luca south movie review

Pixar’s “Luca,” an Italian-set animated fairy tale concerning two young sea monsters exploring an unknown human world, offers the studio’s hallmark visual splendor, yet fails to venture outside of safe waters. After story artist credits on big-time Pixar titles like “ Ratatouille ” and “ Coco ,” “Luca” serves as Enrico Casarosa ’s first time in the director’s chair. Borrowing elements from “ Finding Nemo ” and “ The Little Mermaid ,” Casarosa’s film follows two young Italian sea “monsters,” Luca ( Jacob Tremblay ) and Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ). The former spends his days shepherding the little fish populating his seabed village away from fishing boats. But at night, as he lies awake in his seaweed bed, he dreams of living on the surface. 

Looming against his desires are his mother ( Maya Rudolph ) and father’s ( Jim Gaffigan ) fear from living by a human, sea-monster-hunting oceanfront village. Nevertheless, dry world affectations fall to the ocean floor: an alarm clock, a playing card, and a wrench. These items draw Luca closer to the surface. As does Alberto, an older, confident amphibian boy who now lives alone in a crumbling castle tower by the beach, and claims his father is temporarily traveling. 

If you’re wondering how these creatures with fins, scales, and tails can could live on among humans without being discovered, writers Jesse Andrews (“ Me and Earl and the Dying Girl ”) and Mike Jones (“ Soul ”) have a tidy solution for that. Rather than an evil witch granting him a human appearance, a la “The Little Mermaid,” the sea monsters here can naturally, magically turn mortal. Their ability isn’t controllable, however, as touching water reverts their skin back to their real scaly exterior. But for Luca, such power dangles greater temptation over him.  

Once on dry land, Alberto and Luca form a quick bond. They dream of buying a vespa and traveling the globe together. Their plans nearly come to a halt, however, when Luca’s frightful parents threaten to make him live his oddball Uncle Ugo ( Sacha Baron Cohen , essentially using his Borat voice in a fish) in the trenches. Instead, Luca runs away with Alberto to the town of Portorosso. There, they come across Giulia ( Emma Berman ), a red-headed, independently minded tomboy with dreams of winning the Portorosso cup—a traditional Italian triathlon consisting of swimming, cycling, and eating pasta—and her one-armed, burly father Massimo ( Marco Barricelli ). In a bid to earn enough money to buy a Vespa, the boys pair with Giulia to win the cup away from the evil five-time champion Ercole Visconti ( Saverio Raimondo ) and his goons while an entire town lays a bounty for sea monsters on their heads.  

The most distinct current coursing through “Luca” is freedom: that’s certainly what the Vespa represents, the ability to be unrestricted not just by sea, but by land too. The other thread winding around the folklorish narrative, however, is identity, or the people who truly are behind our public faces. The villainous Ercole is initially and seemingly well-loved, as though ripped from an Italian magazine. We soon discover that his love, somewhat like Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast” (another Disney flick attuned to true identities) actually rules through intimidation. The measured eroding of his care-free, buoyant persona into the narrative’s real monster is predictable yet satisfying. 

The premise of the film also literally disguises Luca and Alberto as humans amongst the fish hunting Portorosso community. But in a deeper sense, many secrets lurk within Alberto, from the whereabouts of his dad to his general knowledge. He portrays himself to Luca as a world-weary traveler, the kind of friend who swears they’ve been to a place a million times, but has only walked past it. He also tells the impressionable Luca how the stars are actually fish swimming in a vast black ocean, that school is unnecessary, and to ignore his “Bruno” (or the tiny scared voice inside your head). His outsized confidence papers over his clear insecurities, especially as Luca first grows closer to Giulia and later thinks for himself. 

Similar to Ercole’s unsurprising turn to villainy, Alberto’s bubbling insecurities imbue the film’s second half with an air of fait accompli and drag the initial animated delight to the deep depths of boredom. Why do another narrative about a girl stuck in the middle of two best friends? Why cast Giulia’s rich arc, a competitive girl pitched as an outsider, to the back seat? Without exploring her narrative, the primary story flows through the motions. And the ending, meant to recover some of her spark, only serves to tether her importance to the two boys. That is, the guys win, but really, we all win.  

“Luca” certainly isn’t without its charms. A visual splendor of blue and orange lighting blankets over the seaside setting, giving the sense that if I were to merely hug the screen it would warm me for days. Minute bits also land, like the fish that make sheep sounds, and the hilarious ways Luca’s mother and father careen through the town trying to find their son, throwing random children in the water. And Dan Rohmer’s propulsive, waltzy score recalls the fairytale vibes he breathed in “ Beasts of the Southern Wild ” on tracks like “ Once There Was A Hushpuppy .” But “Luca” retreads too much well-cultivated ground and reworks so many achingly familiar tropes as its best qualities sink to a murky bottom. While some material may hit with younger audiences, “Luca” makes for Pixar’s least enchanting, least special film yet.    

Available on June 18 on Disney+. 

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the  New York Times ,  IndieWire , and  Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the  Los Angeles Times , and  Rolling Stone  about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

• Jacob Tremblay as Luca Paguro (voice)
• Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto Scorfano (voice)
• Emma Berman as Giulia Marcovaldo (voice)
• Maya Rudolph as Daniela Paguro (voice)
• Jim Gaffigan as Lorenzo Paguro (voice)
• Marco Barricelli as Massimo Marcovaldo (voice)
• Saverio Raimondo as Ercole Visconti (voice)
• Sandy Martin as Grandma Paguro (voice)
• Catherine Apple
• Jason Hudak

Cinematographer

• David Juan Bianchi
• Enrico Casarosa
• Jesse Andrews

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Luca review: Pixar’s Riviera dream is a beautiful evocation of youthful possibility

The animation is a gorgeous, tender-hearted paean to childhood summers spent with sunburnt noses and callused fingers, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Enrico Casarosa. Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Marco Barricelli, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan. Cert PG, 96 mins

Pixar has, since its inception, always been embroiled in a game of one-upmanship with itself. No concept – not death, depression, nor our fundamental sense of purpose – can be too weighty to render in bright colours, moon-eyed cartoon characters, and whimsical microcosms trapped between the planes of reality and imagination. The studio’s latest, Luca , feels like an exception to those rules.

It never asks any tortuous questions of its audience. You don’t have to imagine what you’d tell a dead loved one if you had the chance to see them one last time (a la Onward ). You’re not made to think about what it’s like when you look around and realise you’ve outgrown the life you’ve built for yourself (looking at you, Toy Story 4 ). It is rigorously unphilosophical in a way that proves to be its greatest strength.

Luca is a gorgeous, tender-hearted paean to childhood summers spent with sunburnt noses and calloused fingers, and to the friendships that have helped us discover who we are. At its heart are two boys, Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) – young sea monsters, to be precise – who live off the coast of the Italian Riviera at some point in the middle of the last century. Those on the land have hunted those in the sea for generations. It’s too dangerous to breach the surface, or so Luca’s parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) say.

Their son prides himself on being an obedient child, so he collects his dinglehoppers, mopes around with his flock of fishy pets, and dreams of being where the people are. Then, Alberto appears – the plucky one, who says “Silenzio, Bruno” to his all his fears. It’s one of the many cobbled-together Italian phrases that he repeats without much care for the meaning. Together, the boys explore all the small joys of human existence. Director Enrico Casarosa, whose previous work includes the Oscar-nominated short La Luna , drew heavily from his own youth spent in Genoa, where he became close friends with an Alberto, who was just as rebellious as his onscreen counterpart.

His film is refracted through those golden memories – of cobbled streets, green hills, chiselled cliffs, cold gelato, old Vespas, and plates full of trenette al pesto. Even the animation style feels more deliberately childlike than usual. The edges are softer, while the palette is vibrant and relatively simple. There’s even a tactile quality to it all that feels vaguely reminiscent of claymation, particularly Claude Barras’s 2016 film My Life as a Courgette , which similarly grounds its story in a child’s point of view.

Luca discovers that sea monsters can adopt human guises whenever they leave the water – in shimmering transformations that are technically complex to animate but look as natural and effortless as can be. It’s in the nearby town of Portorosso that they meet Giulia (Emma Berman, the newcomer in this universally bright and brilliant cast), who’s eager to curb the ego of local snob Ercole (Saverio Raimondo) by winning the town’s yearly triathlon. Ercole hasn’t taken kindly to Luca and Alberto, two outsiders he views only as “vagrants”.

The screenplay, by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones, serves as a kind of all-purpose allegory, where audiences are free to narrow in on its queer subtext, its rebuke of xenophobia, or its triumph against any facet of small-mindedness. What’s important is the way the film gently unpacks how prejudice fortifies itself when it spreads unquestioned across generations. The pleasure of Luca lies less in its intellectual takeaways, than in the profound sensations that it stirs up. It’s a beautiful evocation of youthful possibility – of the sun beating down, the wind in your hair, and a road in front of you that feels as if it may never reach its end.

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Review: ‘Luca’ is Pixar, Italian style — and one of the studio’s loveliest movies in years

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The key theme of “Luca,” Pixar’s funny and enchanting new feature, is the acquisition of knowledge — and the realization of how liberating, if painful, that knowledge can be. The charming insight of this movie, directed by Enrico Casarosa from a script by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones, is that nearly everyone has something to learn. Luca (Jacob Tremblay), a kid who finds himself in a strange new land, must master its mystifying rules and traditions to survive. He has an impetuous friend, Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), whose know-it-all swagger is something of a put-on: Like Luca, he’s lonely and adrift in a world that turns out to be bigger, scarier and more wondrous than either of them could have imagined.

