Sidewalls · reception & legacy
2011 · Gustavo Taretto
How Sidewalls has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A quiet Berlinale Panorama premiere in 2011 that never got a big release, it's aged into a word-of-mouth treasure — passed hand to hand online as the definitive 'lonely in a big city' movie, especially beloved among Spanish-speaking film Twitter and Letterboxd.
What's debated
The perennial split: is it a genuinely tender portrait of urban isolation, or peak twee — an Argentine Amélie/(500) Days cocktail whose narration does too much of the feeling for you?
Its footprint
The Where's Wally motif — two people hidden in plain sight in the same crowded city — is the image everyone keeps, and the opening monologue about Buenos Aires' mismatched, badly-planned buildings mirroring the people inside them gets quoted in reviews constantly.
Where it stands
A cult comfort film and Letterboxd sleeper favourite — the 'if you liked this, you're my kind of person' recommendation of Argentine cinema rather than an official-canon entry.
Named by the director
Influences Gustavo Taretto has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.
- Manhattan (1979) — Taretto wears the influence openly — Sidewalls directly incorporates and pays homage to Allen's neurotic-singles-in-the-city classic.
- Woody Allen — The director openly acknowledged Allen's city-as-romantic-neurosis cinema as the model for his own Buenos Aires version.