The Bubble (2023)

In times of widespread duress, there’s no telling what lengths we’ll go to in order to survive. That’s what an Argentine family is forced to do when a national pandemic strikes that affects all manner of everyday life, things we take for granted like utility service, fuel supplies and even grocery availability. Fortunately, they’re in a relative “bubble” of safety on a remote family ranch, to which they came for a visit to care for the ailing family patriarch. However, when all hell breaks loose, they’re in no position to return home to Buenos Aires – a blessing in disguise in some ways, but a curse in others, especially when trips to a nearby town to acquire supplies become fraught with dangers. Director Miguel Angel Rocca’s latest tells a tale of conditions familiar to most of us, mirroring the logistical and psychological difficulties we all underwent not that long ago. It vividly depicts those circumstances, capturing the emotional toll they took on us at a time when it seemed like there was nothing we could do about them, particularly when they turn out to be even worse than we ever thought. The family’s story is reasonably well told, though it does have a tendency to become somewhat melodramatic at times, with a need for editing and better efforts when it comes to the placement of comic relief. In all, though, it also serves as a reminder to not accept everything we hear at face value and that it’s indeed possible to be deceived even under the most trying of situations, a lesson that one can only hope we’ll remember if ever faced with a scenario like this again.