Co-written and directed by Santiago Mitre, biographical period piece Argentina, 1985 was a widely-acclaimed and impeccably-performed legal drama that won rave reviews from critics on its way to winning a Golden Globe and securing an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film.
And yet, the movie’s lasting legacy could be that of the project that tore the very fabric of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the seams, with the unassuming foreign-language feature pinpointed as the catalyst behind long-serving executive Victoria Alonso’s acrimonious split from the company she’d served for almost 20 years.
By acting as a producer on Argentina, 1985 without notifying the top brass at Disney, the Mouse House decreed that it was well within its right to terminate Alonso for a breach of contract, leading to a hurling of insults that’s edging ever closer to being settled inside the courtroom.
While it’s not the legacy that the riveting story deserved, it may have emboldened streaming subscribers to see what all the fuss was about, after FlixPatrol named Argentina, 1985 as one of the fastest-rising flicks on the Prime Video worldwide watch-list. Set during a pivotal moment where a public prosecutor, a young lawyer, and a rookie legal team prosecuted the highest-ranking figures in the country’s military dictatorship, it shouldn’t be allowed to go down in the history books solely for being connected to the headline-grabbing ousting of a major MCU figure.
It might help it draw in some more eyeballs in the long run, though, proving that there’s barely any cloud that doesn’t have a silver lining.