Messi, 2014.
Directed by Alex de la Iglesia.
Starrng Johan Cruyff, Andres Iniesta, Diego Armando Maradona, Javier Mascherano, and Gerard Pique.
SYNOPSIS:
Through a series of informal conversations, archival footage, and reenactments, this film chronicles the rise and the making of the football legend Lionel Messi.
Last year saw the release of the intimate documentary Ronaldo which followed football icon, Cristiano Ronaldo. At the time of the film’s production, the titular Portuguese legend was set to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or, a prestigious award that marks a football player to be the year’s best, and in the years prior there had been much debate between himself and the Argentine legend Lionel Messi. This is more pronounced given that both Ronaldo and Messi play for rivalling football teams Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. In other words, one could see Ronaldo as a spiritual sequel to Messi.
Rather than filming the legend in a faux-fly-on-the-wall documentary style as seen in Ronaldo, the cult horror-comedy filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia (Dance with the Devil, My Big Night) chooses a studio restaurant to have childhood friends, sports journalists, and fellow footballers chat about the genius of Messi. By filming their exchanges in this manner the film revels in the myth-making of its subject as Messi’s achievements sometimes contrast the facts when presented via cutaways to archival footage.
This myth-making is greatly emphasised when football legends, journalists, and critical thinkers of the game analyse Messi’s playing style. What comes from their lengthy discussions is an amalgamation of hyperbole, conjecture, and analyses. It’s buried in these heated debates that some truth arises: one journalist recalls of an interview he did with Messi, concluding that he’s a bore and speaks only in clichés. By allowing these discussions go largely uncensored, Iglesia manages to capture the essence of what goes into making a legend, which are these tall-tales and surprising revelations.
Messi doesn’t skim over any chapter of his life; on the contrary, much is dedicated to his childhood struggles of his growth hormone deficiency, and the financial burdens such medication placed on his family. These moments of his life are conveyed in a myriad of re-enactments, dinner-table discussions, and archival footage – both home-video and television spots. This multitude of filmmaking aesthetics can make this a jarring, albeit a narratively coherent, experience; one will question the legitimacy of which clip is a re-enactment or archival footage, and whether or not certain events did occur in such a succinct manner. Did every important person in Messi’s life saw him as the prodigal player that hindsight can clearly tell the pundits, or is this another layer to the myth?
Whichever way one views this film, Messi rests nicely against other experimental documentary films like Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, for it covers its subject without ever directly addressing them. Iglesia produces an utterly absorbing piece of documentary filmmaking in allowing the truths, the half-truths, and the fables to be discussed in an open manner by those who know him best. In watching the chapters of Messi’s life be conveyed in this informal manner, audiences will glean much more than any formal interview with the man himself (if he is as dull as that journalist says he is). Iglesia’s film concludes that a reputation goes much further than what comes out of one’s own lips.
Messi is an insightful documentary on its subject matter that requires a level of engagement. In breaking down other people’s analyses of him the audience will come away with their own picture of the legend.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Matthew Lee
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published July 25, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
