Playful and meditative in equal turns, El Planeta is a unique feature film debut - a re-invention of auteur cinema for the Internet age, and the arrival of a Amalia Ulman as a visionary director. It is a timely story about an unconventional millennial family, aspirational consumer culture, capitalism and failure. It feels relevant, fresh and non-conformist in both its content and execution, yet never confrontational.
Amalia's impact in shaping contemporary art and culture is already undeniable. In 2014, Amalia Ulman crossed over from a small community of young "post-Internet" artists to international fame with her project, "Excellences and Perfections." Google the project or Amalia's name and you'll find plenty of documentation. I've followed her artwork since then, and when I saw Amalia was going to make a feature film, of course I was interested in knowing more and got a ticket to see it at Sundance 2021.
I'm not sure exactly what I expected when I started the film, but needless to say I was very impressed. The film is deliberate, slow, punctuated by memorable scenes. You find yourself drawn more and more into the lives of the characters María and Leonor, a mother and daughter facing eviction in Gijón, Asturias. Their everyday lives are rendered timelessly, yet with an eye to contemporary detail - seeing an Odwalla1221 sweater in a movie I almost did a double take, as it was like seeing something from my social media timeline materialize into a cinematic universe.
I don't want to give too much of the film away as it has not been widely released yet, but what I loved most about the film - what inspired me the most - is that the film is made with a profound amount of respect for storytelling and the audience, rather than forcing her way of seeing the world onto us. In this way, El Planeta rewards the viewer with a generosity of spirit. It's a testimony to Amalia's incredible ability to inhabit and work from within different media forms that she was able to take independent cinema on its terms and craft a well-paced, stylish drama as her feature debut. I look forward to seeing what she'll make next!
