20/09/2022 - Paco León has had a great time filming this colourful, lively and humorous film, the audience however does not enjoy watching it in the same way

Paco León, an actor with great charisma and superpowers on social media, loves to do covers. In Kiki, Love to Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paco León
film profile] he recreated a version of an Australian film, and in his new work he reinterprets, from his uninhibited, plurisexual and generous perspective, the Wizard of Oz, a Hollywood classic that served, among many other things, to turn the friends of Dorothy into icons of the LGBTQI+ collective.

Rainbow [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which premiered at the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, was one of the screenings at the Velodrome (a popular section in a theatre with seating for almost 3,000 spectators), and contains, among many other elements, its corresponding queer vindication. This is one of its few assets, because, in general, the Seville filmmaker's fourth feature causes confusion and, the worst thing that can happen to a project that is supposed to be fun: boredom.

But they don't seem to have been bored on the set, as it even contains a party that concludes a plot that, like its protagonist, never quite finds its way, wandering between road movie, Almodovarian delirium and stupefying homage. All this from the young Dora Postigo, daughter of the late Bimba Bosé (with whom she bears a physical resemblance) and producer Diego Postigo, who has yet to demonstrate the talent in which León has blindly placed his trust.

It is supported by two great Spanish Carmens: Carmen Maura and Carmen Machi, who here embody the witches of the original revisited, but in a lesbian and bickering mode reminiscent of the pathetic ladies of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? There are also, of course, the friends that Dora makes on her flight to who knows where: a simpleton whom she frees from his chains, a suicidal procrastinator and an African discriminated against by his brother. With them, wearing glittery platforms and taking hallucinogenic substances, she will follow a path of crazy yellow lines that leads to a Capital City with the skyline of Benidorm.

Rainbow therefore has enough elements to excite, make you laugh, surprise and provide a buzz... but it almost never manages to do so, as it neither works as an absurd comedy nor as a musical firecracker. Nor is it full of surprises (from the director's mother, Carmina, seen in his first two films, to Samantha Hudson). But León has had all the freedom in the world (and the budget) to shoot what he wanted, a film that is much more quickly forgotten than it is hard to watch. Perhaps that was his objective, and we should not ask any more from him. Like any party, it does not leave too much of a hangover. Paco did warn in his presentation: "This is a road trip."

Rainbow, scripted by León and Javier Gullón, is a film from Telecinco Cinema, Andy Joke and Colosé Producciones for Netflix. It will be released in Spanish cinemas on 23rd September and on the platform on 30th September.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)