For their part, the animators at Pixar have imagined that world with customary ingenuity and bright-hued splendor, which makes it something of a shame that most audiences will have to watch the movie on Disney+. (It’s playing an exclusive June 18-24 engagement at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.) The filmmakers’ most exquisite visual creation here is Portorosso, a fictional village on the Italian Riviera presumably not far from Genoa, Casarosa’s birth city, which inspired his 2011 Pixar short, “La Luna.” In the director’s hands, Portorosso plays host to a parade of well-worn but lovingly deployed cultural clichés. The townsfolk navigate the sloped, cobblestoned streets on bicycles and Vespas and enjoy a diet of gelato, pasta and seafood. And speaking of seafood: The fishermen who trawl the surrounding waters always do so with harpoons at the ready, lest they encounter one of the fearsome sea monsters rumored to dwell just offshore.

The movie confirms and debunks those rumors in the opening minutes, plunging beneath the surface and into a neighborhood of underwater dwellers whose webbed and scaly humanoid bodies might well seem fearsome at first glance. But within seconds of meeting Luca — whose natural curiosity spurs varying degrees of protectiveness from his worried mom (Maya Rudolph), absent-minded dad (Jim Gaffigan) and slyly antiauthorian grandma (Sandy Martin) — it’s clear that there’s nothing remotely monstrous about him or the mildly cloying, sometimes hilarious family sitcom he initially seems to be inhabiting.

Fortunately, “Luca” enters brighter, bolder territory at precisely the moment Luca himself does. In a scene that brings to mind Pinocchio experiencing his first moments of sentience or Ariel testing out her new legs, Luca swims to the surface and discovers a world of wonderment, including the wonderment of his own body. Outside his aquatic habitat, his scales, fins and tail magically vanish and he takes on human form. Every sea creature like him possesses these adaptive powers of disguise, including his new buddy, Alberto, who’s been living above the surface for a while and gives Luca a crash course on ambulatory movement, direct sunlight and other dry-land phenomena.

That makes “Luca” a fish-out-of-water comedy in the most literal sense, governed in the classic Pixar tradition by whimsical yet rigorously observed ground rules. A splash of water will temporarily restore Luca and Alberto (or parts of them) to their underwater forms — a shapeshifting conceit that allows for a lot of deftly timed, seamlessly visualized slapstick mischief. Early on, at least, the two friends have little to fear as they run around a deserted isle, basking in the sunshine and dreaming of future adventures on the open road. Only when their curiosity gets the better of them do they muster the courage to sneak into Portorosso, risking exposure and even death at the hands of locals who are more sea-fearing than seafaring.

Various farcical complications ensue, some of them cutely contrived but all of them deftly worked out, and enacted by a winning array of supporting players. These include a gruff but hospitable fisherman, Massimo (Marco Barricelli), and his plucky young daughter, Giulia (Emma Berman), who persuades Luca and Alberto to join her team in the local triathlon. That contest, whose events include swimming, biking and (of course) pasta eating, provides “Luca” with a conventionally sturdy narrative structure and an eminently hissable villain named Ercole (Saverio Raimondo).

Ercole’s last name is Visconti, one of countless movie allusions the filmmakers have tucked into the margins of the frame, most of which — the town’s sly nod to Hayao Miyazaki’s “Porco Rosso” aside — will prove catnip for lovers of Italian cinema in particular. There’s a boat named Gelsomina , a likeness of Marcello Mastroianni and a whole subplot devoted to fetishizing the Vespa, burnishing a vehicular-cinematic legacy that already includes “Roman Holiday” and “La Dolce Vita.” And those are just the explicit, deliberate references. When the trailer for “Luca” dropped months ago, more than a few wondered if Pixar had made a stealth PG-rated riff on “Call Me by Your Name,” Luca (!) Guadagnino’s drama about the pleasures of first love and the lush Italian countryside.

They have and they haven’t. Like most kid-centric studio animation, “Luca” has little time for romance and no room for sexuality. Luca and Alberto’s bond, though full of intense feeling and subject to darker undercurrents of jealousy and betrayal, is as platonic (if not quite as memorably cheeky) as the odd-couple pairings of Buzz and Woody, Marlin and Dory. And yet the specific implications of Luca and Alberto’s journey, which forces them to hide their true identities from a world that fears and condemns any kind of otherness, are as clear as water — too clear, really, even to be classified as subtext. “Luca” is about the thrill and the difficulty of living transparently — and the consolations that friendship, kindness and decency can provide against the forces of ignorance and violence.

Liberating oneself from those forces is a matter of individual and collective responsibility, and “Luca” is nuanced enough to understand that everyone shoulders that responsibility differently. Luca’s mom and dad, voiced by Rudolph and Gaffigan as lovably bumbling helicopter parents, must let go and loosen up, but their instinctive caution is hardly misplaced. Alberto’s stubborn devil-may-care attitude offers an admirable corrective, but that fearlessness is shown to mask a deeper sort of denial, an insularity that refuses to consider the full scope of the world’s possibilities. What makes Luca this story’s namesake hero is that he’s able to absorb the best of what his friends and family pour into him; though small and lean (and sometimes blue and green), he stands at the point where their best instincts and deepest desires converge.

By the same token, “Luca” the movie may look slight or modest compared with its more extravagant Pixar forebears; certainly it lacks the grand metaphysical ambitions of the Oscar-winning “Soul” (whose director, Pete Docter, is an executive producer here). But that may explain why it ultimately feels like the defter, more surefooted film, and one whose subtle depths and lingering emotions belie the diminished platform to which it’s essentially been relegated. “Luca” is big in all the ways that count; it’s the screens that got small.

Rated: PG, for rude humor, language, some thematic elements and brief violence Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Playing: Starts June 18, El Capitan, Hollywood; also on Disney+

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On the Italian Riviera, an unlikely but strong friendship grows between a human being and a sea monster disguised as a human. On the Italian Riviera, an unlikely but strong friendship grows between a human being and a sea monster disguised as a human. On the Italian Riviera, an unlikely but strong friendship grows between a human being and a sea monster disguised as a human.

• Enrico Casarosa
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• 838 User reviews
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• Luca Paguro

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• Trivia Portorosso can be seen as an advertisement on a travel agency window in Pixar's previous film Soul (2020) .
• Goofs Daniela and Lorenzo are trying to find Luca to avoid he could be exposed, and they do this by splashing everyone they suspect is him with water. They probably didn't think this through because if they actually succeeded, Luca would end up exposed in front of everyone.

Alberto Scorfano : Silenzio Bruno.

• Crazy credits In a post-credits scene, Ugo talks to a stray goatfish about how great his life is in the depths of the ocean.
• Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: The Dance of Pixar's Italy (2020)
• Soundtracks Un bacio a mezzanotte Written by Sandro Giovannini , Pietro Garinei , Gorni Kramer Performed by Quartetto Cetra Courtesy of Warner Music Italy Srl, a Warner Music Group Company By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

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Luca review: Pixar film is a sweet Italian passport

Luca (streaming on Disney+ today) is small-fry Pixar, a sunny Mediterranean trifle set in a postcard Italian village by the sea. But it's a winning one, too: the tenderhearted tale of a blue-gilled fish-boy who dreams of dry land, and all the things that human boys there get to do. (Ride Vespas, eat gelato, go to school.)

All his young life, Luca (voiced by Good Boys ' Jacob Tremblay ) has been taught by his wary parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) to fear the tail-less, two-legged beasts who live above the surface. But curiosity keeps pulling him toward the shore — and a bold fellow fish-boy named Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) gladly drags him the rest of the way. Alberto is a classic Huck Finn type, a freckled swashbuckler and cheerful fount of misinformation. (What are those twinkling lights in the sky? Anchovies! How does gravity work? Walk off that cliff and find out!)

Both boys are entranced by motorbike ads torn from magazines, and soon their attempts to build their own lead them into the nearest town, where the preening local bully (Giacomo Gianniotti) scoffs at their desire to win the annual Portorosso Cup — an extremely Italian triathlon involving a swim race, a pasta-eating contest, and a bicycle route. But the pair find at least a temporary home when a scrappy little girl named Giulia (Emma Berman), who lives nearby with her kindly fisherman father, takes them both in as de facto foster brothers and fellow teammates in the race.

While the boys happily plunge into their new lives above the waterline, they also have to caution against getting wet: Every passing rainstorm or backsplash from a boat means exposing their true fishy nature to the townspeople — including Giulia's boulder-sized dad — who have learned to fear and loathe the sea monsters they've always suspected are lurking offshore, even if they've never found conclusive proof.

Luca's parents, too, won't let their son go lightly; they'll take human form to find him if they have to, and their plan is to send him down to the safety of his uncle (a great, way-too-brief Sacha Baron Cohen cameo) in the deepest trenches of the ocean, where's there's nothing to do but passively inhale whale carcass all day. If they can catch up to him before the race, there will be no Vespa, no land friends, no more learning about astronomy and cats and pesto.

That's truly about all there is to the plot, but Italian-born director Enrico Casarosa, a longtime staffer at Pixar, infuses every frame with a pure kind of love for his home country (he's pretty much the best tourism-board proxy since Luca Guadagnino exported Call Me By Your Name ). The story's bright swirl of Pixar pixie dust, jangle soundtrack, and gentle lessons on accepting otherness and learning to move past fear feel like a temporary passport: a sweetly soulful all-ages dip in la dolce vita. Grade: B+

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Luca Review

There is a superb character in Luca : a deranged, bulbous, cheerful creature from the darkest depths of the ocean, with a mania for rotting fish-flesh and a peculiar speech pattern. “If you leave the mouth open, the whale carcass go in,” this see-through abomination, Uncle Ugo ( Sacha Baron Cohen ), enthuses of his favourite pastime. “It’s good. I recommend it.” Ugo is hilarious, and eccentric, and unexpected. Unfortunately, he’s only on screen for a fleeting few minutes, and in his absence those three qualities are somewhat lacking. Pixar ’s latest is amiable and as bright as a scoop of gelato, easy to like in the moment. But like gelato it also feels a little disposable, short of the spectacle, emotional power and big laughs we’ve come to expect from the studio.

