‘All sides of the bed’: children sing that they are more stale than their parents | Cinema: premieres and reviews

The new loving modernity is to be a conservative. The younger generations, like all those before them, rebel against their elders. And what more stinging subversion than breaking with the above in sexual and emotional matters: abandoning free and untethered sex; flee from the lack of sentimental commitment; Get out of your head about wanting to remain young despite not being old enough to do so. And, consequently, deciding to marry at 21 years old with a person of the opposite sex with whom one is deeply in love. In the reality of today’s Spanish society, the tone may not be damn funny in certain homes and circles, but in a comedy it is, even as an exaggeration. At least as a starting point.

To a greater or lesser extent, those around fifty, the age of the protagonists of All sides of the bed Surely they have faced a conversation about love and sex on some occasion in which their children or their children’s friends seem to be closer than their grandparents thought than to themselves. Like any generalization, it has some lies and a lot of truth, but the new youthful rebellion is to be a reactionary, and not only politically, but also. So right in that surprising place (and conflictive, since cinema is based on conflict for a reason) the authors of this late sequel have placed themselves: 23 years after the wonderful The other side of the bed, a modern classic of Spanish cinema, and two decades of its somewhat faded second part, The 2 sides of the bed.

The producers of this new installment continue to be the same as that comedy (almost) pioneering in putting performers to sing and dance who did neither of the two tasks very well, but who with freshness, impetus and a curious mix of audacity and elegance, in addition to a catchy and generational collection of songs, managed to bring the cinemas in 2005 to 2.8 million spectators (the second, to 1.5 million). In those stories everyone hooked up with everyone, and now it’s about romantic love.

Of course, don’t be afraid, it’s not as lame a comedy as it seems. It is only the starting point, although later it is consistent with the premise. It is also congruent that the writer and director of those, David Serrano and Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, have left their place to another generation of filmmakers: the new Samantha López Speranza is behind the camera, and Carlos del Hoyo and Irene Bohoyo have written it.

“But weren’t you gay?” asks the father when he finds out about his son’s desire to marry a girl. “Don’t be old-fashioned, Dad!” answers the son, in a response of wide and variable interpretation. The elders are lost, while the children are much clearer. And part of the best of this uneven comedy, inspired by the classic sabotage of a wedding (Philadelphia Stories, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Wedding Plans…), is to expose that the two sides, in the eyes of the other, can be intensely ridiculous.

Even adult viewers are likely to be turned off by the kid sequences; and that a good part of the teenagers blush at those of the unpacked. On the other hand, despite the falls, the film shows an incorrect capacity for generational observation and, even if only punctually, knows how to bring it to its story. And there that masculine shyness shines in intimacy, compared to the feminine youthful impudence: “Pull my fucking hair!”

Classic musical in which the characters show their feelings through the lyrics of the songs, All sides of the bed contains an infectious list of songs (from Amatria, La La Love You, La Casa Azul, Cariño, Nena Daconte…), but the dance numbers, when there is no localization unit, are closer to the VIDEO than to the cinema.

Both in the image and in the texts (with some ridiculous lines of dialogue), there are moments of a cheap television series. However, the three young people fulfill what they have, which is the romantic part, and the experience and enormous comic vision of Pilar Castro, Ernesto Alterio, Alberto San Juan and Secun de la Rosa sustain the framework from the perspective of laughter. The group, despite their disparity, seems competent enough to attempt a new blockbuster, although this time the applause seems more nostalgic than enthusiastic.