Set in the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela, Bad Hair explores the world of nine year-old Junior, a boy with an innate sense of the sartorial and a ongoing battle with an uncompromising mop. He's got nappy hair but he wants Pantene softness.
For reasons that Rondón keeps close to her chest, Junior's hair fixation inspires derision from his unemployed mother and suspicious understanding from his grandmother. It is also an uncomfortable point of contention between the two women, though it's more than clear that the fate of Junior's father has a hand to play in their damaged relationship.
Bad Hair is involving for the most part but, thematically, feels stretched a little too thin. This is most keenly felt in its characters, who aren't given nearly enough to work with. As Junior, Samuel Lange Zambrano stamps around with childish capriciousness that gets tired relatively quickly and, without any discernible character growth, his sulking determination fails to move.
For better or worse, in a genre that usually pushes towards incorrigible self-affirmation for its young protagonists, Bad Hair sets itself apart. The dynamic between Junior and the adults in his life is soberingly downbeat. Their twisted take on love and responsibility in the face of Junior's perceived sexuality contorts Bad Hair into from empowering identity drama into social-realist horror.
It probably goes without saying that watching a kid manipulated into submission by adults who should know better is difficult to watch. I'd go further and say Bad Hair is to a dispiriting slap in the face. It wouldn't be so hard to take but for the fact that the bleak approach never gains moral traction. It all ends up feeling like wretchedness for wretchedness' sake.
Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for such unbridled nihilism.
★★★
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