This very low budget Uruguayan movie, shot in black and white, and somewhat reminiscent of the films of Jim Jarmusch, tells the story of the aimless adventures of a group of men in their early twenties in Montevideo. None of them studies, a few of them held to crappy jobs, and their success with women is, much to their chagrin, virtually nil. There is not much to do for them but to kill time around the city with various antics. This is shot not as a drama, but as a comedy, which seems to me to be the right decision. If there is a theme to this movie (and this is clearly not a "message" movie) is the lack of meaningful projects for the youth of Uruguay (particularly its males). A useful comparison is with an Argentine movie called 76-89-03, but that film was more corrosive and politically incorrect, and therefore was far more controversial. The directors, Rebella and Stoll, made another film a few years later, Whisky, that it was more polished and mature, and dealt with the hopelessness not of the youth of Uruguay but of its middle aged people. Soon after Whisky, Rebella killed himself with a shotgun, so we don't know whether he would have graduated to a major or important director. A good film, overall.

I rented this movie, interested in seeing what influences this South American team of filmmakers had taken from the slacker genre which, in particular, Richard Linklater made a cult genre with the 1990 release of 'Slacker.' But just as Slacker was to me one of the most boring films on the planet, so too is 25 Watts, which offers absolutely no variation and nothing new in the genre. This is a film that, just like its American influence, is just as though you and your friends were so completely bored and walked around doing really nothing and vomiting inane conversations at length. I wouldn't think anyone would find it particularly interesting for me to do this in real life. So what's the fascination with it as it is replicated into a genre of film? If you have been impressed with these cult films, before, however, then you'll probably enjoy 25 Watts. I imagine that most of the rave reviews for this film on IMDb did come from people who can stand watching hours and hours of this kind of pseudo-intellectual crap.

I'm from Uruguay and movies here are not so good. But this year five uruguayan films have been made. One of them beat a record in the box-office. But the best of that five films, was "25 Watts". With only 200.000 dollars, Rabella and Stoll (writers and directors of the film) wrote an exellent screenplay and direct the movie in a memorable way.The story is about three boys that dont do nothing but they have lot problems in the job, with studies, and other things like that. The result is an exellent "opera-prima", a first prize in the Rotterdam Festival, a first prize of best opera-prima in the Coral Awards and a pre-nomination to the Goyas Awards.For me the best uruguayan film of the year and the history.

I hope this film will be the first of a large number of pictures. Making pictures is not common in Uruguay, and filming it in black and white is less common. This film show you how our country is, but without showing you the typical things, the touristic part (beaches, squares and so on), something that appears in almost all the uruguayan films. I recommend it, it´s one of the best films I have ever seen.