''Chill Out!'' () is a 2003 Spanish comedy film written and directed by Félix Sabroso and Dunia Ayaso which stars Pepón Nieto, Candela Peña,

Loles León María Dolores León Rodríguez (born 1 August 1950), better known as Loles León, is a Spanish actress. Career León travelled to Madrid to start a career as an actress, where she met Pedro Almodóvar during La Movida Madrileña. She has pla ...

, and

Rubén Ochandiano Rubén Ochandiano de Higes (born 3 October 1980) is a Spanish actor. Life and career Rubén Ochandiano de Higes was born in Madrid on 3 October 1980. He is the nephew of actress and stage director . He trained as an actor under Juan Carlos Cor ...

Plot

Set in a multicultural neighborhood of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, the plot follows struggling bit-part actor and impersonator Justo Santos, who is offered a lead role by film director Aitor, with the latter promptly dying from

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended. Retrieved on September 20, 2014.

, seemingly thwarting Justo and Justo's family (brother Berto, wife Iris, and mother Katy) yearnings to solve their dire economic hardships.

Cast

Production

The film is an El Deseo,

Mediapro Mediaproducción, S.L.U., better known as Mediapro, is a multimedia communications group in Spain founded in April 1994 in Barcelona. The company is well involved in movie and television production. The company holds branch offices in Madrid, S ...

, and Filmanova production, with the participation of

Telemadrid Telemadrid is a public television station in the Community of Madrid, Spain, the flagship channel of the regional public broadcaster Radio Televisión Madrid (RTVM). It began its broadcast on 2 May 1989. History First years Telemadrid was cr ...

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

, and Antena 3.

Release

The film screened at the 15th L'Alfàs del Pi Film Festival in July 2003. Distributed by Warner Sogefilms, it was released theatrically in Spain on 22 August 2003. It opened to a so-so €222,000 opening weekend gross at the domestic box office, but good word-of-mouth took it to €1.1 million after four weeks.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' considered that the helmers' disposable work in earlier films "settles down into something like maturity without losing its contempo edge, and first-rate performances discover unsuspected depths in the derivative, over-the-top plotline about people frantically trying to improve their lot". Jennifer Green of ''

ScreenDaily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned ''Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involve ...

'' deemed to film to be a "a sharp yet ultimately gentle comedy".

References