El faba de Ramonet: A weird, dusty little time capsule

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a very specific appetite for local, grainy comedies from a different era. If you need tight pacing or a story that actually makes sense by the halfway point, you’re going to hate this. It’s sloppy. It’s loud. But there’s a weird charm to how nobody seems to be taking the production seriously.

Watching El faba de Ramonet feels like stumbling into a room where everyone is having an inside joke and you’re the only one who didn’t get the invite. The dialogue moves at a breakneck speed, but not in a clever way. It’s just people yelling over one another in a kitchen set that looks like it’s held together by tape and optimism.

Mode Calandín is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. You can see him trying to steer the ship whenever things go completely off the rails, which is often. There’s a scene near the middle where a chair literally wobbles every time someone leans on it. The camera doesn't cut away. It just keeps rolling. I love that kind of stuff.

It’s not as polished as The Prey, but it has more heart than whatever that was. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Husbands' Reunion, though it’s definitely a different beast entirely.

Some notes from the couch:

• The lighting in the exterior shots makes everyone look like they’ve been dusted in flour.
• There’s a background actor in the plaza scene who clearly forgot they were supposed to be pretending to buy fruit. They just stand there, staring directly into the lens for a solid ten seconds.
• The sound mix is… well, it exists. Sometimes you can hear the birds more clearly than the actors.
• I think the hat Ramonet wears in the second act changes color between shots. Or maybe I’m losing it.

The whole thing kind of runs out of steam before the end. It doesn’t really have a big finish, it just kind of stops. It’s perfectly imperfect. Don’t go looking for deep themes or cinematic breakthroughs. Just sit back, accept the technical glitches, and enjoy the madness.