‘Rainbow’: a psychedelic journey

It’s been six years since Paco León directed “Kiki, love is made”, a commissioned work that ended up becoming his own and with which he demonstrated his value as a director after his diptych ‘Carmina’. After focusing on his acting career, with the interlude that was the acclaimed “Arde Madrid” series for Movistar, the Sevillian returns with what should be his riskiest bet to date, ‘Rainbow’, which reaches commercial theaters in a limited number after its premiere in the Official Section, out of competition, of the 70th San Sebastian Film Festivalbefore landing on Netflix on September 30th.

“Rainbow” is a remake of “The Wizard of Oz”, L. Frank Baum’s classic for children, made internationally popular thanks to the iconic 1939 film, directed by Victor Fleming and starring Judy Garland transformed into the emblematic Dorothy, becoming an icon of the LGBT movement. So, it’s no surprise that León is betting on a more kitschy, queer, fluid and aesthetically bold version. Yes, on a visual level the director, who signs the screenplay together with Javier Gullón, shows a good sense of taste, eclectic and lively.

Also It was seen that León enjoyed filming like a dwarf, that the actors had full creative freedom, which perfectly dominates party scenes and that its reinterpretation of Baum’s classic could well lend itself to a vindictive message about diversity, believing in oneself and having the license to have a firecracker view. In fact, this approach is not only glamorous and bold, but completely logical in Paco León’s evolution as a director.

However, ‘Rainbow ‘has a serious problem … a story that ends up making no sense and that is sacrificed in search of sequences with which León tries to sympathize with generation Z based on moments more worthy of Instagram or TikTok than a movie. Add to this that her approach is deeply weak, in this version Dorothy is Dora (played by Dora Postigo, daughter of the late Bimba Bosé and the producer and musician Diego Postigo) and she is a young suburban woman who leaves her family home. , where he lives with a toxic father, to find his mother, who disappeared years ago.

A party that leaves a bad hangover

The problem is that, in the end, Dora doesn’t know what she wants to find and it seems like Paco León doesn’t know either. When the characters of the novel are reconverted, the scarecrow becomes a boy exploited to free himself from his chains; the tin man becomes a depressed man with a tendency to form vicious circles and the lion is a young African who is rejected for his homosexuality. It is added that the two witches become a lesbian couple, formed by veterans Carmen Maura and Carmen Machi. Yes, it might be original, but There is no point in betting on a diversified approach if you don’t have a more complex, even more acidic or rogue storyline.

“Rainbow” lacks the rogue, satirical touch that León showed so well with “Kiki” or the two “Carmina” films. Yes, it can be argued as a virtue that this is a film from Mars, but even for this you need to have something more than a kitsch aesthetic and have cameos from influencers and people they only know on the Internet. On the other hand, its nature as a streaming premiere could hide a possible commercial (or critical) fiasco, as it has scenes that work their way, worthy of an Instagram story or a short YouTube video.

Paco León defined ‘Rainbow’ as “a road trip” and, maybe you’re right, what it doesn’t say is that the revelry it offers is with alcohol in the pitcher and that, after a painful hangover, the party is quickly forgotten like a menu. An exhibition that reminds us once again of the danger of platforms that grant full creative freedom to their authors.

Note: 4

The best: Paco León proves to have a unique aesthetic taste.

Worse: A chaotic story that ends up being nonsense and that is not justified by its aspiration to an extremely free or hallucinogenic experience.