MUBI’s “The New Years” Perfectly Captures Beginnings and Endings
It’s officially December in all parts of the world, and that means 2026 is right around the corner. A new year means a fresh start, 365 days of unlimited potential where the course of one’s life could change at any moment. César Award-winning director Rodrigo Sorogoyen isn’t interested in the year that lies ahead, but the hours leading up to and immediately following the stroke of midnight on December 31. His ten-part miniseries, Los Años Nuevos, premieres on December 3 exclusively on MUBI, and captures the interwoven lives of two people on this day of beginning and ending. The first two episodes will be made available on MUBI on December 3, with future episodes released weekly.
courtesy of MUBI
It’s 2015, and Ana (Iria Del Río) is working the late shift at a bar. It’s packed with people celebrating New Year’s Eve, but Ana is more concerned with New Year’s Day, her birthday. After her shift, she heads to a party with some friends and some strangers. One such stranger is Óscar (Francesco Carril). The two bond over their birthdays, as Óscar was born on New Year’s Eve. They’re both just turning thirty and find themselves in wildly different phases of their lives, but it doesn’t deter the attraction they feel. Episode one of the series follows the duo the night of December 31, 2015, into January 1, 2016. and episode two picks up one year later on New Year’s Eve 2016.
Los Años Nuevos has such a simple premise. It shows life and years passing by in bite-sized, one-hour-or-less episodes. Two people, over the course of a night, move from strangers to lovers to friends to who knows where the next year will take them. The first episode spans roughly twenty-four hours and has the feel of a Before Sunrise film. Ana and Óscar spend much of their time together talking about themselves, their futures, and their pasts, with the freedom offered by what they believe is an inherently fleeting connection. Yet Los Años Nuevos is distinctly permanent. It’s an examination of how a relationship is born, lives, and, potentially, dies.
courtesy of MUBI
The Ana and Óscar we see in episode two are already very different from the people we met in the first episode. Óscar came across as calm, cool, and collected, a put-together vocational doctor who exudes stability. Ana was a whirlwind, running out on friends to go to different parties and holding onto a work visa to move to Vancouver, but with no real plans in sight. In the year that has passed, they’ve both changed, and Los Años Nuevos sets up a compelling, ever-changing dynamic that pulls the audience in. Episode one, and the performances from Del Río and Carril, offers an incredible, succinct introduction of these characters. The audience easily understands the archetypes and how they can impact each other for better or worse.
Anyone who is a fan of taut, mostly one-location pieces of media will delight in Los Años Nuevos, as will anyone who finds the drama that arises at dinner parties endlessly compelling. Episode two unfolds over a dinner that is delayed as Óscar’s dad runs late, but empty stomachs and free-flowing wine make for the best kind of party-gone-wrong-TV. Los Años Nuevos is funny, sad, and honest about life. It’s a ten-year study of whether it’s possible for two people, with all their confusing feelings for one another, to stay in some sort of a relationship. Time and episodes will tell if these feelings are of the romantic variety or if they stay friends, but it’s the journey that’s so fascinating to watch. These once-a-year snapshots aren’t centered around any large dramatic incident. It’s often just Ana and Óscar doing what people do on New Year's Eve. They drink, talk, have sex, fight, and look ahead to what’s next. Los Años Nuevos, while scripted, comes across as earnest and real as any documentary. As Ana and Óscar are drawn to each other, we are drawn to them and the ways their lives reflect ours. It’s an impressive series that manages to capture humanity in all the smallness and grandness that exists within us, and a reminder that we can access it all by sharing our life with someone.
Support Your Local Film Critic!
~
Support Your Local Film Critic! ~
Beyond the Cinerama Dome is run by one perpetually tired film critic
and her anxious emotional support chihuahua named Frankie.
Your kind donation means Frankie doesn’t need to get a job…yet.
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, YouTube, & Facebook. Check out Movies with My Dad, a new podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies.