Category: reviews

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Vivo: A Bittersweet Review

The opening scene in the Netflix animated movie, Vivo, tugged at my heart and sent it soaring. I wasn’t prepared for the flute, the Tres (the guitar-like instrument that is such a key element of Cuban music) and the nostalgic skyline in La Habana with waves crashing on El Malecón and el Capitolio in the background.

Finally, after decades of watching animated films set all over the world, I find this sweet love story set in my own backyard across the miles of the Florida Straits and into that place where love, family, separation, and hope still live.

The story is precious, starring a quirky kinkajou (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and an even quirkier kid (Ynairaly Simo) on a mission to deliver a song from Andres (Juan De Marcos – you’ll know him from Buena Vista Social Club) to his beloved Marta (the iconic Gloria Estefan). It’s a sweet story filled with wonderful music and delightful antics.

I’m not one to care what critics have to say, but on one point I agree: it veers off into Crazy Land for a long stretch in the Everglades, but it picks up again in the neon-lit cityscape of Miami.

The film is fun and great entertainment for the whole family. I adored Gabi’s anthem, “My Own Drum,” which had me dancing in my seat (and singing along with Missy Elliott at the end). Still, it was the Cuban music, the Tres, especially, that thrilled me. And who doesn’t love to hear Gloria Estefan singing in English and then seamlessly switch to Spanish?

Its message of love and family, bound together with the healing and transformative power of music, saves the day, saves Gabi and Vivo, and brings a lost love back to life.

The film’s bittersweet message of loss touched me deeply.

I still haven’t written about the current events in Cuba. To be honest, every time I try, the words fail me. In a way, this charming story and its message has given me some measure of hope. The film focuses on the adventures of Gabi and Vivo, so it doesn’t feature the suffering of the Cuban people under the communist regime, but if you know what you’re seeing, the Tres, a passing reference to “dollars and pesos” and its 60 year separation for Martha and Andres, it gets those elements right. I wept for Marta and Andres and their lost love. I cheered for Gabi and Vivo, who found each other. And I shed more than a tear or two for my Cuba in Gloria Estefan’s theme, “Presente.”

I hope you’ll watch it with your family, and know what it means to be presente, too.

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Review: WW84

Watching Patty Jenkin’s new film, WW84, the latest DC treatment of Wonder Woman, left me nostalgic for my childhood. The opening sequence took me back to the carefree days when I ran through the woods and fields near my home with a pack of neighborhood kids. We were always pretending to be warriors and carried makeshift spears and twine bows with stick arrows. Oh! How eight-year-old me would have loved this movie. Fifty-eight-year-old me adored it.

Little Diana is a spunky self-assured child, but Gal Gadot’s portrayal as the adult Diana brings a charming sweetness and strength to the role that is disarming and brings to life a richness in the character that captures the foundational element of Wonder Woman: love.

I explore the comic book character of Wonder Woman in my book, Super Girls and Halos, because I’m fascinated with her origin story – not just her unusual birth on the island of Amazons, but her creation by William Moulton Marston. Here is a superhero whose superpower is love.

Now let me be clear, Wonder Woman is a badass through and through. A demigod. A warrior. An intelligent woman with physical prowess capable of domination. Instead of leveraging that power for personal gain, she leads with love to help humanity. Wonder Woman’s strength is her femininity, what St. John Paul II calls the genius of women.

In Wonder Woman, Diana Prince take on the enemies of humanity to put an end to war, and we see the great cost of many lives sacrificed, including her love, Steve Trevor. In WW84, the sacrificial nature of love once again saves the day. Set decades after Wonder Woman, WW84 introduces a Diana who is chic and accomplished in the often-times hilarious backdrop of the eccentric fashion of the 80s.

Always ready to help humankind, Wonder Woman finds herself on a quest to reverse the damage brought on by humanity’s selfishness. The world is caught up in the dangerous antics of a villain granting everyone’s deepest-held wishes. Weakened in battle, Wonder Woman’s sensitivity appeals to the villain’s own capacity for love to save the day.

As always in superhero movies, the special effects are spectacular. Some visual gags and 80’s era comic relief play well, too. However, it is the character story arc that continues to draw me in, and I am left wanting more of Diana Prince’s adventures.

Oh! Don’t forget to watch the credits!

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Review: Fatima

Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia

Marco Pontecorvo’s film, Fatima, tells the story of three Portuguese children who, over the course of many months in 1917, encounter the Angel of Peace and the Blessed Virgin Mary in visions. These visions change them, their families, and ultimately, the world.

The cinematography is beautiful, the visions striking, but it is the relationships that are most engaging.

Lucia’s mother, pious and generous, grieves for her son away at war, creating a family dynamic heart-wrenching to watch. Pilgrims overrun the fields and ruin crops. The town leadership, powerless to stop the crowds coming to see the young visionaries, imprison the children to get them to recant.

The children, 10-year old Lucia and her younger cousins, Jacinta and Francisco, refuse the appeals of their parents, their priest, and finally, the strong arming of civil authorities that bring in a psychiatrist to no avail. The strength of their conviction — their obedience to the Blessed Mother’s urging to pray the rosary fervently — soon has the whole town on their knees in prayer.

The conceit to tell the story in flashback as a mature Sister Lucia converses with a writer grounds the events surrounding these visions in contemporary times. While I was not alive at the time of the Miracle of the Sun. I was alive during the last years of Sister Lucia’s life. Perhaps these glimpses of the older Lucia move the audience to accept — to believe — the story, but one need only to see how the townspeople and subsequently the thousands of pilgrims respond to the children.

Lucia understands the gravity of the Blessed Mother’s message and displays a maturity beyond her years. Sweet Jacinta joyfully shares Mary’s messages, but it is in Francisco that I find a connection. He sees what is happening and yearns to hear — to fully understand — but can’t. Don’t we all feel like that sometimes?

I’m also moved by the desperation of the people who descend upon this small village and the children, touching them, showing them mementos of their loved ones. In such desperate times as war, these people find hope in the innocence of children and the powerful messages from the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Fatima has inspired me to read more about the young saints, and the message from Fatima, and to pray my rosary more fervently.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us! Amen.

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