Last Sunday afternoon, just before the FIFA World Cup final I was browsing through the films in my laptop, since the memory was full and had to delete some files (Movies of course). Then I found this catchy title “Pizza, Beer & Cigarettes”, wow.. what a tempting title!!!. I should have got it sometime back, but didn't push to see it because there were no subtitles available. So now, I gave a shot to watch it without subs. Moreover cinema is a visual medium, its not a news documentary. Surprise, I was able to pick the story. I didn't even read the synopsis before.
El Cordobes and his teenage friends work for Martin a taxi driver. Whenever some wealthy people take the taxi, El Cordobes and his friends will storm into the taxi mid way and rob them. El Cordobes girlfriend Sandra is pregnant, she pleads Cordobes to leave this grey job and get some good decent life. Sandra prepares to leave Argentina. El and his friends make one last attempt to steal a hi-fi bar so that the both can lead a good life. Did the attempt go as planned is the climax. ?
The story is universal and understandable by the visuals itself. So not understanding the dialogues didn't make any impact in following it. There are many such Indian\Tamil movies with the similar plot lines. One such close to the same plotline Tamil movie is Thalainagaram starring Sundar C. This kind of story can happen anywhere in the world as long as poor and underprivileged people are oppressed by the system.
Just because of the title, we don't see much pizzas, beers and cigarettes. Some light moments are there as a dark comedy- Once after beating up Martin the taxi driver, El Cordobes asks the passenger to drive the taxi. The boys seeing the film “Dog Day Afternoon” by Al Pacino and planning how to do a stick-up. Some dark moments- When El Cordobes and his friend steal from an amputated street beggar.
For some reason whenever I see a South American film it ends up to be a film which talks about the exploitation of the poor.
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