When critics talk about a film by a new director, they will use the term “new voice” a lot. What that basically means is that this person’s personality and style infuse the film, in the most delightful way. Musica’s new voice is Rudy Mancuso. Though he’s relatively unknown, hopefully Amazon Prime’s algorithm will push the talented writer/director/actor to new heights, using his literal and figurative voice to bring Musica to the streaming world.
Mancuso essentially plays himself, Rudy here, a senior at an arts university. While working on his big final project, his girlfriend Haley (Francesca Reale) grows tired of his “disappearing” in their conversations, and dumps him. Bummed out from this and his general directionlessness, Rudy goes to the fish market to get food for his mom Maria (Maria Mancuso). There, he gets his bright spot in the form of worker Isabella (Camila Mendes). Drawn to each other, the pair start up a relationship, maybe a little fast for Rudy…because a regretful Haley comes back into the picture soon after.
The closest movie I can think of like Musica is tick…tick…BOOM!, and even that isn’t quite like Musica. The movie will only work if we’re firmly planted in Rudy’s head as he goes about his normal days/relationships. Mancuso does that in the first scene, as a Stomp like situation forms around Rudy and Haley’s conversation in a Newark diner. While Haley’s talking, Mancuso is drawn away, as the sounds of the restaurant immediately start to turn into a song. This little trick Mancuso uses multiple times, to great effect, simply changing location and sound, like public transportation puppet show conversations. But this isn’t a musical: the whole world isn’t going along to Rudy’s beat. That means the audience IS Rudy, trapped between the real world and his world, forever warping and changing. This stylistic choice keeps the movie on its toes, and Mancuso keeps the movie moving at a pretty brisk pace to keep us from asking too many questions.
These artistic choices also help buoy Musica’s pretty straightforward story. We’ve seen the “person has to be in two places at once in a restaurant” scene enough times now, but the “Mancuso filter” gives this old trope some new life, as Rudy finds new ways to mix and liven things up while downing several caipirinhas. Also, Rudy himself is a newish movie character creation: Brazilian American college student obsessed with music doesn’t have a streaming category yet. So even without the “Mancuso filter,” dinner with Haley’s very Caucasian family is a brutally funny delight, as Rudy is more confused/bemused at these privileged douchebags than angry. Camila Mendes helps Musica a lot, giving the movie’s plot one foot on the ground and keeping Mancuso’s brain from floating his story away. Their chemistry is good enough, and Mancuso was nice/smart to give Isabella the upper hand in this relationship, she being the more mature one in the story. So even though the film is at times a romcom to keep the plot going, it’s only about 1/3 of Musica. Really, this is a story about a young man living in arrested development, seeing how and when he’s going to be pulled out of it.
I wish my brain had some awesome quirk like Rudy Mancuso. I would use that as an excuse to get out of everything. If a conversation’s getting boring at a party? Oh, sorry, I’m working on something and I have to write it down. Or sorry mom, I was listening, but I couldn’t help but hear that tea pot with The Crown turn into musical gold I can’t unhear in my head.