After
a nasty divorce that depletes their finances and forces them to keep up with
appearances and lie to save face; Now destitute, daughter Leonor and mother
Maria will do anything to maintain the look of their former lifestyles, all the
while ignoring the impeding consequences of their nefarious actions to uphold
their reputations in modern day Spain.
Director
Amalia Ulman directs and writes a fantastic, slightly absurdist, intentionally
meandering black and white debut comedy, not only about keeping up with appearances
but about what fear of embarrassment does to our potential. Ulman plays the
daughter, Leonor, along side her actually real-life mother (Ale Ulman) playing
the films mother, Maria. El Planeta makes connections between the hatred of the
Royals of Spain by the people of Spain with the wealth disparities and shallow,
close minded notions and gestures of wealth. One avoiding working an every day
job even though they may need to, while telling people you’ve been invited to a
royal event by the Royals, makes a perfect commentary on the influence royals
could have on a public, confusing them into a delusional sense of self.
El
Planeta accurately depicts the misanthropic, mundane escapades of Leonor, a
person in her twenties or thirties trying or pretending to work in a glamorous
field, but not being able to due to her economic reality and therefore lack of
ambition to properly pursue said career, beyond saying it’s what you do it for
a living, or giving potential employers the intention that you live within the
means of working in a highfalutin job field such as celebrity make up design,
while trying to gain free Wi-Fi from a stranger’s modem in the apartment above.
Identically with the films mother character - Maria, who wears the same fur
coat and shades to constantly look expensive while stealing make up, food,
committing fraud and trying on dresses day after day instead of looking for
work at the stores she frequents. Accompanied with a Chinese immigrant
withholding their martial status to live a more fruitful quality of life, while
they’re away from their immediate family in a far away country. Haphazard,
dubious character development such as these are very reminiscent of films like:
Frances Ha (2012), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Parasite (2019) and Farewell
Amour (2020). Where characters go from slightly deceptive to very deceptive
lengths in a mundane reality, to live beyond their means and gain respect they
don’t get due to their social status. With El Planenta, Amalia Ulman creates
these scenarios in spades, having you question Maria and Leonor’s mental health
and raise concerns for their safety, as well as ponder Leonor’s upbringing by
her mother Maria and ultimately Leonor’s faith in Maria as a parent. All the
while laughing at the film’s matter-of-fact, meandering, realistic dark humor,
based on these character’s disturbing yet sad choices, under the axe of our
cold, capitalistic planet.
El
Planeta is definitely one of the best of Sundance 2021 and one of the best,
most unique comedies of 2021, and we’ll surely see Amalia Ulman again as a
comedic and poignant auteur in her own right with whatever her next projects
may be, that I can’t wait to witness. El Planeta is an excellent exercise in
capitalistic struggle and societal pressure, and observational, lay-about,
ignorant Precode era humor, that is rarely done well while touching upon
classic and modern societal everlasting struggles. An absolute must-see comedy.
10/10.
- Maurice Jones
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