Where The Little Mermaid saw the tuna-y teen give up her tail in order to be with her human love, Luca has a somewhat different twist on the formula. In it, the titular red-eyed, slithery sea monster (voiced by Jacob Tremblay — also, incidentally, in the upcoming reboot of The Little Mermaid ) heads to the surface, upon discovering that he takes on the appearance of a human upon becoming dry, in order to pursue his passion for Vespas. Yes, Vespas, the Italian motorised scooter immortalised by the poster for Roman Holiday and, to a lesser extent, Larry Crowne .

What stops the film short of greatness is a pervading generic quality.

Luca and his new pal Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ) are obsessed by the things, chattering about them, drawing them and even making their own DIY version. And it is refreshing, at least at first, to have the plot pootle along like, well, an Italian motorised scooter, driven by two kids’ sun-baked daydreams. There’s no big villain and no grand quest, despite the movie establishing a race of guppy-ish, fish-herding aquatic beings and a nightmarish-sounding oceanic abyss (never seen on screen). Instead, it’s all about pasta-eating (linguine-animation techniques have come on in leaps and bounds) and beach-based bonding, as the two pretend-humans make friends with a local girl (Emma Berman).

There is quite a bit to like. Brought to life in pastel colours, the town of Portorosso (a nod to Studio Ghibli classic Porco Rosso ) is charming and cosy, like a memory of a holiday you went on when you were eight. There are some pleasing character designs, like the hulking, one-armed fisherman with a belt stuffed full of stabbing implements, or his cat, Machiavelli, both of whom rock impressive moustaches. The odd fantasy sequence, meanwhile, draws winningly on Italian pop-culture and history: a bit with Da Vinci’s flying machine is like Hudson Hawk , but good.

What stops the film short of greatness is a pervading generic quality, particularly disappointing given the filmmakers have cited Fellini and Visconti as influences. Several characters yak in American accents, despite their Italian names. The fish monsters (Ugo aside) lack detail and personality. And while kids might spend the end credits trying to persuade their parents to buy them Vespas, there’s just not that much for grown-ups to latch onto. The big race sequence, when it arrives, has zips and twists in store, but the movie as a whole is oddly sleepy, rolling along pleasantly rather than blazing a trail.

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Luca First Reviews: Decidedly Small-Scale Pixar, but a Triumph Nonetheless

Critics say pixar's latest plays it safer than usual, but it still boasts the spectacular visuals, moving story, and important themes we've come to expect..

TAGGED AS: Disney , Disney Plus , Film , films , movies , Pixar

Pixar is such a quality brand that even its “lesser” products prove to be essential for fans of their animated output. The studio’s latest feature, Luca , is arguably on that lower tier, according to critics — not among Pixar’s best but still better than most alternatives — hence the high Tomatometer score we’ve come to expect, even if there isn’t quite as much of the excitement we usually find in the reviews themselves. Some critics think that it’s too basic, while others believe its lack of complexity is a good thing. And some critics trust that there’s more to the movie than what’s on the surface and it requires repeat viewings to properly appreciate it. Fortunately for anyone hoping to find out, Luca can be watched over and over on Disney+ starting this Friday, June 18.

Here’s what critics are saying about Pixar’s Luca :

How does it compare to other Pixar movies?

Luca leans far lighter in tone and effect, but it’s no less memorable. –  Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Luca  is easily Pixar’s most intimate and laidback effort since Ratatouille. –  Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

The last fifteen minutes of Luca might go down as one of the best endings Pixar has ever produced. –  Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

This might be Pixar’s most childlike and cartoony offering. –  Brian Roan, The Film Stage

More of The Good Dinosaur or Onward level for me, Luca doesn’t quite reach the potential that I have grown to expect from Pixar. –  Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

While some material may hit with younger audiences, Luca makes for Pixar’s least enchanting, least special film yet. –  Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

(Photo by Pixar)

Is it just a simpler Pixar movie than we’re used to?

Luca is nowhere near as complex or deep as other Pixar fare and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

All the more satisfying for its simplicity… the rare Pixar movie that doesn’t feel like it’s been thought to death. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

It is rigorously unphilosophical in a way that proves to be its greatest strength. – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

By going back to basics, we get a real connection with these characters. – Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

Luca  has the look and feel of a more disposable flick, but that’s just on the surface. Beneath, it has the beating heart of a classic family tale in the making. – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

Luca never quite rises beyond being adorable — and hey, these days, adorable is fine —there’s something that just isn’t there. – Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

How are the visuals?

The real magic of  Luca  is its visuals… The richness of the settings in both realms is a constant source of pleasure. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Looking like a hand-drawn fairy tale book come to animated life, Luca  has a captivating visual style with every detail popping. – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

The gorgeous animation of  Luca … is unlike other Pixar movies you’ve seen. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

It’s been a while since they’ve done anything visually distinct and felt vastly different from the rest of their fare. Thankfully, Luca is that breath of fresh air. – Rendy Jones, Rendy Reviews

Pixar’s Luca is proof once again that cartoon movies keep getting better and better with the technology. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

(Photo by )

Does it bring on the usual waterworks?

For much of this film, you’ll be thinking  Luca  will be one of the rare Pixar movies not to make you cry. But… [it] may just leave you in a puddle of tears. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

Yeah, it’s cliched to say “I got misty-eyed in a Pixar movie,” but damn by the way they invest you with the friendship, it’s difficult not to find yourself feeling all warm and fuzzy. – Rendy Jones, Rendy Reviews

Happy tears at how lovely it all is, fortunately, we’re not talking  Toy Story 3  or  Inside Out  trauma here. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

I watched twice and no Inside Out or Up equivalent eye watering… Luca misses the Pixar emotional pull for me. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

Are the characters memorable ?

Giulia’s lovable father Massimo, who instantly goes into the all-time list for best animated dads. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

A translucent anglerfish who Sacha Baron Cohen turns into one of Pixar’s funniest characters in less than two minutes of screen time. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

As always, the Pixar magicians create a wonderfully populated world: I particularly enjoyed the cat character, who stares fixedly as only cats can. – Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

How is the screenplay?

With all of its wit and perfectly interwoven story threads and running gags, [the script] bears all the hallmarks of the best of Pixar’s story trust. – Brian Roan, The Film Stage

The script… like all the best Pixar movies, laces touching life lessons and delicate helpings of sentiment into what’s essentially a caper. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Why do another narrative about a girl stuck in the middle of two best friends?… The primary story flows through the motions. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

Unfortunately, there’s also an episodic, shaggy-dog quality to the plotting that undercuts  Luca’ s emotional beats. – Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

Are its themes up for interpretation ?

This really is a metaphorical film. The sea monsters could be any of us who feel different. Maybe they’re a metaphor for the LGBTQ community. – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies

It’s the kind of metaphor that could be applied to a hundred different situations, but there’s an inherently queer subtext bubbling beneath the surface. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

Very relatable for anyone who is within the LGBTQ+ community… [and also] works for a universal audience who may not identify as LGBTQ+ but can relate to someone who is. – Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

[It] serves as a kind of all-purpose allegory, where audiences are free to narrow in on its queer subtext, its rebuke of xenophobia, or its triumph against any facet of small-mindedness. – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

Its themes of coming-of-age resemble too much of Pixar’s existing catalog — and without a narrative that really makes these themes feel fresh. – Nicole Clark, IGN Movies

It never settles on exactly what it wants to say… It never makes a cohesive, powerful point. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Who is Luca ultimately for?

While Disney and Pixar’s Luca is fun for the whole family, there are some very important messages for children laced throughout the film. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

Luca  is entertainment for all ages as its bright colors and fast-moving action will appeal to the kids while the humor and themes should speak to older viewers. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

While there are a few moments that may be a little tense for younger kids… I recommend Pixar’s Luca for kids as young as 5-6 years old. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

Will it remind us of any other films ?

Luca is the closest that Pixar has ever come to capturing the ineffable spirit of a Studio Ghibli film. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

The smooth, rounded character designs are something more akin to the stop-motion work of Aardman Animations. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

There are obvious shades of  The Little Mermaid  in this fairy tale-like story… but  Luca  plays like a deliberate inversion of that Disney classic. – Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

Luca  is The Little Mermaid without the heart, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs without the laughs. – Roger Moore, Movie Nation

Is it rewatchable?

Expect to visit this destination more than once. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Since it’s so dense and layered, my guess is it’ll only improve, solidify and blossom with multiple viewings… I do want to watch it again. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

It’s also so fabulously summery that you shouldn’t be surprised if you return to it over and over for that sunny feeling. – Deirdre Molumby, entertainment.ie

Will  Luca leave us hopeful for Pixar’s future ?

Luca  should be the model going forward for Pixar, with character driving entertaining stories instead of big concepts that fail to execute and leave you feeling hollow by the end (looking at you  Soul ). – Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

[It] hopefully anticipates how the monolithic animation house will continue to create more intimate fare now that it can use Disney+ as a safety net. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Luca  releases in theaters and streams on Disney+ on June 18, 2021.

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‘Luca’ Review: Pixar’s Refreshing Summer Treat Channels the Spirit of Studio Ghibli

David ehrlich.

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The shortest Pixar movie since “Toy Story,” and one of the few that manages to keep its high-concept premise anchored to a simple human scale, Enrico Casarosa’s “ Luca ” is effectively the Disney+ equivalent (read: non-alcoholic version) of an aperol spritz on a late summer afternoon: sweet, effervescent, and all the more satisfying for its simplicity. At times, “Luca” is so modest, so restrained, so not about sentient action figures or a family of superheroes or the nature of the human soul that it almost doesn’t feel like a Pixar film at all.

This is a Pixar thing to the very last gill, of course, and easily recognized as such; the rounded character design is a dead giveaway even before you get to the paranoid (yet lovingly aloof!) parents and the unbridled joy of discovery. And yet, Casarosa’s feature debut — a modest and personal coming-of-age story about two pre-adolescent fish boys eating pasta and obsessing over a Vespa together during that last perfect moment of childhood — seems to have less in common with the studio’s previous movies than it does the whimsical shorts that often play before them (including Casarosa’s own “La Luna”).

