“VENEER” by Maximillian Aguiar

“Veneer” is an important film for the times we are living in. It is important because it deals with extremely current themes but above all for the tones and feelings with which these themes are told. Once again, independent cinema becomes an expression of contemporaneity and throws a light on the fears and doubts that move in the depths of our consciences.

Maximillian Aguiar, the director, with great courage therefore chooses to face the emotional weight of the latest world events, and tries (successfully) to intimately rework the tragedy of the Coronavirus. The result is precisely “Veneer”, a wonderfully simple film, at times crossed by a tender naivety, and always told with a refined and subtle irony, which reveals to us how it is always essential to deconstruct pain even through laughter.
Already the narrative assumptions reveal the particular perspective chosen by Aguiar, who is also the co-author of this agile, funny and always surprising screenplay. The protagonist, Dominic Willis, is a cocaine dealer, a “little fish” of the business, who tries to carry out his plans in the difficult situation of isolation imposed by the pandemic. From the very first minutes, when Dominic shows up with a relaxed and grotesque monologue, the impression is that of watching a unique film. To hear Dominic speak, to see him deliver drugs with his polite manner, one expects to look at the world upside down in this film. And in fact, Aguiar’s stylistic code seems above all the ability to tell unique and unrepeatable films.

The director, within this extremely original and personal space, at the same time manages to create something universally valid and necessary for everyone, to come to terms with his own experience in these difficult times. This profound humanity in the film is continuously perceived, also and above all thanks to the interpretation of Logan Diemert, the protagonist, who seems to communicate even without words, all that we have also experienced at least once in these months. The other stylistic elements are discreet and placed at the service of the story: the cinematography is nuanced, always “soft” and pertinent and contributes to plunging this story into the order of reality, without going into banal aesthetic virtuosity.

After seeing “Veneer” we are assailed by the desire to return soon to this complex lightness, the unmistakable signature of Aguiar.