Director: Michael Artiles
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 6/10
Michael Artiles’ documentary Sólo is an interesting slice of life piece about a man living his life doing odd jobs for his community in Brooklyn. As a lover of the New York aesthetic, I love the visuals, and the film’s subject, Bernardo AKA Mayimbe, is an interesting and unique character. The way in which it looks at drug addiction is also handled in a way I’ve never seen before, in that we never see it happen but we know it’s there.
The film follows the life of Mayimbe, a hard working New Yorker, as he constantly hops from job to job, helping out the various businesses in his neighborhood. From handling deliveries to painting, to mopping the floors, Mayimbe is the ultimate handyman. Everyone knows and respects him, and he takes pride in his work, which he seems to be constantly doing. Although he doesn’t have much to show for it, it’s impossible not to admire a man that take that much joy in what he does.
Sólo is presented in several different visual styles, the best of which is the black and white photography. Nothing captures the urban beauty of New York better than black and white, and Artiles captures it beautifully. The scenes that switched back to color left me yearning for it to change back to the black and white and I wish it stuck with that style. He also incorporates some very nice framing techniques in this film, similarly to his previous project, Nothing to Something. This adds more artistry to the film, making it an entirely more enjoyable experience.
Coming in at just an hour and ten minutes, the film still feels like a slog to get through however. At times it felt like I was watching Jeanne Dielman, where it didn’t seem to be going anywhere and we were just following a guy on his daily routine. This subject matter seems like it would be better suited for a twenty or thirty minute short rather than a feature length documentary. Mayimbe is an interesting guy, but understand what’s going on within the first twenty minutes or so.
Michael Artiles clearly has an eye for visuals and has proven himself as a more than adequate documentary filmmaker. Thus far all his subjects have been more digestible as short form projects, so I’ll be very curious to see him sink his teeth into something larger in scope. Sólo hits all the visual marks and provides an intimate look at the concepts of community, hard work, and addiction, but there simply isn’t enough here to keep most viewers’ attentions.