This is the kind of project that Pixar would have been able to produce at any time in its history if not for the pressure of grossing several billion dollars, winning a handful of Oscars, and waging a bloody civil war against the Minions for control of our kids’ imagination. It’s no coincidence, then, that “Luca” is also the closest that Pixar has ever come to capturing the ineffable spirit of a Studio Ghibli film (and not just because Casarosa’s semi-autobiographical tale is set in the seaside Italian town of “Portorosso”). It’s a sorbetto-light homage that reflects Pixar’s own self-confidence, and hopefully anticipates how the monolithic animation house will continue to create more intimate fare now that it can use Disney+ as a safety net.

The first way that “Luca” differentiates itself from the rest of the Pixar canon is with music. The staccato punctuation of Dan Romer’s score immediately distances this from anything the studio has made before (despite a familiar underwater setting). The “Beasts of the Southern Wild” composer summons his signature tremble and swell to set the stage for a movie that eschews the vast adventure of “Finding Nemo” for something more in-the-moment and driven by the capriciousness of youth.

Which isn’t to suggest that Luca Paguro — endearingly voiced by Jacob Tremblay — is a radical change of pace from the typical protagonist of an animated film, because he’s not. A timid but kind-natured kid with big ambitions and overprotective parents, Luca would be impossible to distinguish from the other examples of his archetype if not for the fact that he’s a 13-year-old sea monster who looks like a cross between the creature from “The Shape of Water” and a bar mitzvah. (Imagine a humanoid tadpole with a briny Jew-fro and you’ll be on the right track.)

Luca’s aquatic community is deeply under-realized — an errant mention of a neighboring family is what passes for world-building — but we’re made to understand that his kind have always lived in fear of the “land monsters” on the surface. As Luca’s goofily absent-minded father (Jim Gaffigan) puts it after he spots the underside of a fishing boat: “They’re here to do murders.” He’s not wrong. Luca’s mom ( Maya Rudolph , deservedly the go-to choice for such parts these days) concurs that “the curious fish gets caught,” though she’s a lot more pointed with her fear-mongering. Only Luca’s salty grandma (Sandy Martin), who’s fresh out of shucks to give, seems to recognize the inevitability that he’ll disobey his parents and see what’s happening topside.

And that’s exactly what happens after a chance encounter with a parentless and free-spirited sea monster named Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer , channeling just enough of the untamed energy he brought to “We Are Who We Are”), who drags Luca to shore in order to share the mind-blowing secret that his family has been keeping from him all this time: When sea monsters are dry, they turn into humans. Just like that, Luca’s tiny world expands toward infinity and beyond. He and Alberto are now free to read textbooks, eat spaghetti by the handful, and even compete against the narcissistic local bully Ercole Visconti (Italian comedian Saverio Raimondo, going full Waluigi) in the annual Portorosso Cup triathlon. Win the race, and the fish chums will be able to afford “the greatest thing that humans have ever made” and the magic key that unlocks the world beyond their imaginations: A busted old Vespa. Whatever it takes for Luca to avoid being sent to live in the deep with his demented uncle, a translucent anglerfish who Sacha Baron Cohen turns into one of Pixar’s funniest characters in less than two minutes of screen time.

This might all sound like the recipe for a typical fable about fear of the other, complete with sharp-tipped harpoons and hordes of frightened people chanting “kill the monster!,” but Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones’ lean script is far more interested in freeing its characters from a fear of themselves. While the people of Portorosso have inherited a Loch Ness-like belief in the local sea myths from their parents, and Luca and Alberto spend much of the movie trying to avoid even the tiniest splash of water (lest their skin reveal its scales in a beautifully chameleonic display of digital alchemy), “Luca” never suggests that it’s building toward the mob blood-thirst of “Beauty and the Beast” or the ecological warfare of “Princess Mononoke.”

On the contrary, the greatest threat to Luca’s freedom is the voice in his head telling him to shrink back and stay in his tiny pocket of the ocean, and the film’s most violent moment is a betrayal among friends who need different things from each other. Alberto wants an anchor, while Luca is desperate for someone to push him out to sea. Neither of the male leads are especially nuanced characters, but there’s a tender friction in how these boys mine strength from their mutual fears; probably tender enough for people to see the film as a broad metaphor for queer self-acceptance if they so choose (the “Call Me by Your Name” of it all is well-pronounced even before Alberto defends Luca’s fishy musk with a defiant “my friend smells amazing !”).

Of course, Luca and Alberto’s damp adventure on dry land is bound together by their shared friendship with the fieriest girl in Portorosso, Giulia Marcovaldo (newcomer Emma Berman). The only daughter of the town’s gruffest one-armed monster hunter, Giulia is a fun-loving epitome of Casarosa’s efforts to synthesize the suffocating perfection of a Pixar script with the self-possessed zeal of a Fellini heroine (particularly the ones played by her namesake Giulietta Masina). In a way, her unbridled lust for life helps liberate this movie from the airlessness of Pixar’s vaunted — almost clinical — approach to storytelling, and allows “Luca” to retain a rare whiff of lived experience amidst its mid-century idyll. If the film is still a bit hectic down the home stretch, prone to a smattering of didactic moments, and incapable of rescuing Luca’s parents from getting trapped inside a (funny) sitcom B-plot, those are small prices to pay for the rare Pixar movie that doesn’t feel like it’s been thought to death. That still leaves room for the endless possibility of a bright summer day with your best friends.

It’s no coincidence then that Giulia’s flailing energy is a great showcase for the film’s tactile approach to computer animation. Less flawless and plasticky than most CG kids fare, “Luca” gently affects the look of stop-motion puppetry whenever the characters are on land, and lends the salmon buildings and cobblestone streets of Portorosso such a visceral sense of place that you can almost feel the breeze coming off… the Mediterranean? The Adriatic? It’s unclear. Either way, you can feel it.

Not to get too “you could even say the town is like a character unto itself” about this, but the setting — so vividly plucked from Casarosa’s own childhood memories — is the secret ingredient of a movie that’s less concerned about what happens than it is about the magical possibility that anything might. The flavor in the air that one summer when everything changed. The first taste of the fullness that life has to offer. The ephemeral friendships that felt like they were going to last forever, and may have found a way to do just that. “The universe is literally yours,” Giulia tells Luca, and you can’t help but take her at her word.

“Luca” may not pack the melodramatic punch of “When Marnie Was There” or offer a whisper of the heart that’s as powerful as that in “From Up on Poppy Hill,” but it’s buoyed by the same frizzante sense of personal freedom that informs even those second-rate Studio Ghibli films. It may not be the best Pixar movie, or the riskiest — it sure as hell isn’t the most ambitious — but “Luca” is also one of the precious few that feels like it isn’t afraid to be something else.

“Luca” will be available to stream on Disney+ starting Friday, June 18.

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Luca movie review: Tovino Thomas, Ahaana Krishna meet Agatha Christie and gentle heartache in God’s Own Country

Luca takes its name from its attractive hero, a popular artist played by Tovino Thomas.

Language: Malayalam

  Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

An air of sadness hangs thick and heavy over Luca . A policeman is called to a crime scene. As he searches for answers to the mystery he must solve, he grapples with questions of his own in his personal life. Through his investigation, we get acquainted with a young couple at the centre of the melancholy pervading the entire film.

Luca takes its name from its attractive hero, a popular artist played by Tovino Thomas. It tells an engaging story made all the more so by Thomas’ easy charm and natural chemistry with the charismatic heroine. Arun Bose’s direction, the writing by Mridul George and Bose himself, and the acting by the lead couple are designed to conjure up a halo of heartache around this young man who has known loss and unimaginable pain.

We are introduced early in the film to Niharika Banerjee ( Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela ’s Ahaana Krishna, credited here as Ahaana Krishnakumar). She is a PhD student in Kerala for some research when she accidentally bumps into Luca who, at first, comes across as a stereotypically temperamental artist. Their maiden encounter is a pleasant little overturning of the age-old “boy meets girl, boy and girl have misunderstanding, boy and girl are antagonistic towards each other which leads to an attraction that she at least masks so that she can have him chasing her, until at last they acknowledge their love for each other” Mills and Boon-style silliness.

Yes they do start off on a spat but it comes from a believable – and quite funny – situation, unlike the contrived bunkum commercial Indian cinema has been serving us for decades in this space. They clear up the misunderstanding almost immediately, there is no faking of anything between them, and they become instant friends.

With its uncommon treatment of a lead couple getting off on the wrong foot, the film ends up getting off on the right foot, its determination to steer clear of clichés becoming evident from here on. And for the most part, it does stick to its goal.

Luca ’s atypicalness is one of several reasons why an aching sweetness envelops it from the start. If we get its understated messaging, good for us, but if we don’t, there is still a simple, heartwarming romance to be enjoyed here. The film does not seek to impress us with intellectual profundities although it does end up having a point to make. Many points, in fact.

Take for instance Luca ’s empathy in its approach to mental illness. Or the manner in which it educates the audience about necrophobia and thanatophobia while neither drowning us in jargon nor sounding like a dumbing down. Or even the emphasis on the heroine’s Malayali-Bengali descent. Contemporary Malayalam cinema is replete with mentions of the poor Bengali migrant labourers who have made their presence felt in Kerala society. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a portrayal of this reality, but it helps to remember that this community is as heterogeneous as all others. The mention of Niharika’s Bengali father makes no difference to the plot, but it does tell us that Messrs Bose and George are minds worth tracking.

The two have clearly also done their homework in the area of forensic science. As an avid consumer of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit , Law and Order: Criminal Intent , sundry _CSI_s, Criminal Minds and other American crime serials, I had somehow missed the news that fingerprints can be used to detect gender. Now I know, courtesy Malayalam cinema.

