Luca (2021).
“Silencio Bruno!”
Directed by Enrico Casarosa
Written by Enrico Casarosa, Jesse Andrews, and Simon Stephenson
Starring Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, and a Vespa
The Stage.
Guilia, a determined red-headed spark plug, vows to win the annual triathlon in her small town of Portorosso in the Italian countryside. To accomplish this, she’ll need to both beat Ercole, the perennial winner of the race, and deal with sightings of sea monsters along the coast who may not be what everyone thinks they are.
The Review.
Yawn, another good review for a Pixar movie. It’s beginning to seem like a broken record at this point, but Pixar wins again. Luca is a very sweet story about friendship and feeling good about being yourself but I think one of the things I most appreciated about this film was the seemingly small stakes. This isn’t about existentialism and it’s not tackling the human psyche - it’s just about a group of a few kids trying to win a race while trying to hide things about themselves that the town wouldn’t find acceptable. The characters are innocent, funny, and sweet. There are moments that are downright goofy in very fun ways, and the message about taking pride in who you are is a strong one - my wife and I spent a bit of time afterwards reflecting on what we thought it was trying to draw allegories to aside from the most obvious, colorful observations.
Again, it’s a Pixar movie, so it looks gorgeous. The Italian countryside pops with bright colors and everything looks very vivid. The animation style of the humans is a bit different than Soul and the way people moved was fluid and really worked for me. Perhaps the best thing about Luca is the score - I really loved the music in this film. It’s very Italian and when the film was over, I instantly jumped to my phone to add the score to my library, spinning it the next day while working.
If I had to lodge a complaint about the film, it’s that the villain is cartoonishly over the top in both how evil he is and how gleeful he seems to be evil. Villains have never been Pixar’s strong point, and there’s a poignant lack of depth to Ercole. He’s just a dick to be a dick and didn’t seem to have any human or redeeming qualities. I also found it a bit hard to believe that someone like this wouldn’t have had the shit kicked out of him by the rest of the kids in the town, considering how many of them there are, but I guess that’s just me over thinking it - this is a really good film.
The End.
So far my kid has seen Luca five or six times, and gets on his bike in the backyard pretending that he’s Luca and that I’m Alberto, so he’s clearly given it a glowing review. I’m in the same boat. It’s a small-scale story that’s full of fun moments, beautiful animation, and glorious music. Best of all, you can see Luca right now as it’s included with your Disney+ subscription. If you like Luca, check out Enrico Casarosa’s short La Luna, which is also on Disney+. As a storyteller and a filmmaker, I’m so excited to see what he continues to do with Pixar and perhaps outside of the animated world.
