Promedio rojo (2003)

It is the story of how Roberto Rodríguez (Ariel Levy), a 17-year-old nerd, tries to survive his third year of high school, the penultimate year at the fictional Valiño High School in Santiago. He plans to graduate as soon as possible so he can fulfill his dream of becoming a successful professional comic-book artist, a field in which he is practically an expert. He is an overweight, shy, unpopular young man with no charisma, and his classmates and friends are considered just as much of a failure as he is: Horacio Sánchez, better known as Condoro (Nicolás Martínez), a perverted, loud, jokey kid who spends all day at Roberto’s house because he has nowhere to eat; and Hugo Delgado, better known as Papitas (Sebastián Muñiz), a big, chubby, childish kid, whom they are interested in only because his father is a millionaire and pays for everything for them. The school year gets difficult for Roberto, not only because he has to deal with teasing and rejection from both his teachers and classmates, including the bully Marcos (Eduardo Bertrán), but also because he falls in love with his new classmate, Cristina Santelices (Xenia Tostado), a pretty girl from Spain. Unsurprisingly, Roberto watches her being courted by the school’s repulsive heartthrob, Fernando Leiva, nicknamed Fele at school (Benjamín Vicuña), a fourth-year student who has been with every attractive girl he has come across, thanks to his irresistible ‘artistic’ and ‘poetic’ charms. However, Roberto discovers that she shares his interest in comics in a curious way and is also a fan of the magazine La Pieza Oscura. Determined to get her attention and not leave Fele a clear path—especially since, after one last piece of advice from his grandfather (Fernando Farías), Fele is intent on getting Roberto out of the way—Roberto comes up with a plan. At the same time, Roberto immerses himself in the adventures of the comic he created himself, “The Strange Obesity of Being,” whose protagonist is his alter ego: an extremely large, burly superhero who fights abuse and crime like Superman, but bounces instead of flying.