Rudy Mancuso is an artist who has so much in his hands and can barely be pinned down to a specific place. He does music, he does shoots featuring puppets, he performs, and also makes compelling live footage with piano scores that he created. Most of his work is on the Internet, but he has performed with Justin Bieber in Brazil, where he used to reside. Mancuso’s amazing feature film debut, called “Música,” is a somewhat comedic journey into a ever on the go, brain. That is how the director sees it; he cannot help it creating making art is in his blood. A scene from the film shows Rudy’s (Mancuso) character who goes out on a date but gets dumped because his synesthesia makes it impossible to hold a proper discussion about their future relationship. Because of his brain, he must concentrate on the sounds of a knife being chopped, a broom being pushed sideways, a spatula being banged against the wall. BTS, sound comes in the crashing, the bang joins in and the scene ends with Rudy sitting in bed in his need bedroom with a lamp cry onto a clapper.
Mancuso puts all his passion into this film including the puppets, which he, with his caricature like mop head, even resembles himself. Bear in mind this is a person who can sometimes play a little too passively. But he has made a quite bold and evidently purposeful movie. In Newark, the action of the movie, there is always the presence of life, sound, and inspiration snatching away in the distance. Rudy can’t focus, but he can orchestrate the noise. A busy park scene where several people are playing checkers, basketball’ and double Dutch accomplishes this for him.
As an equalizer, the story, which is credited to Mancuso and Dan Lagana, is simple but effective as a story of self growth. Rudy finds himself torn in the pursuit of three women: His college girlfriend, Haley (Francesca Reale), a beautiful fishmonger, Isabela (Camila Mendes), and his strict Brazilian mother, Maria (real life mother Maria Mancuso) who uses the family room to screen potential daughters in law. (She offers caipirinhas with little paper umbrellas.) From time to time, Rudy does go to get guidance from the employee of a shawarma truck (J B Smoove) who is a jester when drunk.
Mancuso, 32 years of age, falls within the age bracket of internet aficionados who picked up skills directly from the internet, trusting it to be a self imparting film school. A new kind of movie director who works on low budgets yet brings out high levels of creativity, he seems to enjoy practical effects and impeccable timing and mentions Chaplin as an influence (the same hair comes to minds too, come to think of it).
As soon as the tines of a fork begin to synthesize, “Musica” allows us to understand his thinking in a gentle manner. When we get on board, Mancuso and his proficient teammates editor Melissa Kent, director of photography Shane Hurlbut, production designer Patrick Sullivan, and gonzo director, Gonzalo Cordoba employ visual tricks to focus our attention on the act of making. Some of the in camera tricks are so imaginative that you’ll want to rewind quite a few times after viewing them.
The gripping scene in the movie stars the director who gives a on take overview on Rudy as he tries to date one girl, Haley, and Isabella at the same time. The camera follows the cheating man as he goes through a huge area where rolling sets, painted backdrops, and other cast members go in and out of the scene. To they onwards, there is another kind of a different, time consuming and can be said as emotionally exhausting for both the viewers and the cast and the crew. What about the song Is God Dead. The film, however, is also thankful for two shorter pieces of music the one of which fades out after the first stanza. The conclusion does seem clearly unfinished as well, but why should a burgeoning creator now bursting with invention know what happens next .
For more movies like Música visit 123Movies.