All in Favor

There are few things in modern life more inherently soul-crushing than a mandatory residential association meeting. You know the vibe: the flickering fluorescent light in a damp basement, the smell of old coats, and that one neighbor who has turned complaining about the hallway humidity into a competitive sport. It’s a mundane purgatory that Santiago Requejo captures with such uncomfortable precision in All in Favor (Todos a una) that I found myself checking my own apartment’s group chat for incoming drama.

I actually watched this while wearing a pair of wool socks with a glaring hole in the left big toe. There was something about that tiny, annoying imperfection that felt spiritually aligned with the film’s premise—a story about the small, frayed edges of human decency that unravel the moment we feel our personal sanctuary is threatened.

The Worst Meeting of Your Life

The setup is deceptively simple. A group of neighbors in a Madrid apartment block gathers to vote on a new elevator. It’s the kind of bureaucratic box-ticking exercise that usually ends in mild grumbling and a signed check. But the mood shifts from boring to brittle when it’s revealed that the apartment on the third floor is being rented to a young man with a history of mental illness.

Suddenly, the elevator doesn’t matter. What matters is the "risk." What follows is a 88-minute pressure cooker that effectively weaponizes the "Not In My Backyard" (NIMBY) sentiment that lurks within even the most self-proclaimed progressives. As a piece of contemporary Spanish cinema, it fits perfectly into that "single-location thriller" subgenre we’ve seen flourish recently—think of it as a spiritual, more grounded cousin to Álex de la Iglesia’s The Bar, but with fewer monsters and much more social anxiety.

The script, penned by Requejo, doesn't waste time with flowery introductions. It understands that in 2025, we don’t need a back-story to understand how quickly a group chat mentality can turn into a lynch-mob Lite. Raúl Fernández de Pablo plays Alberto with a desperate kind of neutrality that I found deeply relatable; he’s the guy trying to keep the peace while the floorboards are literally catching fire.

A Cast of Professional Agitators

What makes All in Favor work—and what keeps it from feeling like a preachy public service announcement—is the ensemble. Clara Lago, whom you might recognize from the massive hit Spanish Affair (Ocho apellidos vascos), brings a frantic, jittery energy to Nuria. She isn't a villain; she’s just someone whose empathy has a very specific, very short radius.

Then there is Tito Valverde as Fernando. Valverde is a titan of Spanish screen and stage, and here he provides the weathered, stubborn anchor the film needs. When he speaks, you hear the voice of a generation that prides itself on "common sense," even when that sense is fueled by outdated stigmas. But for my money, Gonzalo de Castro steals the show as Ricardo. He is a specialized study in being a colossal prick, delivering lines with a smug, "I’m just saying what everyone is thinking" bravado that made me want to reach through the screen and hide his car keys.

The chemistry here isn't about love; it’s about friction. These people have lived next to each other for years, yet the moment a "threat" is introduced, those years of borrowed sugar and polite elevator nods vanish. It’s a cynical view of community, sure, but in an era of polarized social media bubbles, it feels depressingly authentic.

Why the Small Screen Suits the Big Conflict

All in Favor is an expansion of Requejo’s Goya-nominated short film Votamos. Usually, when you stretch a 10-minute concept into a feature, the seams start to show. You get "hallway padding" or unnecessary subplots. Here, the expansion feels justified because it allows the silence to sit longer. You see the hesitation in the characters' eyes before they cast their votes.

Interestingly, the film didn't set the global box office on fire, pulling in a modest $373,308. In the current streaming-dominant landscape, a mid-budget Spanish drama about a neighbor meeting is a hard sell for a theatrical wide release. It’s the kind of "hidden gem" that thrives on word-of-mouth once it hits platforms like Netflix or Mubi. It doesn't have the CGI de-aging of an MCU epic or the sprawling vistas of a legacy sequel, but it has something much scarier: a mirror.

The cinematography by Kiko de la Rica—who did gorgeous work on the silent Blancanieves—is intentionally claustrophobic. He keeps the camera close, catching the sweat on the upper lips and the way people avoid eye contact when they’re saying something cruel. It’s a film that lives and dies by its pacing, and at a lean 88 minutes, it never overstays its welcome.

Ultimately, All in Favor is a sharp, stinging reminder of how fragile our social contracts really are. It’s a comedy until it’s a drama, and then it’s a horror movie where the monster is just a group of "nice" people with a ballot box. If you’ve ever sat through a meeting and realized the person next to you is a total stranger despite living ten feet away for a decade, this is going to hit close to home. It’s not a comfortable watch, but it’s a necessary one for anyone interested in how contemporary cinema is dissecting our current "polite" society. Just don't blame me if you start eyeing your neighbors with a bit more suspicion the next time you're taking out the trash.