After a tragedy, Atel finds himself stuck on a series of mountains… with a familiar voice somehow communicating with him.
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badelf
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By badelf
Mountains: A Mille-feuille of Layered Subtexts
In Monica Sorelle's "Mountains", a seemingly simple film about gentrification is much more than urban transformation. In one of several subtexts of this rich film, it's a profound exploration of how unmet expectations erode the human spirit.
Set in Miami's Little Haiti, the film follows Xavier, a demolition worker whose daily labor of tearing down houses for his own neighborhood's gentrification becomes a metaphor for the systematic dismantling of personal and collective dreams.
Psychological research by Davidai and Gilovich, and Buddhist philosophy also, hold that unmet expectations cause suffering. Sorelle's subtext demonstrates how attachment to expectations creates internal "demolition" more devastating than any physical reconstruction. Xavier's hopes - for work stability, for upward mobility, for the mythical promise of American "equality", for his son's future - become sources of profound psychological tension.
The film's genius lies in its subtlety. Physical demolition mirrors psychological erosion. Each demolished building represents not just urban change, but the gradual collapse of Xavier's constructed narratives about success and belonging.
"Mountains" is less about gentrification and more about the universal human experience of confronting the gap between our expectations and reality. In Xavier's quiet suffering, we recognize our own. It's one of those rich films that speaks to us on many layers.
