Episode 88: Nine Queens (2000)

From Adrian Martin, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die: "A lot of walking occurs in this engaging Argentinian crime lark.  The on-foot journey of two swindlers, Marcos (Ricardo Darin) and Juan (Gaston Pauls) offers, in passing, an understated documentary on Buenos Aries in the 21st century.  But as these characters imagine the scams they might pull, their steps propel them into the charged space of a fiction. "Debut director Fabian Bielinsky maintains a firm balance between the mundane and the thrilling.  Much of the film eschews a musical score, giving extra weight to the passing seconds.  But when music is finally allowed in, the effect carries a more energetic wallop than in most bigger-budget caper movies. "Bielinsky clearly adores the Hollywood classics by directors such as Billy Wilder and Joseph Mankiewicz concerning elaborate, double-crossing deceits.  Juan learns early on not to take at face value whatever misfortune occurs around him, because it could so easily be a con engineered by the shifty Marcos.  Such a tricky narrative courts the risk, inherent in this type of story, of creating an ever-escalating spiral of one-upmanship.  But Bielinsky has a special trump card up his sleeve, and that is the reality factor.  The moment in which Argentina's dire economic crisis intervenes is a real highlight." Have a comment or question for the host?  Email Sean at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @1001MoviesPC.