We Are 18 Years Old (1959)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Eighteen-year-old friends Maria (Isana Medel) and Pili (Terele Pavez) decide to take a road trip, which leads them into all sorts of strange fantasies and adventures.
TENEMOS 18 ANOS is going to be best remembered for being Jess Franco's first feature and that alone must be worth celebrating if you're a fan of the Spanish filmmaker. While watching this film I couldn't help but wonder what it must have been like watching this in a theater back when it was released and I'm going to guess that no one who actually saw it would have guessed that the director would go onto make over two hundred films.
This certainly isn't one of the director's best films but I think there are quite a few interesting things that make it worth watching. For starters, there's actually some pretty good comedy here, a genre that the director never did enough of but when he did he proved he could make you laugh. I thought the highlight of the film was a rather long sequence where the two girls are getting taken advantage of by a guy trying to sell them everything they don't really need. This scene really drags out but it's funny and there's a certain comic flow that really works. Another highlight comes during a classroom scene where the two girls discuss some of their peers.
It certainly doesn't hurt that both Medel and Pavez are so good in their roles. There's not a single frame where you don't feel as if you're watching friends going on this wild adventure full of gangsters, suicidal morons and other types. One of the "other" types is a pretty interesting take off on THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Franco fans will certainly enjoy watching this since he never really got to tackle the subject later in his career. TENEMOS 18 ANOS certainly isn't a masterpiece but there are enough quirky and interesting aspects that makes it worth viewing.
