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'We are who we are', an HBO rarity that follows its own rules

The recommendation

Pere Solà GimferrerBarcelona

Film directors who don't watch movies and writers who don't read novels. You don't usually read many cases of these in the media. Will there be? It's possible (and I'm not referring to the little stars who pull a book out of their hats that they haven't written themselves). But artists are usually smart enough not to flaunt their ignorance, aware that it will not contribute to their image. However, when it comes to television, there are creators who feel very comfortable admitting in public that they have no idea about series: that they have started writing and shooting series without having seen almost nothing. The last to do so is Luca Guadagnino, the director of films such as Call me by your name and Suspiria, which this 2020 has released We are who we are on HBO although in an interview with El País he acknowledged that he had never seen a complete season of a series. And you can see it.

'We are who we are', an HBO oddity that follows its own rules

As a television lover it would be almost tempting to find a disaster in We are who we are, a failed experiment, a disappointment that reveals his lack of talent and the difficulty of creating in the television medium. But after watching the eight episodes, all that remains is to recognize his talent and appreciate a refreshing look at what we should expect from a narrative of an episodic nature (it is appreciated that at least Guadagnino does not sell the condescending reflection of "I have shot a film and not a series of television").

In what way? We are who we are talks about adolescence and the awakening and sexual evolution of some young people in a US Army military base on Italian soil. Above all, it focuses on Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer), a kid you'd want to throw overboard on the high seas, and the friendship he develops with Cait (Jordan Kristine Seamon), a reserved but popular person with a group of friends. always willing to break the rules and smoke and drink and have some championship parties.

In a current social context where labels are the order of the day, Guadagnino, who has written the series together with the novelist Paolo Giordano (The Solitude of Prime Numbers) and Francesca Manieri ( El milagro), prefers to delve into topics such as sexual orientation, gender identity, religious worship or non-neurotypical realities without verbalizing labels at any time.

The decision places the viewer in a kind of limbo where everything is possible, where there is always suspicion, where there is room for the character to oscillate, meditate or reaffirm. And it makes sense. After all, isn't adolescence a stage of growth, of constantly questioning one's identity, of discovering oneself, of meditating even in silence?

Guadagnino's mentality blows up the expectations of what the characters' dramatic arcs should be, offering brushstrokes and in some cases proposing unfinished portraits (in the secondary ones). Suddenly, there is a (beautiful) ending and you are left with more impressions than conclusions regarding the nature of Fraser, the relationship between the mothers, Cait, the friendships at the military base. Whoever expected doubts to be resolved conventionally was more than wrong.

What does this make We are who we are? Well, in a work that trusts in the idea of ​​evoking rather than spelling out concepts and conflicts with dialogues, at times allowing itself the license to overflow the sexuality and feelings of the characters. You just have to see episodes like the fourth and seventh, which represent two sides of the same coin: euphoria and desolation, two states closely linked to adolescence, when all experiences feel elevated to the cube. They are two episodes, by the way, unmissable.

And because Guadagnino has a knack for capturing places, capturing light, insinuating conflict, and creating moments, the HBO series is an exhilarating experience to let loose without waiting for conclusions we rarely have in real life.

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