Aarcflick

The Argentine Netflix film *The Giant Falls* is nothing more than an extension of a trope that seems to have exploded across all our media over the last year or so. Yes, it’s true: the figure of the absent father has been a recurring theme in cinema since its inception—because it’s easy, and it’s not far removed from reality, right? Nah, just kidding; but seriously, it seems to be the path that filmmakers worldwide choose to fulfill their fantasies of creating what they consider "good emotional cinema." Male vulnerability doesn't simply arise from placing a man in a difficult-to-handle situation.  This is precisely where most of these stories falter: they always remain on the surface and never truly delve into the intricacies of what it means—exactly—to be broken. In *The Giant Falls*, Boris’s world is turned upside down when his absent father returns after a 28-year absence. Boris is now over thirty, and—for obvious reasons—he wants nothing to do with his progenitor. Wit...