{"id":3588,"date":"2026-07-05T11:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T11:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3588"},"modified":"2026-07-05T11:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T11:10:00","slug":"chica-checa-review-simon-holys-karlovy-vary-competition-entry-is-worthy-but-clumsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3588","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chica Checa\u2019 Review: \u0160imon Hol\u00fd\u2019s Karlovy Vary Competition Entry Is Worthy but Clumsy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tMomentous events such as the sale of the family home, a young man coming out to his family, or the staging of a drag performance in a small town would seem like perfect ingredients for an intensely dramatic, conflict-ridden film. But in his fourth feature \u201cChica Checa\u201d \u2014 premiering in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival \u2014 young Czech director \u0160imon Hol\u00fd seems determined instead to lower the temperature as much as possible, crafting a pleasant comedy-drama where there is never any doubt that all will be fine in the end. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3586\">Jesse Eisenberg on Why It Would Be \u2018Silly\u2019 to Leave U.S. Because of Trump, Says \u2018The Debut\u2019 Is \u2018The Opposite of AI\u2019 Following A24 DeepMind Partnership<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tDespite the film\u2019s festival profile, then, it is better approached not as an arthouse proposition, but as a commercial, middlebrow crowdpleaser aimed at local audiences, albeit with slighty edgier subject matter than most titles of its ilk. But even from this particular perspective, Hol\u00fd\u2019s film remains an unconvincing work, too clumsy both formally and thematically to leave much of an impression.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tZdena (Pavla Tomicov\u00e1) is a middle-aged woman living alone in a rather large house in a Czech village, spending most of her time at her ailing mother\u2019s bedside in the hospital. In one of many small but nagging inconsistencies, characters repeatedly refer to her isolation and reluctance to socialize since the death of her husband some years ago \u2014 despite the film opening on Zdena at a dance, and her later attending a house party.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat feeling of will-this-do filmmaking is pervasive, from the unflatteringly garish, TV-level costume design, to the inexplicable use of a wide lens on several random occasions. It is most palpable, however, on the level of the storytelling itself. Potential sources of tension are introduced in such wooden and contrived ways, to make such obvious and worthy arguments, that the film in such moments comes to resemble an educational video.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSoon after she gets an offer to sell her family home to a rich woman from the city, Zdena gets a rare and extended visit from her adult son, Luk\u00e1\u0161 (Jan Cina), who lives in France. As they watch TV together one evening, she uses a homophobic slur, prompting Luk\u00e1\u0161 to come out to her as gay, and tell her that he works as a drag queen: a textbook example of a coming-out story, complete with the mother\u2019s tearful reaction, now in illustrated form.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3584\">Switzerland Shows Its Dark Side in Jan-Eric Mack\u2019s \u2018A Happy Family\u2019: \u2018People Don\u2019t Talk\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tYet when the two characters wake up the next day, both of them are immediately over the hurtful argument from the night before. On the one hand, this kind of easy resolution comes across as lazy writing. But there is also in \u201cChica Checa\u201d a recurring suggestion that people are too nice and too reasonable for conflicts to ever truly last. This naive point of view could work well in a more finely crafted, confection, with the clich\u00e9s becoming part of the pleasure. \u201cChica Checa\u201d at times promises precisely this kind of low-effort delight, but is too uneven to make it work.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhile relying on established tropes for its story and characters, their flow is interrupted by inconsistencies and clunky mistakes. One particular sequence, where Luk\u00e1\u0161 throws a tantrum about his mother being stuck in the past, comes out of nowhere, its sole apparent purpose to inject a very small dose of conflict \u2014 soon resolved \u2014 in a film that threatens to flatline.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThere\u2019s a bigger problem here, however. In its relentless positivity, \u201cChica Checa\u201d could be seen as an attempt to normalize, through positive representation, lifestyles and sexualities that may seem abhorrent to older generations such as Zdena\u2019s. But there\u2019s a very thin line between this worthwhile impulse and the glib idea that motherly love shall always overcome deeply ingrained intolerance. The film draws much of its mild humor from various moments where Zdena plucks up the courage (!) to tell an acquaintance that her son has a boyfriend \u2014 but it is reasonable to wonder what might happen should she meet someone who does not react with a harmless little quip.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis gaucheness around homophobia is echoed in the film\u2019s tonal indecisiveness. Because it is Zdena\u2019s sunny disposition that papers over every crack and solves all conflicts in \u201cChica Checa\u201d, it is Tomicov\u00e1\u2019s job to make her optimism believable. The actor opts for an intensely expressive performance of wide-eyed wonder and motherly meekness, so mannered as to pull the film towards artifice. But Cina\u2019s naturalistic turn as Luk\u00e1\u0161, and the much higher stakes for his character, ground the film in a semblance of reality. The friction between the two registers only produces a feeling of disjointed awkwardness; perhaps a less earnest, more screwball-esque approach could have pulled off this uneasy combination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3582\">Trine Dyrholm Crashes a Party in Mads Mengel\u2019s \u2018The Guest,\u2019 Proving She\u2019s \u2018Simply One of Denmark\u2019s Greatest Actors\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\t\u2018Chica Checa\u2019 Review: \u0160imon Hol\u00fd\u2019s Karlovy Vary Competition Entry Is Worthy but Clumsy<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\tReviewed at Karlovy Vary Film Festival (Crystal Globe Competition), July 4, 2026. Running time: 97 MIN.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<strong>Production:<\/strong><br \/>\n(Czech Republic-France-Slovak Republic) A Silk Films production in co-production with The French Connection, Arinafilm, \u010cesk\u00e1 Televize. (World sales: Pluto Film, Berlin.) Producer: Al\u017eb\u011bta Jan\u00e1\u010dkov\u00e1.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Crew:<\/strong><br \/>\nDirector, screenplay, music: \u0160imon Hol\u00fd. Camera: Jana Hojdov\u00e1. Editor: Sabina Mladenov\u00e1.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>With:<\/strong><br \/>\nPavla Tomicov\u00e1, Jan Cina, Erwan Kepoa Fal\u00e9, Alexandra Borb\u00e9ly. (Czech dialogue) \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Centered on a middle-aged woman at a turning point in her life, \u0160imon Hol\u00fd&#8217;s Czech comedy-drama &#8216;Chica Checa&#8217; is earnest to a fault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2424,1438,2957],"class_list":["post-3588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-chica-checa","tag-karlovy-vary-film-festival-2","tag-simon-holy-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Chica Checa\u2019 Review: \u0160imon Hol\u00fd\u2019s Karlovy Vary Competition Entry Is Worthy but Clumsy - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3588\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Chica Checa\u2019 Review: \u0160imon Hol\u00fd\u2019s Karlovy Vary Competition Entry Is Worthy but Clumsy - 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