These little details, Nimish Ravi’s cinematography and Anees Nadody’s production design that combine forces to demarcate the two simultaneous storylines by seasons and by colour palette, and the quality of the hero’s art works, especially that first spectacular installation at the Kochi Biennale, all add up, giving the film a certain finesse. One grouse: though the subtitles are quite good and even take the trouble to translate song lyrics, which is something Indian subtitle givers do not do often enough, the smattering of grammatical errors – “he pleaded me” … “tensed” … “anyways” – is exasperating.

What works for this film then is Luca’s life story, the role Niharika plays in it, the suitably languorous pace, and the whodunnit (not counting two needless red herrings that are left unexplained). What does not work is the effort to parallelly tell the tale of Akbar and his wife Fathima. The latter is played by Vinitha Koshy whose considerable talent was on display in Ottamuri Velicham (Light in the Room). She then can hardly be faulted for the lack of spark in the Fathima-Akbar relationship – the problem lies with the uninspiring writing of their story.

Malayalam cinema recently pulled off a similar narrative structure with greater success in the Joju George-starrer Joseph . In that film though, the policeman’s personal story was not just convincing, it was more gripping than the case he was working on. In Luca , the mystery that Akbar is trying to crack is way more appealing than the dull Akbar-Fathima angle, which desperately needed some revving up and depth.

The other aspect of Luca that does not quite sit well with the rest of the smoothly flowing narration is the use of non-Malayalam languages. It is clear from a regular viewing of Malayalam cinema that for many filmmakers in Kerala, Hindi is an aspirational language in the way Hindi film makers once viewed English and, for instance, chose to make a point about coolth/class by assigning English dialogues to Amitabh Bachchan’s characters to impress and intimidate those around him with his Anglicised accent – it worked in some Hindi films like Aakhree Raasta (1986) but by the time Prakash Jha’s  Aarakshan (2011) came around it had become a dead bore.

Language can be jarring when its use is self-conscious and does not seem spontaneous, and the insertion of the one-line Hindi refrain in the romantic number Vaanil Chandrika in Luca sounds wannabe and forced. That contrivance is put in the shade though by the stereotyping that screams out when a song featuring a line starting with “ Ya Maula ” plays in the background while Akbar is pondering over his personal predicaments. In two scenes. Because he is an Akbar you have to go the “ Maula ” way? Really? Uff. And worse, when Niharika and Luca kiss for the first time, an English song comes up. Uff again. That latter device takes away from what is otherwise a pleasant comfort between Thomas and Krishna there, and the film’s own comfort with physical intimacy in an industry that is still awkward around scenes of sexual closeness between members of any gender.

In small ways do writers unwittingly reveal their conservatism. In this case, the latter two instances are disappointing because in other small ways, Bose and George offer other little touches that we do not often get in Malayalam films. How many times have you seen a woman driving a vehicle in which there is also a male passenger in Malayalam cinema, or for that matter in ads created across the country? Or a woman guitarist in a band? We do here in Luca , without a big song and dance being made about it.

How often do we see a man able to take a no from a woman who has opted for physical proximity to him, without that woman being treated by the narrative tone as a tease? Again, we do here in Luca .

And then that English song plays, and I am given pause, and I wonder: are Bose and George faking their progressiveness, or are they not even aware of how far they have to go? Is this why they made Niharika a Bangalore-based half-Bengali instead of a full-blown Kerala-based Malayali girl? Cos let’s face it, “north Indian girls are easy” and “city girls are easy” is the kind of tripe often to be heard from Malayali men if you travel across Kerala.

So anyway…

Tovino Thomas has already proved in successive films his ability to add subtle yet distinctive touches to roles that might on the face of it seem like the same natural charmer but end up being so much more more because of him, from the loveable rascal of Mayaanadhi (2017) to the tempestuous lover of Theevandi (2018), the chap trying to mask his insecurities with bluster in this April’s Uyare , the quiet efficiency of his character in this month’s Virus and the exhaustion of the money-strapped filmmaker he plays in And The Oskar Goes To also released this month. The actor gives his Luca such an aura of sorrow and tragedy despite his boyish fun-loving appearance, making his sure-footed performance the fulcrum of this film’s effectiveness and poignance.

Ahaana Krishna has a compelling screen presence and an easy on-screen equation with Thomas that makes them perfect to play both buddies and lovers. She did need the director to control an occasional impulse to play cute, as he should have controlled her tendency to make her gestures and lip movements more pronounced than usual in dialogueless scenes that are overlaid entirely with songs as though she is afraid the viewer in the last row will otherwise not notice. Those quibbles apart, her performance in Luca is proof that she can carry a film on her shoulders because although it is written from the hero’s point of view, it ends up being as much hers as his.

Barring a jarring performance in the minor role of an industrialist called Saipriya, the rest of the cast is fair enough.

No doubt there is more that this film might have been, but the tone and style of the mystery reminded me so much of one of my favourite British writers, Agatha Christie, Bose conjures up such a Christie-like atmosphere in his narrative, and Thomas and Krishna are so good together, that everything else is put in the shade. In Luca ’s final twist, Christie faithfuls are likely to spot flashes of two of her beloved bestsellers, one of which was in itself a bow to William Shakespeare’s arguably most iconic work. I am leaving all three unnamed to avoid giving you clues, but know this: Luca is not a copy, it is a thematic revisitation and a wonderful tribute to Christie’s classics.

As Kerala’s legendary rain pours down in sheets, and Akbar inches closer to determining his answers, I could not take my eyes off the screen nor detach myself from the grief of that young artist and his loyal companion long after I had left the theatre.

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Luca Reviews

In Portorosso its inhabitants are against what they call sea monsters. Conversely, the creatures that live under the sea call humans monsters above. So, that world is divided in two microcosms that show that everything depends on the point of view.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Aug 16, 2024

Director Enrico Casarosa and his team do a magnificent job of bringing small-town Italy to life, interspersed with a coming-of-age fantasy saga.

Full Review | Jul 18, 2024

The animation is painfully generic and even forgettable since its narrative is almost too insignificant.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 18, 2024

In the end, LUCA is lovely, but slight, and has the potential for so much more. Visually it is gorgeous beyond belief, and... evokes the spiritual transcendence of Studio Ghibli. It doesn’t strive for much more than that, and sometimes that’s fine.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2024

Although this is a Pixar film it is not a Pixar film.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2023

It was a small, sweet and enjoyable effort from Pixar, which has not only taught us that it's okay to be different from the rest but the importance of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 6, 2023

Different than anything PIXAR has done before story wise. Small in scale as A coming of age story that brings the messages of discovery & acceptance!

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

From the detailed animation that makes the Italian coast look realistically astonishing to Dan Romer's rich score that hits all the right notes, without forgetting the outstanding voice work, every Pixar's trademark technical attribute is present.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 25, 2023

Pixar made another movie about friendship. But it’s also so much more than that: It’s about how to love life, how to ignore what other people might think of you, and how to accept each other regardless of what or who we really are.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2023

Even with Luca’s dynamic premise and grand visual splendor, it is not special. Perhaps Pixar’s magic is dimming slowly.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

It's beautiful seeing two kids just be authentically themselves and have fun with each other...

Full Review | Jul 19, 2023

Luca will be utterly endearing for kids but may be a bit hit and miss for everyone else.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 16, 2023

Luca is a charming film with a more relaxed Pixar style that’s made for the dreamers in all of us.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 9, 2022

Luca is Pixar at its most emotionally powerful, returning to the resonant storytelling that made the studio such a success to begin with and displaying some of its most arresting animation to date.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

Luca conveys the feeling of that who goes to school for the first time and those who see that human-in-the-making going to school for the first time. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 26, 2022

"Luca" is pure joy. It's lighter than most Pixar movies, but it's bursting with energy and life. "Luca" will have you smiling from ear to ear.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 20, 2022

LUCA may not have the wow factor of other Pixar films, but in its smaller, lighthearted story it is still so pure and loving that the emotions are really big again in the end.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 8, 2022

A light, enjoyable movie that would look much better coming from any other studio. However, with the weight of history that comes with the Pixar name, many will be expecting more.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 2, 2022

It is a film that is both incredibly charming yet venomous in its emotions that can sneak up on the audience with their power and presence.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2022

Luca is an absolutely charming animated feature that takes audiences to an unforgettably touching trip to Italy.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Feb 16, 2022

Screen Rant

Luca: why the reviews are so positive.

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Everybody loves  Luca - and here's why. When  Pixar announced a multi-year drive toward original stories in 2019, they would've expected to draw fresh audiences into movie theaters and potentially generate new franchises to replace classics such as  Toy Story and  Cars . Unfortunately, COVID-19 has scuppered those plans. Onward was affected by theater closures, while  Soul released exclusively on the Disney+ streaming service. Luca has befallen the same fate, its planned June 18, 2021 theatrical release replaced by a streaming roll-out, only showing in theaters where Disney+ isn't available.

Directed by Enrico Casarosa,  Luca stars Jacob Tremblay as Luca Paguro and Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto Scorfano - two sea monsters who adopt a human form whenever on dry land. Despite visiting the surface world being strictly forbidden (where have we heard that one before?), Luca and Alberto go exploring on the Italian Riviera, leading to a magical clash of cultures and a typically emotive coming-of-age story drenched in Pixar's trademark top-notch animation.

Related:  Everything We Know About Pixar's Lightyear Movie

After  Onward 's mixed reception , Pixar bounced back strongly with  Soul , which attracted widespread acclaim even without a theatrical release. The studio will naturally be looking to continue that momentum with  Luca , and early signs suggest they've done just that, with reviews for Pixar's latest offering skewing toward the positive. Currently sitting pretty with 91% on Rotten Tomatoes (at the time of writing), here's a sample of what the critics are saying about  Luca .

Screen Rant :

While there are certain aspects of the film’s story that could have been expanded upon and a somewhat frustrating antagonist in Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), who is much older than the core trio to be as petty as he is about a competition,  Luca  is a wonderful coming of age story with a nice message that balances deep emotions and a lot of adventurous fun.

