5.3/10
Senior Film Conservator

A definitive 5.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. El faba de Ramonet remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
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.
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.