Halfway by Martika Ramirez Escobar’s reality-bending fantasy Leonor Will By no means Die, Leonor (Sheila Francisco), an ageing motion screenwriter, steps outdoors for a smoke. Leonor is in denial in regards to the severity of her monetary scenario, and rigidity over an unpaid electrical invoice has led to arguments between her and her son Rudy (Bong Cabrera), who tells his mother that she must get her head out of the clouds. Nevertheless it’s a conk on the noggin that finally ends up bringing the household collectively, after Leonor is knocked right into a coma by a TV — one other supply of battle in her family — falling from an upstairs neighbor’s window.
That cartoon state of affairs sums up what’s happening thematically on this genre-bending movie, a riff on The Wizard of Oz by means of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video. The story begins in modern-day Manila, the place endearing, grandmotherly protagonist Leonor spends her days misplaced in TV serials and previous motion movies. Leonor was an enormous identify within the motion pictures within the ’80s and ’90s, however she retreated from filmmaking 10 years in the past after an accident on the set killed her eldest son, Ronwaldo (Anthony Falcon). She’s been holed up in her home ever since, bickering with Rudy and spending quiet afternoons sitting with Ronwaldo’s ghost.
Ronwaldo, who has been useless for fairly a while, is a personality within the film, differentiated from his residing kin solely by the truth that he’s barely clear. This additionally reveals one thing about Leonor Will By no means Die. The boundaries between life and demise are permeable in Leonor’s world, and so are those between creativeness and actuality. The movie is dotted with faux-VHS action-movie sequences, taken from an unfinished screenplay Leonor reveals shortly earlier than her accident. Whereas her physique lies comatose, her spirit enters the world of her movie, and he or she turns into each the author of the movie and a personality in her personal story. (In a heat, amusing contact, the characters in Leonor’s film all love her, however they’ll’t clarify why.)
Photograph: Music Field Movies
Though Leonor Will By no means Die pays loving tribute to the ragtag violence of Filipino motion cinema, it’s equally influenced by quirky indie meta-comedy. Leonor’s journey over the rainbow and into her screenplay has a Being John Malkovich high quality — take, for instance, a scene the place Rudy dives into the TV set mounted to the ceiling of a hospital ready room, on a mission to avoid wasting his mom. At instances, the movie pulls again even additional to disclose its personal making, incorporating behind-the-scenes footage into the story. Towards the tip of the story, writer-director Escobar makes herself a personality in her film a few filmmaker who turns into a personality in her film, showing in an interlude set throughout a late-night modifying session, the place she debates methods to finish the movie.
Escobar is a cinematographer by commerce, and he or she and her crew have a variety of enjoyable taking part in with completely different cameras, taking pictures types, and codecs — the action-movie scenes are filmed in 4:3, for instance. All of them go into creating the layers of actuality on this movie. The “actual world” consists of muted colours and lengthy, unbroken broad photographs, whereas the action-movie actuality is grimier, grainier, and extra colourful. The motion scenes make tongue-in-cheek use of abrupt zooms and repeated motion photographs, typically reusing an particularly badass punch three or 4 instances. However the funniest of those moments comes when the hero of the film, additionally named Ronwaldo (Rocky Salumbides), reaches the tip of Leonor’s unfinished script. Halfway by a chase scene, he stops and turns round with a confused look on his face, trying up on the sky in quest of route.
Past simply being a enjoyable aesthetic train, these action-movie tributes additionally current a nostalgic eager for an easier world — one the place the machine weapons are plastic, good guys and dangerous guys are simply distinguishable from each other, and any downside will be solved with a roundhouse kick. When the themes get heavy, the absurdity of the action-movie characters’ wigs and line readings retains the tone mild. Even the easy proven fact that Leonor is a lady has a wistful high quality to it: Escobar’s model of the Filipino movie trade is a matriarchy managed by highly effective ladies, a fantasy that stands in sharp distinction to the hyper-macho historic actuality.
Photograph: Music Field Movies
Leonor Will By no means Die’s scrappiness does have its downsides. The story meanders its means round every new plot level because it’s offered, and mixed with the multimedia taking pictures type, it has a free, collage-like high quality. Viewers’ tolerance for the strategy could range. And whereas Escobar’s honesty is refreshing when she admits on display screen that she doesn’t know methods to end the movie, the musical-number ending does really feel slightly tacked on. Nonetheless, Escobar’s open-hearted embrace of the method simply provides to the film’s allure. A way of play and joyful collaboration permeates Leonor Will By no means Die, even because it engages with critical problems with life, demise, and legacy. It reminds us that love, like creativity, is a residing factor, and that each are supposed to be shared.
Leonor Will By no means Die opens in restricted launch Nov. 25, with a nationwide enlargement all through December.