Independent :

The pleasure of  Luca  lies less in its intellectual takeaways, than in the profound sensations that it stirs up. It’s a beautiful evocation of youthful possibility – of the sun beating down, the wind in your hair, and a road in front of you that feels as if it may never reach its end.

It’s particularly impressive that “Luca” operates so well on multiple levels. For children, this is a story about friendship and being true to yourself and coping with parents who are afraid to send you out into the world. For adults, it’s all that and much more; for LGBTQ+ audiences, in particular, the film offers a powerful metaphor about the closet.

Its Mediterranean flavor and disarming lessons about the value of friendship and acceptance provide fresh charms, while the breathtaking beauty of the film’s environments both underwater and above the surface brings additional rewards. It’s not canonical Pixar, but it’s as sweet and satisfying as artisanal gelato on a summer afternoon.

Related:  How Soul Secretly Sets Up Pixar's Next Movie

Evidently, Pixar's summer reverie holds plenty to enjoy. There's widespread agreement that  Luca  successfully evokes the breezy memories of a childhood vacation, setting the perfect tone and doing justice to a beautiful setting with typically impressive visuals. Many write-ups also hail how  Luca pitches its more complex themes, finding ways to incorporate layers of subtext without coming across as obvious or forced in its moral leanings. Admittedly, few are putting  Luca  up there with Pixar 's biggest hitters in terms of quality, but there's a general consensus among critics that this coastal breeze of a movie is a welcome addition to the Pixar catalog, with most ratings landing between 3 and 4 stars. With that said, some have been less kind to  Luca :

A strange hybrid of Italian neorealism and fish-based fantasy, Luca is beautiful to behold but plays it too safe to make a real impact. Still, great CG linguine.

It’s string-pulling Pixar formula but done with just about enough effectiveness to work... It doesn’t have that emotional kicker of an ending we might expect and hope for, it’s far too slight to evoke an ugly cry, but it’s breezily watchable, low stakes stuff, handsomely animated (on dry land, in water less so).

RogerEbert :

“Luca” retreads too much well-cultivated ground and reworks so many achingly familiar tropes as its best qualities sink to a murky bottom. While some material may hit with younger audiences, “Luca” makes for Pixar’s least enchanting, least special film yet.

To summarize the recurring criticisms,  Luca seems to cater less for grown-ups than most of Pixar's output, and there's an overall sense (even in some of the positive reviews) that while enjoyable in the moment, Luca's tale lacks the lasting impact of  Toy Story ,  The Incredibles or  Inside Out . Reading between the lines,  Luca 's less positive reviews seem to suggest Pixar's usual formula is in need of a shake-up, with  Luca occupying distinctly familiar territory. Nevertheless, the sea monster's share of  Luca reactions have been full of praise, and Pixar looks to have another hit on its hands - especially with kids wanting something fun to watch during the warm months.

More:  Pixar's Soul Made History (But Still Has One Big Racial Issue)

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Review | Luca movie review: Pixar’s Italy-set coming-of-age comedy pictures sea monsters taking on human form

Set on the italian riviera in the 1950s and 1960s, luca tells the story of two boys who are sea monsters in disguise they visit a scenic town and enter a triathlon, hoping to win a vespa and travel the world.

3.5/5 stars

Directed by Enrico Casarosa, Luca is a quaint coming-of-ager that burns with nostalgia for 1950s and ’60s Italy. One of the most beautiful scenes is when Luca and Alberto first arrive in Portorosso’s town square, with its trattorias, ice cream shops, Italian grandmas and sun-kissed children scoffing watermelons on their balconies.

Ignoring the fact that the townspeople are terrified of creatures from the deep, Luca and Alberto befriend Giulia (Emma Berman), a young girl who has no idea that her new chums are secret sea monsters. They soon get embroiled in a town triathlon called the Portorosso Cup, which requires contestants to swim, cycle and, most amusingly, gobble up a big bowl of pasta.

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Common Sense Media Review

Sweet fish-out-of-water story about friendship, adventure.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Luca is Pixar's film about two sea creatures who leave their watery homes to discover the wonders of the surface in a small village on the Italian Riviera. It's a sweet coming-of-age story about courage, curiosity, empathy, perseverance, teamwork, and friendship—specifically, that of…

Why Age 6+?

A Vespa scooter is central to the story and is presented as very aspirational/gl

Kids run away from home, go against rules, and put themselves in dangerous situa

Language is largely of the insult variety: "stinking," "stupido," "jerk," "idiot

Any Positive Content?

It's easy to be scared of things you don't understand, but don't judge others ba

Luca is curious, intelligent, kind, and empathetic. He wants to learn as much as

Central message is about accepting differences, in this case mostly between spec

Viewers will learn a bit about the deep, dark bottom of the ocean, as well as gr

Products & Purchases

A Vespa scooter is central to the story and is presented as very aspirational/glamorous. Like all Disney films, there's plenty of off-screen merchandise, including apparel, toys, games, and more.

Violence & Scariness

Kids run away from home, go against rules, and put themselves in dangerous situations. Physical comedy includes characters lightly hurting themselves as they jump off cliffs, fall off bicycles (with stars shown above head as though dizzy), and get attacked by a suspicious cat. Physical scuffles include pushing, punching, biting, and slapping. In one sequence, a villager repeatedly throws a spear at Alberto and Luca; others threaten them, and they're the target of mean behavior, with verbal bullying including words like "jerk" and "trash." Characters have heated arguments, raising their voices. A kid has to punch his uncle in the heart to get it started again, and his organs are seen through his skin briefly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language is largely of the insult variety: "stinking," "stupido," "jerk," "idioti," "trash," "loser," "shut up," "pathetic," "what's wrong with you," and "bottom feeder," as well as the swearing stand-in "aw, sharks." The Italian word "mannaggia" is also used, meaning "damn." "Oh God," as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

It's easy to be scared of things you don't understand, but don't judge others based on their differences. You don't have to keep aspects of yourself hidden to be accepted—find those who love you for who you are. Curiosity, empathy, perseverance, and teamwork are great character strengths. It's important to have dreams and goals, as well as a plan to make them come true. Friendships and loyalty are important, as is making sacrifices for those you love. Be curious and learn as much as possible about the world.

Positive Role Models

Luca is curious, intelligent, kind, and empathetic. He wants to learn as much as he can about the surface and beyond. He lies to his parents and puts himself in dangerous situations but atones for his mistakes. Alberto is courageous, as well as a bit reckless, but he's loyal to Luca. He doesn't follow rules, but he doesn't have a parental figure to set any guidance, either. Giulia is clever and shows great perseverance. She also stands up for herself and others and isn't afraid to be herself, even if she doesn't fit in. The three work together as a team to overcome obstacles.

Diverse Representations

Central message is about accepting differences, in this case mostly between species. All human characters are White/Italian; movie is set on the Italian Riviera. Giulia's father, Massimo, is separated from her mother and shares custody. The arrangement is seen to be smooth and happy, and he's supportive and caring toward Giulia. Massimo is also a positive representation of limb difference, having been born with one arm. His character isn't defined by the difference, but by his great skill in fishing and cooking and his kindness toward the kids. Alberto's father isn't shown on-screen but is reported to have abandoned him, and Alberto often behaves recklessly and can feel intensely let down by others as a result. But the idea of chosen family and developing new family structures is shown when Alberto is taken in by Massimo. Giulia is a strong female character who's not restricted by gender stereotypes. She shows a thirst for adventure and has the courage to stand up for herself and her friends. That said, Italian stereotypes are used, particularly with the villain Ercole, who has slicked-back dark hair and a neatly clipped mustache, and arrogantly sits astride his Vespa, gesturing exuberantly and saying "Mamma Mia!"

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Educational Value

Viewers will learn a bit about the deep, dark bottom of the ocean, as well as gravity and different astronomical facts. Reading books and trying new things are encouraged as ways to learn about the world.

Parents need to know that Luca is Pixar's film about two sea creatures who leave their watery homes to discover the wonders of the surface in a small village on the Italian Riviera. It's a sweet coming-of-age story about courage, curiosity, empathy, perseverance, teamwork, and friendship—specifically, that of Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay ) and Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ). There's a bit of silly body humor (nose- and ear-picking), as well as occasional insults in both English and easily understandable Italian, like "trash," "stupido," "idioti," and "jerk." Kids run away from home, lie to parents, and don't follow rules, putting themselves in dangerous situations. Physical comedy includes injuries from stunts like jumping off of cliffs and trees, riding a bike too fast down a hill, and getting in tussles. Scared villagers wield spears and harpoons, and one throws his at the main characters. Another character likes to use his big knife to chop up fish, much to Luca and Alberto's dismay. Parents and kids who watch together will be able to discuss the movie's appealing setting and its themes, particularly the importance of evaluating others for who they are, not because of their differences, background, or heritage. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (65)
• Kids say (124)

Based on 65 parent reviews

First Pixar Disappointment

Teaches kids to lie and do dangerous stuff, what's the story.

LUCA takes place at the Italian seaside, where the titular character is the son in a family of sea creatures. Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay ) follows his parents' ( Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan ) rules not to go near the dangerous surface, until he comes across a stranger collecting treasures. Luca follows the boy, Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ), to the shore, where they both transform into humans. Luca and Alberto become fast friends, sharing dreams and plans that involve what Alberto claims is the best prize among humans: the Vespa scooter. When Luca's family catches on that he's been hanging out above water, they threaten to send him to the depths of the ocean with his angler-fish Uncle Ugo ( Sacha Baron Cohen ). Frightened, Luca and Alberto run away to the nearest human town, Porto Rosso, where they meet outgoing Giulia ( Emma Berman ), who tells them that they could buy a Vespa with the cash prize from the town's annual race: a triathlon involving swimming, cycling, and eating pasta. The boys team up with Giulia—who's come in second several years in a row to an overconfident, rude villager named Ercole (Saverio Raimondo)—and move in with her and her intimidating fisherman father (Marco Barricelli). They must also do everything they can to keep from getting wet, lest the sea-monster-fearing villagers try to spear them.

