La Práctica (Martin Rejtman, 2023)
La Práctica is the first film I’ve seen from Argentinian director Martin Rejtman. With only the vague knowledge that he was a forebear to the wave of Argentinian voices that have dominated 21st century art cinema, I was surprised to find Rejtman makes small-scale comedies. La Práctica is an absurdist miniature about Gustavo, an Argentinian yoga instructor living in Chile. Gustavo is in the process of divorcing his wife, and the separation has quickly dismantled his regimented life of mindfulness. The film, which progresses with startlingly little narrative tension, observes the tragicomic situations spiraling out of Gustavo’s unfortunate circumstances. An earthquake knocks a student unconscious, leaving her with amnesia, another student who triggers Gustavo’s insecure masculinity may be a thief, and to top it all off, Gustavo has torn his meniscus, leaving him limp and unable to participate in his own classes.
Rejtman’s treatment of this material is refreshingly unaffected. Preferring to use static, deep-focus shots, the film’s formal technique reflects its confused, disheveled protagonist, whose impassive face is one of the defining images of the film. Rejtman’s shots are remarkably staged and as Gustavo is jerked from location to location, the fixed frame comically underlines his lack of control. With its harsh, theatrically-inflected lighting, Rejtman suggests that Gustavo’s dislocation is akin to being caught in the middle of unfamiliar choreography.
More than anything, La Práctica is a charmer, with characters, spouting off rhythmic dialogue in monotone voices, practically winking at the camera. The sheer number of side characters within the film’s short runtime offers La Práctica a slew of delightful presences, and as these characters recur in the film’s numerous rhymes and repetitions, the effect is musical. Within this, the film pokes fun at Gustavo’s rigidity, so after a late-film turn towards the contemplative, the film’s final comedic beat reminds him that there’s no such thing as stable ground.
La Práctica is available on VOD