An aging poet finds purpose mentoring Yurlady, a talented teen, though exposing her to the poetry scene might be unwise. His own poetic pursuits led nowhere, leaving him a stereotypical obscure writer.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.9/10
IMDb: 7.9/10
Letterboxd: 4.05/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Metacritic: 85
TMDB: 8.4/10
Director
Simón Mesa Soto
Production
Ocúltimo, Medio de Contención Producciones, ma.ja.de. Fiction, Momento Film, Film i Väst, Das kleine Fernsehspiel
Cast
Ubeimar Rios, Rebeca Andrade, Guillermo Cardona, Alisson Correa, Humberto Restrepo, Margarita Soto, Hilda Gutíerrez Lodoño, Emmanuel Garcés Botero, William Montoya, Adriana Upegui, Javier Castaño Vera, Luis Alfonso Ochoa Londoño, Gabriel Buitrago Figueroa, Mariana Flórez Isaza, Sara Castro Parra, Hugo Zapata Montoya, Shirley Ardila, Eva Boddez, Isabella Álvarez Quintero, Héctor Gonzaléz
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, melancholy comedy about artistic failure, mentorship, and the humiliations of trying to live as a poet. It sounds funny in a painfully specific way, but with real emotional bite and a strong visual style.
Best for
Viewers who like tragicomic outsider stories
Fans of art-world satire and working-class melancholy
People who enjoy character studies with awkward humor
Anyone drawn to Latin American cinema with a lived-in, scrappy feel
Skip if
You want a clean inspirational underdog story
You dislike cringe comedy or secondhand embarrassment
You prefer plot-heavy films over character-driven slices of life
You are sensitive to crude or uncomfortable humor
Overview
A Poet looks like the kind of film that turns artistic failure into both a joke and a wound. The setup is simple but rich: an older poet, long past the point of glory, sees a chance to matter again by mentoring a gifted teenager. That premise gives the film room to be funny about ego, pretension, and the gap between literary ideals and real life, while still treating its characters with enough compassion to make the sadness land.
Worth noting
The popular reactions point to a very precise comic rhythm, with abrupt cuts, awkward timing, and a sense of humor rooted in embarrassment and self-delusion. It seems to work as a portrait of a man who has built his identity around being an artist even as life has quietly moved on without him. That tension often makes for the best kind of tragicomedy: one where every laugh carries a little shame.
Bottom line
The film also appears to have a strong formal identity, with 16mm photography and a tone that balances tenderness with critique. If you like movies about failed creatives, messy mentorship, and the absurd dignity of people trying to make meaning from their own mediocrity, this should be a rewarding watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
mjnovoa (4.5★) · 3036 likes
- yo soy un poeta
- usted es un desempleado
🚬
Rebecca Levy (4★) · 3011 likes
Bojack horseman if he was an un-famous poet from Colombia
Daniela Montaguth (5★) · 1457 likes
Maravillosa. Te vas a reír, vas a llorar, lo prometo. Los cortes en el momento perfecto, los chistes internos que crea con el espectador, como en Oscar puedes ver a tu papá, a tu profesor, a tu amigo, a ti. Un poema - y una crítica demasiado astuta - sobre lo que es vivir del arte. 16mm hermosísimos. La canción de Jeanette como cierre. En fin, ya dije que es maravillosa?
Mafe (5★) · 1413 likes
Usd es melancolica ? , usd tambien tiene una profunda tristeza ?