Is It Any Good?

This heartfelt, gorgeously animated adventure is a short and sweet reminder of sun-filled summer days with new friends. The setting of Luca is so vivid that audiences may well want to book a flight to the Italian Riviera for some amazing pasta, clear seas, and the charm of winding cobblestone streets, marble fountains, and quirky townsfolk. Tremblay is a wonderfully expressive voice performer, making Luca's intellectual curiosity and general awe come to life. Grazer's Alberto is a confident and impetuous counterbalance to Luca's thoughtful and initially hesitant personality. Berman also impresses as Giulia, who really wants to win the race but is even more excited to make new friends. The supporting Italian cast is strong, as are Rudolph and Gaffigan, who at this point are almost default choices as funny parents. And audiences will laugh aloud at Baron Cohen's brief but hilarious role as Luca's uncle from the deep.

Luca 's themes are reminiscent of those in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory , The Little Mermaid , and even Onward . The boys turn into friends who are more like brothers, discovering both the joys and the dangers of the human world, and their adventure is filled with memorable views under the sea. Tender, sweet, and also funny, with silly physical comedy and an amusingly suspicious cat (Giulia's kitty looks just like her dad, right down to what looks like a mustache), the movie is full of warmth and has a few moments that tug at the heartstrings. It's also lovely to see a single father who belies his intimidating appearance by cooking delicious meals, teaching the boys the skills needed to fish, and supporting his daughter in her dream to compete in Porto Rosso's big annual race. Families with kids of all ages will enjoy this adorable addition to Pixar's excellent list of films.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Luca 's message about family and friendship. What does Luca learn about what makes a family? Kids: Who do you consider to be part of your family?

How do characters' actions demonstrate curiosity , empathy , teamwork , and perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

Discuss how the movie portrays Giulia's father's limb difference. Does it impact his character? Why is it important to see people with disabilities represented in popular culture? Can you think of other examples?

Did you find any parts of the movie scary or upsetting? If so, why? What bothers you more: danger/action, or conflict between characters?

A central theme of the movie is difference and accepting others for who they are. Why is this an important message? What differences might it extend to in the real world?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : June 18, 2021
• Cast : Jacob Tremblay , Jack Dylan Grazer , Emma Berman
• Director : Enrico Casarosa
• Studios : Pixar Animation Studios , Walt Disney Pictures
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Friendship
• Character Strengths : Curiosity , Empathy , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 95 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : rude humor, language, some thematic elements and brief violence
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : July 2, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

The Little Mermaid

Finding Nemo

Finding Dory

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Luca Review: Pixar Movie Is an Ode to Friendship — and Vespas

A ‘sea monster’ kid faces his fears in this major league pixar debut for enrico casarosa..

Photo Credit: Disney/Pixar

Luca and Alberto in Luca, the new Pixar movie

• Luca movie release date is June 18 globally, including India
• It is available on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar worldwide
• Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer lead voice cast of Luca

Luca is an ode to friendship. The 84-minute Pixar movie on Disney+, from feature directorial debutant Enrico Casarosa, is inspired by his own childhood — Luca is dedicated to Casarosa's best friend Alberto Surace, whose name he lends to the deuteragonist and the title protagonist's best friend — in the Italian Riviera in the 1970s and 1980s. It's set in a world that takes after the 1950s and the 1960s, for Casarosa doesn't feel as nostalgic (yet) about the eighties. But Luca 's is also a fantasy world. The aforementioned Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay, from Room) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer, from Shazam!) are actually “sea monsters”, feared and hunted by the humans who live above the surface. Though technically, they are shapeshifting amphibians, that become fish in water, and human on land.

For Casarosa, this is the centrepiece as it allows Luca to explore what it wants to talk about. At its core, Luca shows how prejudice and fear of the unknown — while the likes of Luca and Alberto are repeatedly called “sea monsters”, we never see them do anything remotely monstrous — can divide us. You can also see it as a film about xenophobia, a timely message in an increasingly nationalist world where people use our physical differences to discriminate against oppressed minorities. Or you can even view it from an LGBTQ+ lens, as many already have. Though Casarosa has said it wasn't intended as such, Luca does fit the bill. It's a coming-of-age story of two young boys in the ‘60s who have to hide their true selves from everyone around them in fear for their lives.

Of course, Luca — written by Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Mike Jones ( Pixar's Soul ) — is about more than that. Luca is a literal fish out of water in the new Pixar movie, and he's naturally fascinated by the ways and creations of humans. Central to that is Luca and Alberto's shared love for Vespa, the Italian scooter brand that made a name for itself as a style icon in the second half of the 20th century. Luca also explores the importance of facing your fears — epitomised in Luca through a running “Silencio Bruno!” gag — and the role that friends play in pushing you beyond your comfort zone. It's also about giving them the room to grow while still being there for your friends.

All of this is brought to life with some of Pixar's most stylised animation to date — Casarosa & Co. have spoken about how they were inspired by traditional 2D animation, Japanese woodblock paintings, a bunch of Italian classic movies, and the works of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki — and paired with a scintillating background score by Dan Romer (Beasts of the Southern Wild) that is at once serene, playful, tingling, and epic.

From Luca to The Family Man, What to Stream in June

Below the surface, Luca Paguro leads a simple sheep herder sort of life. Except that his flock is fish, since he lives in the sea. While Luca's grandmother (Sandy Martin, from Napoleon Dynamite) indulges him and his father Lorenzo (comedian Jim Gaffigan) lives in his own world, Luca's mother Daniela Paguro (Maya Rudolph, from Bridesmaids) is very strict and protective of him. She ensures that Luca always comes home on time and questions him daily if he spotted any boats of those “land monsters”. One morning, after Luca comes across human artefacts as he's out shepherding, he follows the breadcrumbs and bumps into a fellow sea monster, Alberto Scorfano. It turns out that Alberto lives on land, which is equal parts shocking and terrifying for Luca as he's been told to stay away from the human world all his life.

The curious Luca is equal parts amazed and intrigued by his brief time above the surface. Naturally the next morning, Luca returns to see Alberto who it turns out is a bit of a show-off. Alberto is a self-proclaimed master at “human stuff”, claiming that his (missing) dad told him everything and that he has been on his own for a while. But Alberto also thinks that the stars are all fish, so clearly, he's trying to hide his insecurities behind a façade. Luca doesn't know any better though, and he's too busy gaping at all the human stuff anyway. That's how Vespa comes into the picture. Wowed by a Vespa poster, Luca and Alberto begin to dream of their own Vespa, building a rudimentary scooter to feel the thrill. There's even a dream sequence filled with tons of Vespas.

All this love for Vespa might have felt like a product placement in Luca were it not so heartfelt. Casarosa infuses the Pixar movie with the sheer joy of what it's like to discover something remarkable for the first time as a kid. When Luca and Alberto step into the nearby human town Porto Rosso, Luca introduces a shiny red Vespa just as a traditionally minded rom-com movie would highlight the female lead the first time she walks into the same room as the male lead. It's the apple of their eyes, but it's also tied to the Luca plot. The owner of the red Vespa, Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), turns out to be the braggadocio winner of the Porto Rosso Cup, an annual triathlon tournament that involves swimming, cycling, and …eating (because it's hosted by a local pasta maker).

Realising that the Porto Rosso Cup will earn them money they can use to buy a Vespa — it's funny initially because even the concept of money and purchases are foreign to them — Luca and Alberto team up with perennial underdog Giulia Marcovaldo (Emma Berman) who has beef with Ercole the bully. And as they begin preparing for the triathlon, Luca's parents, who realise that he's gone, begin looking for him in the seaside town.

Loki , Luca , MasterChef Australia, and More on Disney+ Hotstar in June

Giulia, Luca, and Alberto in Luca Photo Credit: Disney/Pixar

The introvert-extrovert pairing of Luca and Alberto contributes to much of the early fun on Luca . While Luca has been brought up to follow the rules and is inherently risk-averse, the freewheeling Alberto craves adventure and runs headlong for it with nary a single thought. Casaraosa has talked about his own best friend Alberto pulled him out of his shell as kids, and Luca depicts that in a joyous fashion, showcasing how two opposite personalities can become friends so quickly. The introduction of Giulia adds an exciting third flavour into the mix, not least because she's written as someone who is always fully herself — important in a society where girls are asked to be quiet, gentle, and unseen. Luca also touches upon how kids are quick to become jealous or possessive.

But at the end of the day, it's sticking with them through thick and thin — as the old adage goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed — and having the courage to put yourself in a vulnerable position for the greater good. Luca is essentially about how some people have to pretend to be someone they are not, in a bid to conform to what's accepted as normal. It's why Luca works as a coming-out movie. Casarosa may not have intended it — in fact, Luca could have gone much deeper with the allegory, if indeed it was set up like that — but after release, a movie belongs to its audience not the filmmakers. Change starts with one person, Luca posits, and it can destroy power structures, foster acceptance, and bring everyone together. In an increasingly isolated world, that's a great message.

Luca is out Friday, June 18 on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar worldwide. In countries without Disney+, Luca will release in cinemas. Available in English only in India with a Disney+ Hotstar Premium subscription.

• Release Date 18 June 2021
• Language English
• Genre Adventure, Animation, Comedy
• Cast Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Marco Barricelli, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan
• Director Enrico Casarosa
• Producer Andrea Warren

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Official Discussion - Luca [SPOILERS]

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On the Italian Riviera, an unlikely but strong friendship grows between a human being and a sea monster disguised as a human.

