Throw the Wizard of Oz in the blender with films by Pedro Almodóvar and youhave Rainbow, the new film from Spanish actor and director Paco León. TheNetflix film is also full of references to rock musicals like Pink Floyd: TheWall, magic-realistic fantasies, road trip sagas and surreal drama. It seemslike a risky experiment for director/co-writer Paco León to give such asuccessful musical a new impulse. But he succeeds wonderfully in this film,which has been on Netflix and in Spanish cinemas since the end of September2022. The glossy Spain magazine ESPANJE! wrote a review. The trailer can beseen at the bottom of this article.
The fact that the film is a joy to watch is partly due to the great acting ofone of the old muses of Almodóvar, the now 77-year-old Spanish actress CarmenMaura. Carmen Machi, who we saw in the Netflix comedy ‘Amor de madre’ earlierin 2022, is also doing well. But it’s all about Dora, played masterfully bythe very young 18-year-old actress and singer Dora Postigo.
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In the film, Dora celebrates her 16th birthday. She eats cake with her father,who raised her on his own as the storm rages around their house. When she asksabout her mother and understands that she is still alive, she runs away fromhome with her dog Toto as the tornado seems to swallow everything. Fate bringsDora to Coco (Carmen Maura), an annoying woman whose husband runs a fashionempire, and her sister Maribel (Carmen Machi), who claims to be Dora’smaternal grandmother. The old man dies and a gun is fired, or maybe not inthat order, because what is truth?
Coco immediately points to Dora as the killer in order not to go to jail andto secure the inheritance. It is of course a lie. But Dora runs away anyway.Along the way, she meets the foolish and gullible Muñeco (brilliantly playedby Ayax Pedrosa) who works chained on a scrap yard. She frees him and theymove on together. Then they meet José Luis (Luis Bermejo) who is about tocommit suicide on the edge of a cliff. He also joins them. Together they meetAkin (Wekafore Jibril) at a wild party. After being attacked by his ownbrother for being gay, he too decides to join Dora and her friends on amagical road trip.
You can see The Wizard of Oz in everything. But what was that again? In 1900,The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a book by the American author Frank L. Baum, waspublished. The story became world famous when it was made into a movie in1939. The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, was full of hits such as Overthe Rainbow, which is also what the title of this Netflix film refers to.Baum’s book has been copied, imitated and parsed endlessly. The best-knownversion is probably The Wiz, with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson from 1978.Netflix’s revival of this is not very original, but the film itself is. Thereare many references to the earlier versions. We see the lion again and evenMichael Jackson comes along on a cloud. Also the scarecrow without a brain andthe tin man without a heart are easy to recognize.
Although Rainbow is not a musical, music does play a major role in the film,as you can see from this soundtrack. There are lots of musical interludes andfreaky dance scenes. The moments of ecstasy offer Dora and her friends who areweighed down by the judgments of others a way out of the hard daily life. Inthe end, fate seems to favor Dora, but she may be too fond of the life she hadwith her new friends or choose another truth. A wonderful film for a longautumn or winter evening. And Dora just might be the next Carmen Maura. What atalent!
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