‘Tótem’ Review – The Last Birthday Party

As young kids, the world can feel never-ending and expansive. So much so that our vast imaginations try to make sense of the things we don’t quite yet understand but are deeply curious about. In a household filled with older generations of families coming together — like the Mexican family depicted in the new drama Tótem — childlike wonder stands out even more. Especially in the anticipation of inevitable death and tragedy that threatens to crumble child-like daydreams.

Seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) spends the day with her family as everybody around her prepares for a birthday party to celebrate her father, Tona (Mateo Garcia), who has cancer. Throughout the day, emotions come to a boiling point as people fill up the house for what may be Tona’s last birthday party ever.

As Mexico’s official submission for Best International Film at the 2024 Oscars, Tótem is an understated yet nevertheless compelling story of how a family can come together to celebrate life in the face of death. Throughout the film’s 95-minute runtime, we witness how different family members process what’s happening in their own complicated ways.

Director and writer Lila Avilés dedicated this thoughtful film to her daughter, which completely shows when considering that Tótem is most effective when specifically framed from the perspective of Sol. She’s endlessly interested in the little things around her that nobody else seems to pay any mind to — starting with the snails she places on paintings. Eventually, her eagerness to take in everything leads to overhearing family conversations about her father’s worsening condition.

She’s forced to learn about the harsh realities of the world and come to terms with losing her father at an incredibly young age — and all over the course of a single day. These emotions are brought perfectly to life by Sentíes’ lead performance. We watch her emotional journey unfold as her observations of the environment and people around her shift to trying to better understand the world and the meaning of life and death at large.

In contrast, for many other members of the family, death is a concept they have become accustomed to in life. Even in moments when everyone seems to be happy or nobody is specifically talking about Tona, death seems to be painted on the walls of the house itself. Death always finds its way of creeping back in. Regardless of the film’s subject matter, Avilés keeps the story emotional while allowing the family dynamics to organically drive the story beats.

Cinematographer Diego Tenorio employs stunning close-ups throughout the film to bring us into this vigorous household. Some of the most striking shots in the first half of the film center around Tona, largely shooting him alone in his bedroom — obscured from the camera. We don’t get a full glimpse of him until he’s coming downstairs to the party, making the audience anxiously anticipate his arrival just as his family does.

While Tótem makes for an engaging experience all the way through that’s easy to connect to, the script loses sight of Sol’s perspective toward the second half of the film. As a framing device, starting off the film watching Sol uncover her family’s trauma is so effective that it should’ve remained in place until the very end. The film’s final emotional build-up at the end doesn’t quite register. The script never fully conveys the weight of Sol and Tona’s relationship, often feeling a bit one-note.

While the film’s final emotions don’t fully hit, Tótem remains a captivating story of a family bound together in the face of loss. Most heart-wrenchingly, the film is about the pivotal period that everybody faces at one point in their lives — the point when every young person loses somebody they love for the first time. It can happen at any point. It might take months or years to fully sink in. But in the case of Sol, a singular day is all it takes for everything to come falling down.

Tótem will debut in select theaters on January 26, 2024, courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films with additional expansion in the following weeks. The film is currently on the Oscar shortlist for Best International Film. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEYx_vOof1w]