'Rebelion de los Godinez' explores classic corporate politics in over-the-top comedy and makes for a fun watch
When it comes to foreign language movies, we have certain expectations. Whether it comes from our understanding of the respective culture or what we are fed by the media, we tend to seek a few staple ingredients. So it might not be wrong to say that Mexican comedies set the expectation of a colorful canvas with a whole lot of quirky comedy. 'Rebelion de los Godinez' will surprise you to a great extent.
The latest Spanish comedy-drama is a slice-of-life story of a young, aspiring tech enthusiast, who wants to do it bigger and better in life, but ends up in the same old grind of a 9 to 5 office life. And that's where the story takes off. Omar Buendia (Gustavo Egelhaaf) aspires to run his own tech business and dreams to be like Apple Inc. some day. But his middle-class struggles leave him no choice.
His grandfather's heart attack triggers a change and he sets out to find a new job and fortunately is employed by local tech giant, Rolo Tech. The swanky offices, well-put-together employees and opportunity to prove his skills make Omar all starry-eyed, only to find out the dirty politics that the management keeps shoving under the rug. In what turns out to be a wild and hilarious ride through office romance, corporate politics and a lot of drama, Omar finally manages to save the day.
Long story short, it all ends well with Omar becoming the real hero of the story. And here's the experience that it offers. The entire narrative of the movie is, at its core, hilarious. Yes, it does present a colorful canvas, as you might expect from such regional comedy productions, but its tapestry covers it all. There's drama, romance, music, and action.
You might call it mainstream and commonplace but it does the job of entertaining and does it right! Most importantly, it also does the job of narrating the classic struggles of a white-collar employee in a big organization and the politics they have to deal with every day, only to prove their worth. While many countries around the world might have evolved out of the cliched corporate culture, it persists in evolving nations.
Even if so, there are some elements of office politics that prevail in almost every company around the world and the mindset of the modern workforce is pretty much the same everywhere. Therefore, the story is quite generic and can resonate with almost every modern working professional. To summarize, despite all the cheesiness and sudden song sequences, 'Rebelion de los Godinez' remains a fun and watchable movie. 'Rebelion de los Godinez' is currently streaming on Netflix.