guitar player. Preparations are underway for a group New Year’s Eve celebration, and Sofia meets a handsome older young man named Ignacio (Matias Oviedo), who drives a motorcycle, and the sparks fly.
Castillo has a very light touch as a filmmaker. “Too Late to Die Young” is set in a world where people still have boomboxes and turntables There are no cellphones. People use pay phones, and all the kids ride bicycles and hang out in a sturdily built tree house. A man walks around a hill with a divining rod, dowsing for underground water. Children swim in a pool filled from a spring. Sofia broods in her bath (more water) and plays her accordion. Lucas is confused and jealous, while Ignacio makes his play.
Castillo’s style, which will appeal to fans of Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” keeps the camera only slightly aware of what’s going on. It takes in not only what is happening, it takes in atmosphere and setting, flora and fauna. It hears birds. It’s a form of lyrical naturalism more common to European cinema.
The director’s use of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” and the Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” gives Sofia’s hormonal longing a 1990s pop musical component, even if when the time comes to perform at the party Sofia turns out to be a bit of a beautiful dud (that accordion). She is not her mother, and when her mother does not show up, Sofia, who has been known to self-harm, decides to take an awkward step toward adulthood.
“Too Late to Die Young” is fluent in the language of metaphor and the joys and anguishes of youth and how pop music mines those themes, as well as the unique specifics of a Chilean time and place. Coming-of-age-films are an overworked genre. But this one is full of wonder.
(“Too Late to Die young” contains nudity, drug use and sexually suggestive scenes.)