The Man Next Door

Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s dark neighbourhood comedy opens brilliantly with a split screen showing a hammer beating against a wall on one side, and the results of the damage on the other. Rough-as-sandpaper labourer Victor (Daniel Aráoz) wants a window out into the world but his actions rub his posh designer neighbour Leonardo (Rafael Spregelburd) up the wrong way when it turns out the proposed window overlooks Leonardo’s property. ‘The Man Next Door’ won the best cinematography award at Sundance 2010, but never fully lives up to the promise of its clever opening sequence.