El domingo dorado, which means "golden Sunday," is about a little boy and the daydream he has while riding on the subway with his mother. The film's writer and director, Kim Bunce, has a keen understanding of how movies can be about simple pleasures and everyday events. She really captures the feelings of the young and endlessly curious.

My favorite parts are the realistic scenes at the beginning and at the end, not the fantasy stuff sandwiched in between. The movie opens with the mom and son holding hands in the subway station. There's a close-up in which they let go that's somehow exquisitely observant and suspenseful. Once on the train, they busy themselves with the devices of modern distraction: a cell phone for the mom, a Game Boy for the kid. You get the feeling this kid is a bit neglected, and so his inner life has developed at extraordinary rates. A few rows in front, a man is dancing around in his seat to his iPod. This captivates the boy, and he has a daydream that involves salsa music and the train transforming into a dance hall.

Bunce's coverage and cutting in this fantasy sequence is a little shaky. I also don't like the tonal change. The tone at the beginning and the end is amazing, aided in large part by the track "Part I Cold Fingers" by Daniel Watson Lomax IV. It sounds like a Brian Eno song, and evokes that time in early childhood when life just about buzzes with opportunities.