The film eventually replaces the captivating smallness of everyday life with an inconsequential drama.
Mister Universo is designed, shot, and edited like a feature but, in fact, made from the stuff of nonfiction.
At most festivals, such curious objects as The Ornithologist or The Human Surge would likely remain the exception rather than the rule, but then Locarno isn’t most festivals.
As in Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s 2009 film, La Pivellina, modesty is the key to The Shine of Day, and sometimes to the detriment of audience involvement and focus.
After a while, the film’s rather sparse array of material begins to point up an essential thinness to the project.