“It all started with the hippos” is a fine way to start any film, and Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani’s weird little shaggy-doc, “I Touched All Your Stuff” (A Vida Privada dos Hipopótamos, aka “The Private Life of Hippos”) does yeoman’s work in defining, if not divining, the mad life of an American con artist who winds up in epic stretches of trouble, drug running, dangerous anti-romance and, eventually, prison, in Colombia. For instance, the hippos? They belonged to drug magnate Carlos Escobar. Despite mucho meta-meta musing, “I Touched All Your Stuff” is also a tantalizing fluffy cautionary tale about the urge toward self-destruction and just how larger-than-life one’s own life could become, or at least if you’re likely to remain the year’s most unreliable onscreen narrator. 91m. (Ray Pride)
“I Touched All Your Stuff” opens Friday, September 4 at Facets. The trailer is below.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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