By John Serba
Published April 3, 2026, 2:00 p.m. ET
The Giant Falls is the fourth Netflix movie in five years from Argentinian director Marcos Carnevale. And par for the course with the uberstreamer’s reputation for cranking out blandly watchable mediocrities, they’ve all been modestly ambitious but not particularly memorable. Like All Hail (famous weatherman’s career is destroyed when he whiffs on a historic hailstorm forecast), The Heart Knows (a heart donor’s lover gets involved with the transplant recipient) and Goyo (a romance between an autistic man and a woman 20 years his senior), The Giant Falls rummages around in an extraordinary scenario in search of some profound ruminations on the human condition. Now let’s see if he finds any.
THE GIANT FALLS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Boris (Matias Mayer) is a boat-tour guide at Iguazu National Park, cruising his passengers upriver and through the splashy mists of some of the world’s most beautiful waterfalls. He finishes a tour and moments before he calls it a day he looks up at an old man in sunglasses who appears before him, backlit by the sun like he’s a supernatural being: “Hola, Boris.” Boris looks stunned for a second, then immediately hops in his truck and drives away. He seems to be compartmentalizing real hard as he continues on with his usual life, meeting his girlfriend Mich (Johanna Francella) and other friends at the karaoke bar, and watching his free-spirited mother Leti (Ines Estevez) sing. His phone lights up: UNKNOWN NUMBER. And again. And again.
The old man, the unknown caller, is Boris’ father, Julian (Oscar Martinez). Boris was just a little kid when he last saw his dad, 28 years ago. Memories are surely hazy to the point where you question whether they’re real or imagined. And now, Boris has no interest in seeing the guy. Ever. He’s angry. Bitter. Holding tight to that grudge. Read between the lines, and Boris’ childhood was likely difficult. Leti is loving and outgoing, but she strikes us as someone who lives a life of impulsive flamboyance – her bathroom counter is littered with sex toys and half-smoked joints. It seems Boris has found some stability with Mich and a good job, and is surely reluctant to let anyone, even his long-estranged father, mess with it.
However, life isn’t about control, but the illusion of it. And reality persists as Julian visits Leti, and we learn that he was an airline pilot who had two families in two different cities for many years before he settled on one, and that one didn’t involve our protagonist. And while Boris’ feelings waver between reasonable and irrational, they’re nevertheless valid. Persistent and patient, Julian joins the tour of the falls, prompting Boris’ reasonable upset, because dragging intensely personal matters into another’s professional situation is a rotten move. But Julian is desperate. He finally gets through to Boris, who agrees to meet at Julian’s hotel. The conversation concludes on the steps outside the hotel, with Boris punching an old man in the face and kicking him in the ribs when he’s down. It’s going to take some work to thaw this chilly reunion – and maybe the revelation of an extreme circumstance on top of an already extreme circumstance. For Boris’ sake, let’s hope those things don’t start to pile up around here.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Carnevale’s work brings to mind the films of Rodrigo Garcia – Albert Nobbs, Passengers, Raymond and Ray, etc. – who writes and directs adult dramas that flirt with prestige status, tend to be mawkish and overly sincere, and never really transcend the middle tier of the art form.
Performance Worth Watching: Estevez gets to play the film’s most colorful character, whose balance of flightiness, wisdom of age and self-knowledge come through in her line readings and physical performance.
Sex And Skin: None.
Our Take: The Giant Falls is a reasonably absorbing, well-acted and hastily written film. Carnevale spends the first two acts giving his characters space to interact and develop, including a central sequence in which Boris and Julian have dinner and give it the old college try in the father-son reconnection sweepstakes. It’s bold of a film to settle in with a lengthy section that’s little more than two people conversing with intent and purpose like recognizable, real-life adults.
The problem is, you can sense Carnevale reaching for poignancy in a third act that feels rushed, and hinges on a major plot zag that prompts a change in Boris that’s more of an illogical shortcut than the product of due diligence in character development. It’s a scenario defined by its thorny emotional complexity, and it feels underdeveloped and, to a degree, unearned. That’s a long way of saying that what happens feels like far too much to swallow, and a bridge too far for the Boris character, reflected in a muddled and confusing performance by Mayer. The film felt like a slice of life drama that takes a turn for the maudlin, Carnevale forcing his way to a pseudo-profound conclusion executed with enough of a heavy hand to sap the drama of its energy.
Our Call: The Giant Falls works pretty well for an hour, then quickly loses its agency as a complex, moving melodrama. It’s not really a waste of time, but it squanders some of its potential and is ultimately unsatisfying. SKIP IT.
John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.
