SXSW Review: Making Friends with ‘Language Lessons’
Language Lessons is a good pandemic film in the sense that it doesn’t mention COVID-19 at all. Not that we can’t discuss such matters directly with compassion or reason, but rather because, as noted in our Alone Together review, the vast majority of films addressing the pandemic up until now haven’t done the leg work to warrant their existence.
Natalie Morales’ Language Lessons is one of few exceptions because of its aversion to dating itself. On one hand, it is a film that was clearly made within the confines of the 2020 lockdown, using conversational video calls and messages to tell its story, but on the other, it positions itself as any other drama, focusing on timeless emotional themes that work outside the context of a global pandemic.
As a birthday present from his husband Will, Adam (Mark Duplass) receives a series of weekly, virtual language lessons to practice his Spanish skills. Taught by Cariño (Morales), the student and teacher pair build up a conversational rapport with one another until their initial awkwardness fades entirely. When Will dies, Adam falls into a depression, and the weekly meetings start to take on a supportive escape, opening up the dynamic to mutual investment in each other’s lives.
What begins as an opportunity to brush up on linguistics evolves into a codependent friendship. As Adam deals with grief in Los Angeles, Cariño deals with a set of her own personal issues in Costa Rica, issues she is reluctant to open up about. The dialog the two engage in underscores an inherent need to communicate and connect with others, irrespective of time zones or language barrier or background, making Language Lessons’ ultimate point feel universal.
Though the film is not explicit in its mention of COVID, its themes are COVID adjacent. The inherent lack of human connection this past year has made its presence stand out all the more, particularly since we’ve all been communicating the same way Adam and Cariño do. Video calls, by nature, are a way to put a face to a conversation that’s more intimate than a phone or text message. The choice to tell this story through video calls serves as not only as a byproduct of production circumstance, but also a reminder of why we do them in the first place: to connect with others. And while third act plot progression advances in obtuse ways, the ending is a tender culmination of friendship, making Language Lessons a pandemic film I can get behind.
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