"LANGUAGE LESSONS" // SXSW 2021

BY MATEO MORENO

Finding ways to shoot films around a pandemic can be challenging, to say the least. As we have all experienced this past year, Zoom meetings, meet-ups, Zoom plays and Zoom life has taken over many of us. LANGUAGE LESSONS is a new film that seems to have been born out of this era. However, instead of having the limitations of not being able to shoot in a traditional film, director/co-star Natalie Morales and her co-star/co-writer Mark Duplass use this as an inspired jumping point and craft a poignant and moving story of grief and helping each other through it.

Mark Duplass plays Adam, a man who is surprised one day when his husband Will (Desean Terry, only heard off-camera), buys him Spanish lessons online. He finds this out by seeing his new Spanish teacher Cariño's (Natalie Morales) face on his computer, ready to start teaching the lesson. She herself is also surprised, as the initial reactions of both Adam and Will are quite confusing. Once everyone is caught up, he realizes that his husband has surprised him by buying not just one Spanish lesson for Adam, but 100 lessons! So they begin their first lesson as Adam goes about his morning routine but Cariño quickly finds that Adam is quite good at conversational Spanish. Their first lesson ends up them simply talking to each other as she witnesses (and is put off by) Adam's privileged life. We learn that Adam has only been living this life for a year, since he married Will. He himself grew up poor and doesn't know quite what to do with this wealth. Cariño keeps it professional, even if he does slightly annoy her. Soon though, both of them are drawn to each other through the comfort of their conversations and find a powerful friendship forming.

What's most surprising about LANGUAGE LESSONS is how well all of it works. The chemistry between Morales and Duplass is sharp and surprising and the story unfolds in a very realistic and fascinating way. The "device," if you will, of all of their conversations being phone calls never feels like a device. There's no other way to tell this story properly and the emotions completely sweep you in. In fact, the reason that it's all on video calls isn't the pandemic at all. Cariño lives in Costa Rica and Adam lives in L.A., so it makes perfect sense that they would only be calling each other. Morales directs the entire film with a swift and delicate touch, building their connection slowly but assuredly bringing two fractured souls together to help heal each other. It's a wonderful, beautiful and cathartic film, one that I can't wait for a wider audience to see.

GRADE: A

WRITTEN BY Natalie Morales, Mark Duplass DIRECTED BY Natalie Morales STARRING Mark Duplass, Natalie Morales, Desean Terry SELECTED AS PART OF THE 2021 SXSW FESTIVAL. FOR MORE INFO: LANGUAGE LESSONS