Leonor Will Never Die (2022 | Philippines | 101 minutes | Martika Ramirez Escobar)
Leonor had a rich and lustrous career creating films that everyone loved; she brought joy to the masses and herself. Now as an older woman, her career long behind her, she is directionless, forgetful and desperate to be back in that limelight. Reigniting her passions, she begins reworking an old script and while taking a break is hit in the head by a rogue television set from above sending her tumbling into her own mind where her script becomes reality. This is no joyful reunion of cast and creator, most of her work involved gritty backdrops, guns and deadly scuffles. As she tries to navigate this unexpected journey and find safety in a familiar but dangerous world, back on Earth her son Rudy attempts to revive her from her “conscious sleep” as the doctor puts it.
After failing to wake her up, Rudy believes he can bring her back by producing and finishing the film she’d been working on for so long. This is where things start to slip into alternate truths; a plane where you’re not quite sure if the story is in her head or in a middling place between fantasy and the real world. The characters and story slip in and out of Leonora’s fantastical delusions and even into a television set, then back out to the “real” world again. We wander the thin line between confusion and creativity wondering what will happen next. Threading that needle is a difficult task but talented Filipino director Martika Ramirez Escobar has a knack for the bizarre, knowing just where the edge is then jumping head first into its abyss of absurdity where we can’t help but follow. The throwbacks to deliciously terrible 80s action flicks complete with grainy film, unsophisticated special effects, coordinate fighting and lots of fake blood take us back to the days of martial arts films and gang fights where it was just two guys duking it out over either a grudge or a lady (or both). That’s where Leonor’s niche sat firmly planted… and it’s exactly where she wanted to be.
A female-directed film with an endearing yet hard-as-nails older female protagonist had me hooked right off the bat. Drawing from her own experiences (and possibly a bit of fear for her future self?), Escobar opens up Leonor’s reality to us: washed up, left behind, just wanting to experience being alive again surrounded by the characters she’s loved for so many years. It’s disappointing she had to slip into a coma to get there, but no matter how much danger this new world throws at her, we know the underlying current of emotions are excitement, stimulation, even joy; things she hasn’t gotten from the real world in a very long time. With a whole lot of cheek, some broken 4th walls and nods to 80s nostalgia, Leonor Will Never Die is a dark action-comedy that bends reality to its will, and I am so here for it.
Leonor Will Never Die arrives in theaters this Friday 12/2 at Seattle’s Grand Illusion Cinema for a week-long run.