#magic-realism

#magic-realism

It’s set in the early 1980s, in a mining town on the dusty edge of nowhere where a ramshackle establishment, something like a bordello in a spaghetti western, is run by a small LGBTQ+ community. By day, they serve up food to worn-out, dust-covered miners; by night, cabaret is performed in drag. The club is also raising a child, 11-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortes), who was abandoned on the doorstep as a baby (possibly by parents who saw how well the club looks after its own).

Maryna, the main heroine of Twenty One, has only one wish that her soldier husband Petro comes back alive. She frantically raises tens of thousands of dollars online to buy drones, weapons and power generators for the front line.

To call A Big Bold Beautiful Journey a discount version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would be giving it way too much credit. First of all, this new film, written by Seth Reiss and directed by Kogonada, absolutely cost a lot more. Second, its main characters, David and Sarah, are nowhere near as tangible as Joel and Clementine, the hapless lovers in the 2004 Michel Gondry classic.