Lila (2014)

Simply A Masterpiece

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"Lila" is a 2014 short film and the most recent credit by writer and director Carlos Lascano from Argentina. However, there is no spoken language in here, so you won't need subtitles. All you here from start to finish with this one is the music and it fits nicely in terms of tone and atmosphere in the film. This is the story of the young woman mentioned in the title (Played by Alma García), who manages to change people's lives somehow with her drawing. She brings happiness to them, but also longing or just fun or somewhat entertaining moments at least. It is as much fun for the audience to watch as it is for Lila. The film is probably 90% live action and 10% animation, so I find it a bit surprising that (according to IMDb) its only awards recognition came from an awards body that focuses on animated (short) films. Oh well, better there than nowhere I guess. I was well-entertained here from start to finish. If there is any criticism, then perhaps that the part about Lila's own life at the very end was not on par with everything before that and it's also a bit of a drastic change because suddenly it is all about the animation there. Anyway, it is nothing bad or anything either and it certainly does not hurt the film as a whole. I must say that the movie definitely reminded me a bit of Amélie meets Almodovar at times. As a whole, the approach and the creative simplicity of it all are working nicely. I recommend the watch. A very chill film too I must say and it lets me hope that Lascano will make more films in the future. The talent here is certainly visible.

Just one more example that you don't need to spend millions to make a true meaningful masterpiece! Of all the fancy high budget films with big name actors it's nice to finally discover a diamond in the rough! I highly recommend this to those of you who haven't completely lost your ability to feel and imagination to escape from a cold, competitive, and confusing world.

The thing about imagination is that it never says "No". Sometimes we use it to change an unbearable reality; add what we want or take away what we don't.. We even may use it to meet people whom we can't see in real life anymore..Lila didn't really like many scenes during her day, so in order to feel better, she used her eyes, imagination, coloring pencils, and sketch to change this reality in her own way. However, she isn't the only who is able to feel her Art; her Art subjects also felt it. They even sometimes, were influenced by the feelings they felt from it, that they changed reality for real. Maybe that's what Art and Films do to us, right? They take us to this different - better - world and make us feel it, and sometimes they act as catalyst to influence how we see and what we do in our lives.

What a wonderful short film. The compassion of creation is manifested and captured in the expression of Alma's enchanting eyes, which seem to change colour and character from one scene to the next. This is a short film, with a simple message so filling the requisite 10 lines will be difficult. The message is simple: Art matters. It can touch you in sublime ways. I found myself gasping at the change of scene, going from a whimsical animation to the embodiment of Divine Feminine as it cuts to the mirror playfulness expressed in a closeup of her eyes.. those eyes, curling and darting with surprise, love, wonder, flirtation, joy, contentment. l'arte dell'amore. Well done.