Profused with South American melancholia, the setup for this short film is a club dedicated to 'classical' film, with radio lectures on Eisenstein and live, in-theater translations (into Spanish), of classics, Von Stroheim's 'Greed,' for example. With the demise of the club, after some 20 years, the somber yet not unattractive manager must face his own options. And, as he steps out, he creates his own film. The irony in the picture is expressed in an amazing 'spontaneous' lecture the manager gives to a classroom of law students, opportunistically posing as their substitute professor. He touches on the ubiquity of illusion and 'lying' in life-- 'reality' vrs. metaphor, or in this case, film. The character of the manager is no Astaire when he dances, and there's no Minnelli behind the camera, but we get the picture, and when he connects with the girl, he goes to the movies. A reference in the credits to Mark Twain as the inspiration for the work; the minimalist writing and direction stay focused, the editing is good and the film stays with you. Worth seeing.

I see about 5-8 movies a year at the Toronto film festival, and I always see a few unknowns just to take a chance. Sometimes they are great, and sometimes they are incomprehensibly boring. This film represents the latter.

It really felt to me like "artsy for the sake of being artsy." Shot in black and white, and slowly paced (which I have no problem with), the film mostly follow a day in the life of a man whose theatre has closed down. The director attempts to be amusing by shooting the film in ways similar to that of classic cinema. This was not amusing to me.

Drawn-out, incredibly dull scenes follow. Lengthy scene of main character getting his haircut? Check. Lame references to 8 1/2? Check. The message is that the main character, once his theatre closes down, turns his own life into a movie. Unfortunately, it is not really a movie that anyone would want to watch--and definitely does not nearly approach the quality of any of the movies playing at his own cinema.

You may see fans of this film giddy with the fact that the director references classic movies. I guess if you want awkward classic film references presented at an achingly dull pace which makes 70 minutes seem like 2 hours, this is the film for you.

The first time I saw ''A useful life'' was in a special screening for a group of old critics and journalists. It was in a little theater on a early afternoon. I must confess that I'm a film addicted, however I felt like an alien among all these people who knows film better than me. "A useful life" starts as a old comedy. When Jorge appears using old fashioned technologies, I couldn't contain my laugh because it remind me people and institutions I know in many countries who use audio or video- cassettes tapes and others obsolete media ways to do things, it woke me up tenderness. In the year of 2010 Jorge and his Cinematheque represents an obsolete way of living however it is a real way in many parts of the world. A old fashioned cinema world into the real world, "A Useful Life'' smells this contradiction showing us this bizarre way of living, and reflected warmly. I remembered other films of cinema within the cinema: Cinema Paradise, The Purple Rose of Cairo and my favorite B&W movie: Sunset Boulevard. "A useful life" takes part of this great films list, irony, humor, beauty, and an unusual ending, I like these type of movies. When the film reach its turning point and Jorge starts out his new way of life I felt the energy and enthusiastic expressions of the public, it was incredible! we were happy knowing that he and his way of living can survive, it was a common feeling in the room: cinema can be safe. To people like me, theater, B&W movies, Cinematheques, and movies like "A useful life" cannot disappear, neither dinosaurs.