Prime Video Movie of the Day: Música is an unusual and heartwarming love story with a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes
If you’re looking for a movie on Prime Video that will warm your heart without being so sweet that it will rot your teeth, Music could just be something. It’s a love story with an unusual twist: Rudy is “tortured by music”, he hears it everywhere he goes, and that is shown on screen as everyday things erupt into musical performances that often feel like they come from the same universe as Everything everywhere at once.
What is Musica about?
Music draws inspiration from star Rudy Mancuso’s own lived experience: he has synesthesia, which is a neurological condition in which one sense produces effects normally associated with others – so in Mancuso’s case he says, “I personify sounds, feel shapes and see music”.
This “true story” is set in a Brazilian neighborhood in Newark, and Mancuso plays a street artist who lives with his mother and whose girlfriend finds him and his condition frustrating. Then he meets Isabella, played by Camila Mendes. What happens next was described by The Mercury News as “sweet and soulful,” and while they may be “beats we’ve grown accustomed to,” the film “doesn’t follow in the footsteps of others. What a gem.”
There is comedy here, but it is in the magical realism of Rudy’s visions: the New York Times says it’s “a comic trip into a mind that is forever feverishly creating – even against its will.” The Hollywood Reporter says it’s a stylish coming-of-age debut in which Rudy “navigates the turbulence of love, life and puppetry.” It’s ‘charming’, and ‘even when the story veers into clichéd territory, Music‘s aesthetic remains loose and kinetic – an exciting reflection of the creator’s mind.’
According to Indiewire“on the surface,”Music‘feels like a very standard story about a talented man who is caught between two girls he likes, and – instead of being honest with them – starts dating both at the same time.’ But there is much more to it. ‘Mancuso and director of photography Shane Hurlbut succeed in delivering a stunning musical in which no one breaks into a traditional song and dance number. winning and visually inventive musical comedy.”
Being a musical, not everyone will consider it among the best Prime Video films, but it has been a firestorm for everyone who has seen it.