Diamantino

I haven't laughed out loud in a theater in years, but this one really got me. It is an pdd film, hat much is for sure, but also reminicent of genre cult classics like Barbarella. Wonderfully done

Diamantino (given Portuguese name) is the best film I watched at EUFF 2019, a story that is relevant and funny it took me by surprise and made me regret I skipped it in 2018 at the MAMI MFF.

Narrating the story of a footballer who fell from glory to disgrace because of one missed goal, Diamantino takes you through government propaganda, fascism, illegal scientific studies, and a sweet little relationship between the eponymous character (the brilliant and talented Carloto Cotta whose face itself is so perfect for the role he plays) and a boy that he adopts when he learns about the refugee crisis. The humor is laugh-out-loud here, both through the dialogues and the visuals that is just magically delivered in a snappy screenplay of 90 minutes. The performances are the next highlight of the film, especially the sisters who played Diamantino's sisters on screen. Such beauty and sinister-ship they carry, you cannot take eyes off them when they are on the screen. But come to think of it, this is a film where you can't do it anyway because it's fun... absurdist, but just pure fun. The wit and wordplay is also very strong here. It will most importantly remind you of a real-life footballer who hails from the same country this film is set in... TN.

(Watched and reviewed at the 24th European Union Film Festival (EUFF India) in Mumbai.)

Just because you toss whatever is in the kitchen cupboards & fridge into a pot doesn't necessarily mean it's a nutritious tasty meal. So it was with my take on this script. I suppose no direction/cohesiveness w/giant animated pink fluffy dogs running around (Suppose to mean anything?) can be funny. For the ladies our lead actor spends a lot of time lifting (probably with a large mirror) so that's a positive.

Im sitting in my couch this very moment wondering what i just watched. The politics of this movie are... wierd. Ig to have a lesbian couple break up just so diamontino (a man) can have a romantic relationship with what in his head is a child boy who he rescues from poverty is an odd (to put it lightly) decision from the directors. The movie would work perfectly without the lesbian (Aisha) turning straight due to dimantinos massive honkers. The exact same stuff could have happened without the need of converting a lesbian, Aisha could've pretended to be a boy indefinitely, she could've said that she was a secret agent saving him or some bullcrap. Another example is the ideas surrounding EU and immigration, i think the movies message is EU good, Nationalist bad? And that immigrants shouldn't die crossing the ocean?

What does this movie want to tell me? So the message of this movie is totally lost on me.

I tried to conjure up an absurd math equation which addressed the moving pieces that constitute Diamantino's 'plot' and gave up after "Comically evil twin sisters + Childlike megastar athlete ÷ (lesbian government spy couple - undercover refugee) = ..." The beauty of this is in not knowing what will happen next. Many movies can and actively do strive for unpredictability, but here is the rare reality of that achievement realized. It's cheap, in a way, just attempting that. I don't believe this film comes together in the end, but it has a lot of fun trying.

The central visual idea, which is plastered on the movie poster and might just be the only thing you know about this even if you don't totally about it, is that Diamantino (definitely not Ronaldo) is an internationally famous Portuguese soccer star who loves putting nutella on things and who, when 'in the zone', transports to a magical land of pink clouds and giant fluffy dogs. It's a visual metaphor for something that the viewer will likely either get immediately or scoff at. Thankfully, I found myself among the former.

The visual FX themselves are charming. Not just the green-screened pups bouncing (and eventually launching off into space) but the weird poorman's Minority Report tech setups and computer OS designs. Their feeling unreal added to the flow of this in such a nice, lowkey way.

I wouldn't necessarily say that the overtly political elements of the story bogged things down, but at times their prevalence made some of the general wackiness feel like shtick instead of an inspired genesis, and even more of a bizarre pairing when the film transforms into a full-on love story.

While it's far from perfect, I would definitely recommend this as something you need to see to believe, and the less said the better.