By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Hot today, Chile tomorrow: another geek odyssey
LA Times’ Lorenza Muñoz works to make geek chic in a profile of the almost too good to be true 22-year-old Chilean director Nicolas Lopez: “Standing at a chubby 5 feet 6 and emanating a manic, geeky charm… Lopez is… an unlikely lightning rod. He has shaken Chile’s film industry by importing American-style marketing and publicity tactics to promote his films. He has popularized genre films in an industry more accustomed to sober dramas. His horror movies and teen comedies have been breakout hits at the box office, hitting a nerve among the country’s youth. Only 22 and still living with his parents, Lopez is unabashed about his passion to “make movies not films.” … To some, Lopez “is the epitome of everything they loathe about globalization and the United States: instant gratification, cynicism, commercialism and vulgarity. His movies, his critics say, are all blood, gore and no substance.” Muñoz quotes Chilean novelist and director Alberto Fuguet, “He is a symbol of the Latin American of the future… He is alienated, hip, ultra Internet savvy, raised on trashy culture and yet he is local.” Lopez’s first cinematic influence? Back to the Future 2. “I want to make auteur cinema — MTV style,” he said. … “If you are fat, high school is hard,” he said. “If you are fat with [breasts] like me, it’s even harder.” His first feature, “Promedio Rojo,” was dubbed by Lopez’s hero Harry Knowles as “a geek masterpiece of comedic insanity.” … “This industry has been led by geeks,” he said gesticulating wildly over his pizza. “I mean, look at Spielberg — he is the biggest geek. The people who have been on the outside have always been able to tell the best stories. We are the ones who have had problems with girls, wore glasses and are fat.” [More enabling at the link.]
