Rudy Mancuso and Camila Mendes in Coming-of-Age Debut

Rudy Mancuso and Camila Mendes in ‘Música’

Courtesy of Amazon

Earlier than Rudy Mancuso wrote, directed, starred in and composed the music for his trendy debut function, Música, he made exuberant short-form movies for Vine (R.I.P). In these six-second clips, a lot of that are compiled on YouTube, the artist experiments with slapstick comedy, an brisk modifying type and bouncy compositions that channel how he sees the world. Mancuso has synesthesia, a perceptual situation wherein anyone type of sensory stimulation can spark spontaneous reactions in one other. The place others see a sq., Mancuso may additionally hear a B notice; the letter A will all the time be terracotta to him, and so forth.

In Música, the artist mines his private life and singular expertise of the world to craft an enthralling coming-of-age story. The movie, which premiered at SXSW and is streaming on Prime Video, follows Rudy (Mancuso) six weeks earlier than his faculty commencement, when the younger Newark native should confront the scary abyss of an unwritten future. That is, in some ways, a traditional bildungsroman swathed in an much more standard romantic comedy. However even when its narrative suggestions into clichéd territory, Música’s aesthetic stays free and kinetic — an thrilling reflection of its creator’s spirit.

We meet Rudy at a New Jersey diner, the place he tunes out and in of a dialog along with his girlfriend Haley (Do Revenge’s Francesca Reale). As she admonishes Rudy for his passivity towards their deliberate future, the musician orders the sounds of his setting like a conductor does an orchestra. Spoons clanking on emptied plates, a brush bristling in opposition to linoleum tiles and the bells dinging to alert the servers turn out to be a kitchen-sink symphony. Additionally it is a distraction for our anxious hero. He struggles to faucet into Haley’s monologue of considerations. Earlier than he is aware of it, their relationship is over and she or he’s strolling away.

The breakup sends the synesthetic Brazilian artist into a brief spiral. With commencement quick approaching, Rudy hasn’t began his advertising and marketing thesis or begun contemplating profession choices. He loves making music and puppetry, which he performs in subway stations for disinterested commuters, however he’s additionally drawn to the steadiness of an promoting job in New York. The Ironbound, his Newark neighborhood, can really feel too small for his goals.

Mancuso renders his character’s existential disaster with sprightly scenes impressed by the director’s early Vines and YouTube present, Awkward Puppets. Utilizing his protagonists’ situation as a springboard for aesthetic experimentation, he choreographs impressed moments that maintain the temper spontaneous. In a single significantly frenetic sequence, a second of reckoning for Rudy, Mancuso and DP Shane Hurlbut stage a surprising single take, stuffed with costume and set adjustments that carry to life our protagonist’s’ try and have all of it. Melissa Kent’s modifying animates transitions in Rudy’s day by day life, from the monotony of the classroom to the curt humor of his subterranean exhibits.

Música’s aesthetic prospers are thrilling (each for the Vine nostalgic and the Mancuso uninitiated), however they will generally really feel like pageantry to masks an typically too skinny narrative. The screenplay, co-written by the director and Dan Lagana, struggles to take care of the identical attraction because the visuals.

After breaking apart with Haley, Rudy’s mom (performed by Mancuso’s real-life mother Maria Mancuso) tries to introduce him to Brazilian ladies from the neighborhood. Like most immigrant moms anxious to maintain their cultural roots alive, she needs her son to marry inside the group.

Rudy rejects his mom’s involvement however does find yourself assembly his personal Brazilian bachelorette. Isabella (Riverdale common Camila Mendes) is a no-nonsense fishmonger whose appreciation for Ironbound expands Rudy’s enthusiasm for staying within the neighborhood after commencement. Their humorous assembly evolves into an electrical connection.

The younger lovers spend mornings within the park, the place Rudy explains his situation to Isabella, and evenings conspiring in dimly lit eating places. Their romance encounters a roadblock when Haley asks Rudy for one more likelihood. Unable to say no, Rudy accepts and begins a painfully awkward love triangle.

That our charming protagonist makes cowardly decisions is a boon to Música. It provides the romantic comedy an advanced edge, just like the second season of Love Life. However with out compelling character growth of both Haley or Isabella, the narrative largely putters alongside on predictable routes. There are totally different eventualities, like conversations between Rudy and his food-truck-owning good friend Anwar (J.B. Smoove) or his puppet exhibits, which add welcome humor. However they can also come off feeling like filler when not supported by the sorts of scenes that enliven the love triangle.

When Isabella, a personality whose complexity the movie teases however doesn’t all the time decide to, provides extra of herself, it elevates her reference to Rudy and takes Música past the clichéd boy-meets-girl story. Their conversations form our understanding of each characters’ respective personalties, how they’re formed by Brazil and fortified by The Ironbound. In addition they replicate a shared mission of appreciating heritage with out abandoning an opportunity to type new traditions.