“This mixture of local criminal noir with bereavement not only creates a fascinating and profound story of a crime family coping with the death of their father and leader, but also upends cinematic boundaries between fiction and documentary.”

Hernán Rosselli opens his film Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed with various instrumental synths which overlay images from home CCTV and home videos. The patriarch of a gambling bookmaking family has just recently passed away and his daughter and wife struggle with their loss while also having to continue the business and deal with potential raids by the Feds. While Rosselli paints the story as an Argentine crime noir, a deep sense of longing and loss drives the film forward. This mixture of local criminal noir with bereavement not only creates a fascinating and profound story of a crime family coping with the death of their father and leader, but also upends cinematic boundaries between fiction and documentary.

While the story of the film centers around the deceased patriarch’s daughter and wife who must carry forward the gambling operation, the daughter Maribel (played by Maribel Felpeto) is the center of the film. She mourns for the loss of her father while also examining his life and past, through online research and by recalling her personal memories of him. In the meantime, she’s dating, going to clubs, and yet still handling the business with her mother as they worry about rival groups, paying off the local police, and a potential raid by the Feds. Many moments in the film have a gritty and completely realistic feel, as the daily workings of the bookmakers and the crime family are portrayed by Rosselli with candor and authenticity. Unlike other films that have recently come out of Argentina, such as those of El Pampero Cine (i.e. Trenque Lauquen and La Flor) or those of Matías Piñeiro, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed has no fantastical elements, but instead is firmly rooted in social realism.

Despite this, Rosselli manages to create a film that challenges cinematic conventions in the vein of recent Argentine cinema by his compatriots. As the film’s structure weaves around Maribel as she attempts to gain access to the bank and social media accounts of her father, Rosselli meshes documentary and fiction. He places Maribel’s memories in the film via use of home videos from the actress’s childhood and she narrates each segment to provide context which links the events to the narrative. Moreover, Maribel’s parents in the film are played by her real-life parents, Alejandra Cánepa and Hugo Felpeto, and the images of his younger self are the focus of the video recordings. Because of the mixture of the real videos and the images presented on the screen it becomes increasingly difficult to determine if the film is a documentary or fiction, as it remains a blurred hybrid between the two forms.

Rosselli not only uses home video recordings to remove any boundary between reality and fiction, but also employs various other forms of media to demonstrate the possibilities of cinema. In the film, CCTV video is often used to show the spaces inside and outside of the bookmaking house. Further, online social media posts and coding are interwoven throughout the film. On an auditory level, multiple phone recordings of clients placing bets are played over various scenes. By using all these various forms of mixed media, Rosselli blurs the lines between reality and fiction in a compelling manner. He not only builds upon prior techniques used by directors that have pushed the bounds of hybrid cinema like Robert Greene and Nuria Giménez but creates a fascinating and profound story of a family coping with the aftermath of the death of its patriarch.

During one of the home videos, Maribel narrates that one of her grandmother’s expressions was, “Never retrace your steps, you may burn your feet and never be able to walk again“. Rosselli doesn’t take the advice of Maribel’s grandmother, instead creating an impressive film that challenges cinematic notions of time, narrative, and nostalgia.