Writer-director Federico J. Arioni uses the motifs of sci-fi storytelling as a device to support his intimate study of the personal challenges facing one troubled neurodiverse adolescent. A low-budget, independent Argentinian film, Nobody is Crazy (aka Nadie Está Loco) distinguishes itself through its atmosphere of introspection and its sympathetic treatment of its central characters.
To the frustration of his adoptive mother, teenager Rafa has become disconnected from his peers and has quit secondary school. Struggling with the effects of his OCD, Rafa avoids social contact and lives a solitary life. Compelled to attend group therapy, he meets a masked stranger on his way to the first session. This confident twentysomething, who goes by the name of Nobody, insists he is a time traveller who will only intersect with Rafa’s timeline for a few days. Rafa believes that Nobody is in fact a resident of a mental health facility who has absconded. But after Nobody introduces him to the carefree Daria, he begins to feel the psychological benefits of these unexpectedly rewarding human connections. Rafa also starts to wonder if Nobody’s absurd claim about his identity might in fact be true.
This is a thoughtful and considered work that takes great care to frame its recognition of cognitive differences positively. Manuel Guitierrez impresses as Rafa, especially when the youngster moves beyond bewilderment at the world to asserting his own agency within it. Taking on the role of the mysterious Nobody could have been a step too far for Arioni. But he manages to be suitably enigmatic as a character who is either the story’s champion or a deluded charlatan. Some of the dialogue is overcooked, but the film’s immersion in the themes of predestination, fatalism, and particularly the limits of free will, ensure the viewer is kept guessing right up until the final act. While the pacing meanders occasionally, this remains interesting, unformulaic filmmaking, told from an often neglected narrative perspective.
NOBODY IS CRAZY is available now in the UK on streaming platforms
