Day: May 15, 2024

Gloria!


Gloria! was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the North American premiere of this film! You can see my interview with Margherita Vicario, the director/writer, here

Let’s talk about Gloria. Well, Gloria isn’t a character, so we can’t. It is however a common name/word used in religious songs, especially in Italian. You know, Gloria in Excelsis Deo? It means Glory really, but Gloria is also a nice name.

Instead we will talk about Lucia (Carlotta Gamba), who is at a school for choir music training, somewhere in Italy, in the 18th century. Like a lot of girls brought to the school, she was an orphan and so it is also an orphanage, bringing these girls to devout religion but also providing them food, shelter, and a service they can give back to their community. Lucia is also mute! That doesn’t really affect her hearing at all though, so she can still play instruments, she just cannot sing.

Oh, let me reiterate. Lucia can HEAR really well. In fact, she can imagine music all around her, in the everyday mendacity of life. Mr. Music would be so impressed. She also knows music can better than how it is currently presented, slow and dead. It can be upbeat, it can be fresh, it can have many different instruments providing different elements, and yes, even the human voice can be used to greater lengths.

But she is a woman, in a man’s world, and because this is holy music, it has to be done a SPECIFIC way. But with an upcoming visit by the Pope, yes, THE Pope, she thinks it is time to rebel, to spread new music, and to present to his greatest holiness what music could really be like.

Also starring Maria Vittoria Dallasta, Galatéa Bellugi, Veronica Lucchesi, Sara Mafodda, Paolo Rossi, and Elio.

orchaestra
Get up loser, we are going to pop-ify these sounds.
Gloria is such a cute movie! Rahhh! And I just need that to be known.

It looks amazing, from the costumes, the set, and the cameras used. It is portraying a dull religious school, but we can still see color when its needed, even in the darkest of moments for the characters, who are going to fight to overcome whats shackling them down. Overcome what? We are going to fight the patriarchy! And hell, even fight the papacy too! Men telling women what to do, how to think, what is right and wrong, its gone now! Let them live their lives!

Okay, yes, this is a work of fiction, and Lucia herself is not based on a person from history. And it is very unlikely that the sort of songs made in this movie, would have been made 3 to 400 years ago. But that is okay, because the point really is that these women were creative, and were not able to express their creativity. And apparently, thanks to some Napoleon nonsense at some point, works that were created by these women composers became lost. At the end we find out this film is dedicated to those women, who likely had a voice, but it was silenced at some point and aren’t people in the history books as a result.

That is a good enough cause for me.

Like I said, it is a very great looking film. But also, it is just fun. It is a good time to be had, while shining light on a real unspoken part of history. It is silly, it is modern, but the cast of characters feel distinct enough and well. They just want to have fun.

Gloria! is fun.

3 out of 4.

Excursion


Excursion was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Tuesday, May 14th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Iman (Asja Zara Lagumdzija) is just a girl, trying to do her best in upper middle school, whatever grade that is officially I am not sure. Just the last one of the middle school in that country. Every year the kids get to go on an excursion to another country or area, and it is a long process to figure out. They have parental involvement, a lot of politics, and a lot of worries about the price. Because sure, they could go somewhere fancy, but if the whole class cant go because its too expensive, then maybe it shouldn’t be a trip.

They mostly want to go to Italy, despite the fact that it is expensive. They are worried about going to a poorer country and getting taken advantage of, or in trouble.

But back to Iman. She is a smart girl, she studies and gets As, and helps her bestie cheat. What a friend. During a game of truth or dare, she agrees with a question that, according to another boy, they had sex. Yes of course this is true. Shocking to everyone. But it is true! This lie of course, has to be believed, so it leads to more and more lies, making things more uncomfortable, until the obvious starts to spill over.

Also starring Maja Izetbegovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Mediha Musliovic, and Nadja Spaho.

girlsroom
Just kids lying and being kids I guess.
Excursion is a very tame film. Fun fact, by the end, you won’t see the excursion happen. That isn’t like half of the film, it is zero of the film. But the discussion of said trip is a large portion of the plot, usually involved with just parents and teachers, but it pads this movies run time. It is barely over 90 minutes, and it really needs that padding.

The films other plot, about Iman’s lies are just…disappointing. This giant blow up never really occurs either. People hear the rumors and spread them as kids. There was talk of an abortion occurring. Some of the teachers also become aware of it. But nothing ever really boils over into the “this is too much” area of the film that one hopes this would build up to!

In fact, this is an independent film that really feels like it had the idea for the story, but not the idea on how to end said story. Too much is left unresolved, and this overall just feels like a bigger waste of my time. The story is unexciting, and neither of the main plot points are resolved. It was just a small look into the life of this group of kids. And sure, films like that exist. But it is wild how many independent films just decide they can end it suddenly and say that is what they were going for. At some point, you have to call it out, and that is what I am doing for Excursion here.

A waste of time, a story that doesn’t live up to its plot outline, or its title.

1 out of 4.