Abzurdah (2015)

Abzurdah is special because it refuses to romanticize a teenage spiral while still capturing, with unnerving accuracy, how intoxicating and all-consuming first love can feel when you’re lonely and unseen. Daniela Goggi directs with a steady, compassionate hand, letting the story unfold in a raw, intimate register that makes La Plata’s everyday spaces feel like emotional pressure cookers, and Eugenia “China” Suárez delivers a debut that’s fearless—tender one moment, frighteningly hollowed-out the next. The film’s vibe is intense and confessional, more like reading someone’s private diary than watching a neatly packaged cautionary tale, and that honesty is what gives it its power. It’s not for everyone—there are explicit sex scenes and graphic self-harm, and the subject matter can hit hard—but if you want a drama that looks addiction-to-love and self-image straight in the eye and still leaves room for recovery, it’s a bracing, worthwhile watch.

Abzurdah is clearly trying to capture the messy, isolating headspace of teenage obsession and the spiral into an eating disorder, and it doesn’t shy away from the uglier details. The problem is that the film often mistakes escalation for storytelling, so scenes hit hard in the moment but the overall narrative can feel rough, choppy, and oddly low on tension as it goes on. It’s also a tough watch content-wise, with frequent sex, self-harm, and substance use depicted in a way that may feel more triggering than illuminating for some viewers. If you want a tightly paced, psychologically nuanced drama, this may frustrate you, but if you’re mainly here for Eugenia Suárez’s committed performance and a raw, unvarnished mood piece, it has something to offer.