Johanne Sacreblu: Ahora es más personal

It is surprising that a project with very low resources and poor quality has gained enough support to warrant a sequel. Camila Aurora did not hesitate to make a sequel that completes the story of Johanne Sacreblu. Although it still suffers from poor quality, bad acting, and a ridiculous story, they managed to improve the concept that was presented in the short film a bit. The plot is equally ridiculous, but it is a bit more stable and without many holes like in the previous installment. The idea that Johanne has to search for a sacred bread is quite silly, and the plot itself doesn't make much sense. Fortunately, they managed to tell a story that follows a straight line and there are fewer random situations. The flaws are compensated by the jokes and the comedy, which feels a bit better compared to the previous film. Here there are more references to Emilia Pérez made in the form of jokes, which clearly highlight the influence that Jacques Audiard's film had on Johanne Sacreblu. The references are handled in a comedic manner and end up being good jokes. One of those references is used in the backstory of Johanne Sacreblu, where her background is revealed while parodying the idea of the bad man and the good woman. This is something they handled well with comedy, and although the explanation they gave for how the rivalry between the Sacreblu and the Ratatouille started is equally ridiculous, at least they made it seem funny. One of the songs even alludes to two Emilia Pérez songs by mixing the lyrics of El Amor with Mi Camino. They even replicated the much-discussed final scene of Emilia Pérez, but all the references they included made this movie a much more accurate parody of Emilia Pérez. You can also find other elements related to France, such as the inclusion of more mimes, a character referencing Pepe Le Pew, a very probable cameo of Penélope Pussycat, a brief appearance of a female Napoleon Bonaparte, and a bit more involvement of Marie Antoinette's ghost following Johanne. The Pepe Le Pew reference was used to allude to the case where they tried to cancel the character, and the joke they made is very clever. There is an interesting reference to Mortal Kombat in the final battle, which unfortunately was too short. It was curious that in the well-crafted animated sequence that narrates the battle of the European countries with Mexico, Mexicans were portrayed as walking tacos. The character of Rita was even drawn with the most basic features that represent a person from Mexico, which makes the movie offer a good balance between the superficial view of France and the superficial view of Mexico. That helps the dark humor of this movie feel purer because in the previous film it wasn't clear if the intention of the humor was to be offensive. At least in this sequel, the humor is much clearer, although one of the post-credit scenes ruins it when Jacques Audiard is mentioned. It's clear that they didn't overcome the poor reaction Emilia Pérez received and that they still needed to mature. Anyway, it could be said that this movie manages to surpass its predecessor, but it's a shame that the poor production is a limitation. The props are very obvious, just like the makeup and the costumes. The CGI Eiffel Tower that appears at the beginning is already out of context, especially when you can tell it's moving. The forest made with paper figures is also not something that can be taken very seriously, and the portal made with bad CGI even less so. The most ridiculous to the point of being laughable is Johanne's transformation as if she were Hulk. The effort of Camila and her team to make this movie is appreciated, and it's clear that they enjoyed it a lot. If they had had a bigger budget and the opportunity to create a more decent production, this movie would have been better than expected. Johanne Sacreblu: Ahora Es Más Personal is an emerging, modest, and poor film that at least was made with enthusiasm. It may be a bad movie, but at least it was able to leverage its predecessor's potential a bit more. That makes it just a step above the original short film. My final rating for this movie is a 2/10.