Director: Rudy Mancuso
Writers: Dan Lagana, Rudy Mancuso
Stars: Rudy Mancuso, Camila Mendes. Francesca Reale
Synopsis: A coming-of-age love story that follows an aspiring creator with synesthesia, who must come to terms with an uncertain future, while navigating the pressures of love, family, and his Brazilian culture in Newark, New Jersey..
Very rarely does a filmmaker find a fresh angle for the left-for-dead romantic comedy. Yet, every once in a while, an exciting new voice emerges to remind us why we used to love the genre in the first place. That filmmaker’s name is Rudy Mancuso (The Flash), and his new movie Música is sweet, laugh-out-loud funny, and downright adorable from start to finish.
The story follows Rudy (Mancuso), an easily distractible young man who is a few weeks away from his college graduation. He is Brazilian and comes from a proud community and was raised by his single mom, Maria Mancuso, who is desperately trying to set him up with a nice Brazilian girl. The problem is that Rudy is dating Haley (Do Revenge’s Francesca Reale), a young woman from a lily-white world.
Haley wants security and has a plan, something Rudy struggles with. Instead of working a nine-to-five job, Rudy spends his evenings performing puppet shows on a Newark subway platform for tips. Haley cannot see a future with him, not to mention telling her parents she is dating a young man who works underground professionally with socks on his hands. But like any story involving love, it takes being smacked in the face with a large whitemouth croaker. Yes, you read that correctly.
That’s precisely what happened when Rudy lost track of space and time when he laid his eyes upon the lovely Isabella (Riverdale’s Camila Mendes), a delightful and self-aware young woman who works at the fish market. Isabella is kind and has an empathetic heart. She compliments Rudy, for example, by not sneering at his quirks but embracing them wholly.
That Involves Rudy’s Synesthesia – when one sense or part of the body is stimulated, causing a sensation in another sense or part of the body – which manifests itself by him being continuously consumed by sounds of the rhythms of life around him. They immediately hit it off, and the script by Mancuso and Dan Lagana (American Vandal) goes through some typical clichés.
However, they are so well done and charming that you will hardly have objections. Of course, Isabella will hit it off with Rudy; they have delightful chemistry. Additionally, you know Haley will somehow wander back into the picture, a staple within the genre. Yet, the journey makes Mancuso’s Música a breath of creative fresh air.
The rom-com takes some genuine chances with its script. For one, he embraces the filmmaker’s culture and finds an original way to portray the hands-on involvement of a Brazilian mother in her son’s life well into adulthood. If you are wondering why Rudy and his mother have such natural comedic chemistry, it’s because they are cut from the same cloth, as Maria is portrayed by his real-life mother.
(There is a lovely scene where Maria says something critical of Rudy in front of her salon customers, but Rudy laughs, calls her on it, but remains respectful and gives her a goodbye kiss on the cheek.)
Additionally, Mancuso’s film feels authentic to him. For example, Mancuso comes from the world of puppets, cutting his teeth as the voice of Diego in Awkward Puppets (“Don’t be a Hero, be a Diego.”). The scenes where Rudy works out issues in his head with Diego are hilarious and give a different layer of comedy that makes the film multifaceted.
Of course, Mancuso has a charming appeal because he is genuine and wears his emotions on his sleeve. He’s articulate but anxious. The combination of authenticity and imperfections makes his character relatable and incredibly endearing when you fold in Camila Mendes – the new streaming romantic-comedy queen – who is flawless in a role smarter than the genre and continues to stack good roles in good films. Música is a sincere romantic comedy that embraces community and personal growth, never forgetting life is a trip and we should enjoy the ride. The script is mindful that humans evolve and has guts to have characters’ lives that go on, no matter how the movie ends, which is rare. Mancuso’s film is a vibrant, rhythmic, and eclectic rom-com that sets itself apart from the rest.
