Olmo

Coming-of-age films are a cinematic mainstay. But films that focus on the emotional lives of young caretakers — children who must balance the uncertainties of adolescence while tending to the very adults meant to take care of them — remain strikingly rare. To this end, Fernando Eimbcke’s Olmo offers a warm yet unsentimental portrait of a teen’s life shaped less by rebellion than by familial responsibility and love.

Set in 1979, the film follows 14-year-old Olmo (Aivan Uttapa), who is at the centre of a close-knit Mexican-American family. Patriarch Nestor (Gustavo Sánchez Parra) has been bedridden from advanced multiple sclerosis for a few years. Older sister Ana (Rosa Armendariz) and exhausted mother Cecilia (Andrea Suárez Paz) shoulder most of the caretaking responsibilities. But one night Cecilia has to work and Ana refuses to cancel roller disco plans with friends. So Olmo and his best friend Miguel are forced to cancel their low-key hangout to pitch in. When Nina (Melanie Frometa), the slightly older teen goddess next door, invites them to a party but only if they can bring Nestor’s expensive stereo, the prospect of romance and fun are too difficult to resist.

Beautifully acted and shot, Eimbcke’s film is reminiscent of late-’70s and 1980s teen comedies, although it’s decidedly more grounded than that, balancing moments of tender self-discovery with the hilarity and awkwardness of the party scenes.

In the end, Olmo comes to understand that the carefree adolescence his peers enjoy is something he can only briefly visit, but that the strength of his family offers its own rewards.

ROBYN CITIZEN