Flies (2026)
Flies, Fernando Eimbcke's film, is the kind of small, humane, quietly funny character piece that sneaks up on you, and by the end it had me genuinely moved. I caught it at the BFI London Film Festival, and while a saggy middle stops it being perfect, it is a lovely, warm-hearted thing. Three and a half stars.
At its centre is Olga, an older woman living a strictly regulated, attachment-free existence in a vast Mexico City apartment block, and a glorious study in control and routine. She reminded me more than a little of the fastidious perfectionist at the heart of Day of the Wacko, someone whose entire life is an elaborate defence against mess and feeling. Out of financial necessity she rents out a room, only for her tenant to quietly smuggle in his nine-year-old son, the boy's mother lying gravely ill in hospital, and Olga's carefully controlled world begins, against her every wish, to shift.
What follows is a beautifully observed odd-couple bond between this rigid, solitary woman and the displaced little boy, and it is in that relationship that the film finds all its warmth. It is funny in places, often from the friction of her fussiness meeting his chaos, and genuinely touching in others, building to an ending that caught me off guard with how emotional it became. The performances are lovely and unforced, and the whole thing has a gentle, unhurried humanity.
Shooting in black and white proves a smart choice, stripping away distraction so that you focus almost entirely on faces, gestures and the small shifts between these people, and it suits the film's intimate scale. The music is a real asset in the early stretches, and I especially liked how an arcade game is woven in as a recurring motif, a small, clever device that becomes a quiet vehicle for the story and for the connection growing between Olga and the boy.
If I have a reservation, it is the pacing in the middle, which drifts and loosens just when it should be deepening, and for a while my attention wandered before the film pulled me back for its affecting final stretch. Three and a half stars. Flies is a tender, wryly funny and ultimately quite beautiful study of a closed-off life cracked gently open, anchored by a wonderful central character. A slightly tighter middle and it would have been a real gem, but even as it is, I really rather loved it.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Country Mexico: Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Memoria (2021), A Hologram for the King (2016)
More from the 2020s: All That's Left of You (2025), The Whale (2022), Look Back (2024)
More comedy: Lady (2026), Please (2026), Micro Bangs (2026)
