Verse for verse, ‘A Poet’ offers pointed, edgy satire
John Dryden wrote that “rhyme is the rock on which thou art to wreck.” It’s a literary quote that can literally be applied to Oscár Restrepo, the bumbling titular hero of Simón Mesa Soto’s funny, cringy “A Poet.” Satirical doesn’t even begin to describe Soto’s lacerating mockery of the pretentiousness of the propagators of prose. Guys like Oscár’s chief rival and critic, Efrain Mendoza, a celebrated hack lauded for capitalizing on the Latin-American stereotypes of poverty and political upheaval.
Both men can be viewed as the two sides of Soto, a Cannes winner for his 2014 short, “Leidi,” and his ensuing existential crisis over what to do next. Should he sell out like Efrain (Guillermo Cardona) and give the people more of what they want, or stay true to his artistic principles, like Oscár (hilarious newcomer Ubeimar Rios), who won Colombia’s National Poetry Prize when he was in his 20s, but has done little creatively over the ensuing two decades.
Soto has great fun with himself, probing his deepest fears of failure through Oscár, an obstreperous, hollowed-out shell of his former self. He’s so bludgeoned by inertia that he’s sabotaged his career to the point he’s flat broke and on the outs with everyone in his family except his sainted mother (Margarita Soto). In lieu of working, he spends his days and nights getting sauced, spouting inebriated declarations about the nobility of poets before regularly passing out on the sidewalk.
We also learn that he’s gullible to get-rich schemes and scammers, all too happy to relieve him of his last pesos. What troubles him most is the indifference he receives from his teenage daughter, Daniela (Alisson Correa), who needs 9 million pesos to attend the college of her choice. Seeing this as an in, Oscár begrudgingly accepts a teaching job at a high school in Medellín to raise the needed cash.
It is on the job that he encounters Yurlady (a wonderful Rebeca Andrade), a shy, quiet student who writes poetry as a way to escape her otherwise pedestrian life. She has no aspirations to become a writer, let alone share her blank verses with the world. But Oscár has other ideas. He is determined to live vicariously through making her a star.
Oscár’s ensuing machinations would be comical if his selfishness weren’t so pathetic. Even Daniela expresses how much she pities him. But neither that nor Yurlady’s reluctance is going to stop him from making his new protege the next recipient of the National Poetry Prize. And he has none other than the ever-pompous Efrain to abet him.
I will say no more beyond noting that “A Poet” builds toward a third-act disaster that – like “Sorry, Baby” – flippantly derives humor from an alleged sexual assault. Frankly, it made me uncomfortable, almost as much as Oscár’s frustrating lack of tact and self-awareness. He becomes a dumping ground for Soto’s love of pathos and humiliation, going so far in his ridicule of Oscár that it becomes almost unbearable.
There are times when you feel compelled to reach into the screen and grab Oscár by his slumped shoulders to shake some sense into him. All the while asking yourself, “How could someone this smart be so clueless?” I laughed, yes, but struggled to empathize with such a hopeless nebbish. At 123 minutes, “A Poet” is also much too long-winded with its clichéd observations about the slings and arrows of no good deed going unpunished. Yet, you’re drawn to Oscár in a sad-eyed puppy dog way. That’s all Rios, an actor with a Muppet-like appearance (akin to Julia Sweeney’s Pat on “SNL”), that’s the very definition of hangdog.
I also enjoyed many of Soto’s subtle touches, like the ragged edges around the screen and recurring gags about a penniless Oscár repeatedly being taunted by portraits of Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez (“Love in the Time of Cholera”) on Colombia’s $50,000 bill, and poet José Asunción Silva, a victim of suicide, resting on his mantle.
Eventually, Yurlady summons the courage to ask Oscar the $100 million question of whether she can make a career out of penning poetry, leaving her wannabe mentor at a rare loss for words. She, and we, know the answer almost before she finishes asking it. That, in a nutshell, is “A Poet,” a film that cheers the existence of poets while at the same time depicting them as self-aggrandizing martyrs. And doing so without much reason, and certainly – true to Dryden – without rhyme.
Movie review
A Poet
Rated: Not rated
Cast: Ubeimar Rios, Rebeca Andrade, Guillermo Cardona, Alisson Correa, Margarita Soto,
Director: Simón Mesa Soto
Writer: Simón Mesa Soto
Runtime: 123 minutes
Where: In theaters Jan. 30 (limited)
Grade: B-
