"This is (not) a movie about The Planets." Thus reads the final part of the commercial synopsis of Saturn Return, winner of the awards for best film, direction and editing at the last Malaga Festival. Right at the beginning of the film, a label warns us that this is a film about the legend of Los Planetas, which seems much more accurate, since the film by Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez is not the classic biopic about a rock band that glorifies the myth or delves deeply into the darkest side of the musician. No, Second Prize is the portrait of a group of friends, musicians, from Granada, who are experiencing a deep crisis before recording their third album. A very specific moment in the life of the band that blew up Spanish indie rock. "The singer" (Daniel Ibáñez), who is supposed to be J, is mired in a deep existential crisis after the departure of the group's bassist, May (Stéphanie Magnin), the only one with a name in the film, and the descent to hell because of the heroine of "The Guitarist" (Cristalino), a transcript by Florent. The comings and goings of this trio of best friends set the pace of the film, a story that navigates through surrealism and the dreamlike but without detaching itself from reality, in a Granada at the end of the 90s, which is exceptionally portrayed by the directors. . The complex and traumatic personal moment that the characters live is mixed with the obligation to record a third album to comply with the record company. And that album will be A week in the engine of a bus, the best album by Los Planetas and one of the best Spanish indie rock albums of all time, a musical masterpiece whose exquisite lyrics are perfectly used throughout the film to take the emotional pulse of the images that are happening.
The project has had a very eventful production, a fact of which there is no trace in the film. First it was going to be directed by Jonás Trueba, who distanced himself from the project due to creative differences. Later, Isaki Lacuesta had to be absent from filming to be with his daughter who was sick with leukemia, who unfortunately ended up passing away, R. I. P. None of this transcends the final result, which is a precise, seamless and very authentic work. The script, written by Lacuesta himself and screenwriter Fernando Navarro, is outstanding. The different points of view with which the story is told manage to give the film a quite special authorial essence. The tone is restrained most of the time, but other times it indulges in the poetic, lysergic and psychedelic, like the band's music.
The performances of the leading trio are all excellent, but if I may, I cannot fail to highlight Cristalino's, it is pure love, all fragility, it eats up the scenes every time it appears on screen.
Saturn Return (yes) is a film about The Planets. But, it is much more. It is a story about friendship told beautifully. It is a pure and simple generational portrait. It is the representation of Granada in one of its most artistically effervescent periods. You don't have to be a fan of Los Planetas, or have heard their songs, to delight in the history, music and images of this great cinematographic work. It is one of the best films in Spanish cinema in recent years.
