Netflix movie Rainbow puts Spanish pop star Dora Postigo somewhere over that thing in the title, this being an almost-musical inspired by, mirroring and/or borrowing heavily from The Wizard of Oz. The film is a hybrid of trippy rock-musical-ish things like Pink Floyd: The Wall, magical-realism fantasies, road-trip sagas and surrealist drama. It feels like a risky experiment for director/co-writer Paco Leon (co-writing with Javier Gullon) – but maybe it’ll pay off.
RAINBOW: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Sometimes everything falls into sync for Dora (Postigo). She walks through town and the music she hears unites the steps and movements and work of everyone around her. It’s her 16th birthday and to celebrate, she eats cake with her dad, who raised her single-handed since she was a baby. They live in a neat little country house that looks like it could be swept up by a tornado when a storm whips up – instead, Dora asks about her mother, who she never met, and ends up sad and disillusioned and angry with her father, and then walking away with her little dog Toto as a twister spins in the background. Her quest: Find her mother.
Fate or whatever it might be puts Dora in the company of Coco (Carmen Maura), a nasty and abusive woman whose husband is the king of a fashion fortune, and her sister Maribel (Carmen Machi) – witchy vibes from those two, for sure, except Maribel claims to be Dora’s maternal grandmother. The old man dies and a gun goes off, or maybe not quite in that order, who can tell, he was in a precarious state before the bullet was fired, and Coco quickly points to Dora as the murderer. It’s a lie, of course. But Dora goes on the run anyway. She meets Muneco (Ayax Pedrosa) in a junkyard, acting like a carefree fool. He joins her. They meet Jose Luis (Luis Bermejo) on a cliff edge, contemplating a fatal jump. He joins them. They meet Akin (Wekafore Jibril) at a party, where he’s nearly beaten by his own brother for being openly queer. He joins them.
It’s but a matter of time before they’re all high on windshield washer fluid and seeing Michael Jackson flying through space on the back of a giant manta ray, and following a yellow brick road, destination: Capital City, where Dora’s mother supposedly lives. It’s worth noting that Muneco makes a comment about his missing heart, that Jose Luis has a prosthetic leg and Akin eventually exhibits some serious big-cat tendencies. There are sudden bursts of song here and there: “Lately, music’s been doing something weird to me,” Dora admits. Meanwhile, Coco and Maribel quarrel. Coco reveals she’s pregnant, which is bonkers, because she’s 80 years old. Don’t worry, this will all come together eventually, sort of.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Rainbow is The Wizard of Oz via Wild at Heart with bits reminiscent of the cut-to-the-beat fodder of Baby Driver, Pedro Almodovar’s queer and feminist flourishes, and Sia-directed mega-failure Music.
Performance Worth Watching: Lots of thin characters here, but Jibril enjoys a standout moment in a quiet, understated moment with Postigo in which he delivers the line…
Memorable Dialogue: “You know what’s more powerful than fear? Curiosity.” – Akin
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Hang in there, and Rainbow’s final act finally offers an ah-HA moment in which a few oddly disparate plot gears click into place. It arrives better late than never, but still late. The film moves forward with a strange push-pull rhythm, where it holds us at arm’s length with heavily symbolic surreality and draws us in with tender, vulnerable moments. It might function better with a more charismatic lead character; the push-pull dynamic also applies to Dora, a mostly passive presence to whom many things simply happen, except when the plot needs a nudge forward, and she presses the gas and reminds us that she’s trying to find her mother. Maybe a more charismatic performance might’ve drawn the film’s myriad tonal and visual elements together; maybe it’s too big an ask for a young talent headlining her first film – or maybe for anyone.
Yet the movie shows bursts of true inspiration – at its best, it’s a colorful, multicultural celebration with dynamically directed musical and fantasy sequences. And like Oz, it’s a coming-of-age story with a few keen observations about youth and identity. One key moment finds Dora learning from “good witch” Maribel that growing up occurs when one learns to live with all the terrible things in the world. That includes the realization that some questions you have won’t, and can’t, be answered. This movie prompts more than a few of those, for better or worse. Its mysteries and curiosities, its wonderments and bafflements, show an openness to experience and experimentation that’s admirable, if not always functional.
Our Call: Rainbow boasts enough compelling and creative pieces and parts to merit a recommendation, even if they don’t quite come together as a whole. So STREAM IT, but know what you’re getting into first.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.