Enrico Casarosa

Enrico Casarosa (story by), Simon Stephenson (story by)

Jacob Tremblay as Luca Paguro

Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto Scorfano

Emma Berman as Giulia Marcovaldo

Saverio Raimondo as Ercole Visconti

Maya Rudolph as Daniela Paguro

Marco Barricelli as Massimo Marcovaldo

Jim Gaffigan as Lorenzo Paguro

-- Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

Metacritic: 71

VOD: Disney+

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‘Queer’ Review: Daniel Craig Shows a Whole New Side in Luca Guadagnino’s Bold and Trippy Adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Ahead-of-Its-Time Novel

It's an edgy tale of addiction and also a love story, as Craig, pursuing Drew Starkey's object of desire, infuses Burroughs with a winning vulnerability.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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In “ Queer ,” Luca Guadagnino ’s ebulliently scuzzy and adventurous adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ early confessional novel, William Lee ( Daniel Craig ), a dissipated refugee from America, is having dinner with Eugene (Drew Starkey), the beautiful young man he met in the underbelly of Mexico City, when he starts to explain how he came to grips with his sexual desires.

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“Queer” tells the story of Burroughs’ love affair — his attempt to forge a relationship with Eugene, who as played by Drew Starkey, behind owlish glasses, is like the world’s most intellectual Calvin Klein model. Lee first spies him in the evening street, in the middle of a crowd gawking at a cockfight. The scene is shot in slow motion, with Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” on the soundtrack, making the whole thing an underground vision of rapture. From Lee’s point-of-view, it’s one of those love-at-first-sight moments. He’s so smitten he’s dazed , as if he’d seen a god.

Daniel Craig, shifting about a dozen gears from James Bond, doesn’t make the mistake of impersonating the older William Burroughs who became a punk icon in the ’80s: the dry voice, the beady-eyed stare of hostility. Craig gives us a pinch of that glowering Burroughs DNA, but the trick of his performance, which is bold and funny and alive, is that he’s playing the younger Burroughs (at the time, the author was around 40), before he’d passed through the looking glass of cultivated insanity to write his visionary novel of American chaos, “Naked Lunch.” This is Burroughs before he got famous, when he was just…a man, pursuing what his instincts told him to. Craig makes him a nasty, witty literary dog laced with vulnerability. Pounding back shots of tequila, spitting out winding assertions like “Your generation has never learned the pleasures that a tutored palate confers on a magnificent few,” he’s a troublemaker, an abrasive soul. But he is also, deep in that bitter heart of his, a romantic. He tries to maintain power in every situation, but as soon as he meets Eugene, we see that the desire for love has supreme power over him.

Adapting Burroughs’ slender unfinished novel, which was written as a sequel to “Junkie” (1953) but not published until 1985 (it was Burroughs who kept it out of circulation, maybe because after defining his brand with “Naked Lunch” he was no longer willing to be seen as that vulnerable), Guadagnino, the brilliant director of “Challengers” and “Call Me by Your Name,” working from a screenplay by “Challengers'” Justin Kuritzkes, has a splendid time immersing us in the seamy corners of Mexico City, which in this movie recalls the sleepy ’50s border town of Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil.” He colors in a community: Lee and the other queers who hang out at the Ship Ahoy, a tastefully lit bar/restaurant, like Joe, a roly-poly nerd libertine (played by Jason Schwartzman, unrecognizable under ruddy padding, a bushy beard, and tortoise-shell glasses), or Dumé (Drew Droege), a vicious queen who also holds court at the Green Lantern, the district’s more seriously queer bar.

Why is Eugene at the Ship Ahoy? He goes there with a woman friend (Andra Ursuta), though it’s clear he’s got curiosities in other directions. But he has never acted on them. Burroughs based the character on Adelbert Lewis Marker, an American Navy serviceman he met in Mexico City, and Starkey, in his clear-eyed way, makes him a mystery dreamboat. Eugene clicks with Lee and becomes his drinking buddy, learning soon enough that Lee has designs on him. The seduction that happens is spiky and believable, as Lee, who’s both a white knight and a bit of a predator, woos Eugene from his comfort zone and into the queer zone. The first sex scene between them is tender and exciting, suffused with quivering heat. The second one, when Eugene allows himself to be fully taken for the first time, is cathartic.

Lee and Eugene sleep together, but they’re not quite a couple. Eugene wants his “independence,” which for him means independence from defining himself as queer. (He’s one of those men who thinks: Maybe I’m just dabbling.) And that’s the central reason that Lee begins to pursue his other obsession: setting out to South America to look for Yage (pronounced yah -hey), a plant found in the jungles of Ecuador that’s said to have telepathic qualities. Lee is obsessed with this for a reason that’s scurrilous but also kind of tragic. When he starts babbling about how the Russians, and maybe the CIA, are using Yage for thought-control experiments, he sounds, for the first time, like Burroughs the grandiose paranoiac of “Naked Lunch” (which was published in 1959). But the truth is that Lee is obsessed with telepathy because he thinks it will allow him to control others — like, for instance, Eugene. That’s why he asks Eugene to come to the jungle with him.

“Queer,” in its second half, turns into a very different movie, a trippy road comedy about the search for mind-altering transcendence. The film loses some of its pulse; it meanders. The novel did indeed take Lee into the jungle, but he never found Yage. Guadagnino, though, doing his own variation on the Burroughs mystique, decides to let Lee find what he’s looking for. Lee and Eugene traipse through the jungle and make their way to Dr. Cotter (played by an unrecognizable Lesley Manville, with greasy black hair and dirty teeth), an American botanist who’s been living there forever, amid the snakes and the foliage, doing “research.” She takes them in, and they cook up some Yage, which results in a hallucinatory sequence that’s pure high-wire loony-tunes filmmaking. The movie we thought we were watching comes close to stopping dead in its tracks.

Yet even as “Queer” sinks into a kind of torpor, this daring and indulgent sequence is also a fulfillment of the film’s vision of William Burroughs, and of queer love. The telepathy works. And what Lee learns is that Eugene will never think of himself as queer, even as their bodies are literally merging (an indelible image). The last third of “Queer” may prove to be a challenge for audiences — much more so than the film’s explicit eroticism. Yet Luca Guadagino is telling a version of the same compelling story that he told in “Call Me by Your Name”: that of a queer love that, instead of delivering the salvation it promises, withers under the gaze of the real world. The film’s final shot is stunning. It shows that you after all the drugs, the warped crusades, the queerness he owned, the one thing William Burroughs could never figure out was how to heal his broken heart.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (In competition), Sept. 3, 2024. Running time: 135 MIN.

• Production: An A24 release of a Fremantle Film, The Apartment, Fremantle Company, Fremantle North America, Frenesy Film Company production, in collaboration with Cinecittà Spa and Frame by Frame. Producers: Lorenzo Mieli, Luca Guadagnino. Executive producers: James Grauerholz, Justin Kuritzkes, Emanuela Matranga, Elena Recchia, Peter Spears, Christian Vesper.
• Crew: Director: Luca Guadagnino. Screenplay: Justin Kuritzkes. Camera: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. Editor: Marco Costa. Music: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross.
• With: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, Henrique Zaga, Omar Apollo, Andra Ursuta, Andres Duprat, Ariel Shulman, Drew Droege, Michael Borremans, David Lowery, Lisandro Alonso, Colin Bates.

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From Carla Thomas to Isaac Hayes, HBO Stax documentary is story of 'Soulsville' — and America

"We as a Black people have made something fantastic."

Those words can be heard in "Ailey," a 2021 feature documentary directed by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Jamila Wignot. The speaker, in vintage interview footage, is Alvin Ailey himself, the pioneering African American dancer and choreographer. Ailey's chosen form of artistic expression, modern dance, is regarded as sophisticated and metropolitan, yet Ailey said his work was steeped in his childhood immersion in the blues and church traditions of the rural South.

"We as a Black people have made something fantastic" is a declaration that recurs, in various forms and in different words, throughout Wignot's latest work, "STAX: Soulsville U.S.A.," a documentary celebration/postmortem that premieres in four parts on Monday and Tuesday nights on HBO/Max .

Also emerging from the soil of the rural South ( Stax's white founder, Jim Stewart , calls himself "a hillbilly from Tennessee"), the Memphis soul label has a deserved reputation as a place where Black and white artists collaborated on writing, performing and recording some of the greatest popular music of the past century. In the words of the white guitarist Steve Cropper, who is one of many Stax veterans interviewed for the series: "At Stax, there was no color."

Yet the documentary asserts that Stax's identity ultimately was "too Black" (to quote former company co-owner Al Bell) to save the studio from the wrecking ball after the white establishment — in Memphis and at CBS Records, in New York — became hostile to the company's increasing independence and success. "I'm proud to represent the city of Memphis, black and white," said Isaac Hayes, in a press conference, when he returned home after winning the Best Original Song Oscar for Shaft. "And we should take it upon ourselves to be the model city which we say were are." Instead, the documentary suggests, Stax was betrayed, disrespected — shafted.

In Wignot's telling, this rise-and-fall is not just the story of Stax or a story of Memphis but a story of America: a broken promise — a hand held out, then withdrawn (see also: Emancipation followed by Reconstruction). Stax branded itself as "Soulsville, U.S.A.," but in the context of the documentary, the phrase is more than just a snappy (or finger-snappy) slogan. "U.S.A." becomes a different type of brand — a claim of ownership.

This grim message takes nothing away from the beautiful sounds produced at 926 E. McLemore — what Al Bell calls the "great authentic music art" of "creative and rare people," many of whom wandered into Stax from the surrounding neighborhood after Stewart converted an old movie theater into a studio in 1960, and his sister and company investor, Estelle Axton, opened an adjacent record shop (where Cropper worked as a clerk before venturing into the studio).

DIRECTOR TALKS NEW STAX DOCUMENTARY: HBO's 'STAX: Soulsville U.S.A.' recounts triumph, tragedy of legendary Memphis soul label

Expertly and incisively constructed, the documentary is frequently joyful and exuberant, thanks to its liberal use of vintage performance footage, from-the-vaults recordings and archival photographs showcasing such talents as Rufus and Carla Thomas, Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Johnnie Taylor. "I just walked right into my dream," remembers Booker T. Jones, future leader of Stax hitmakers Booker T. & the MG's, who was pulled from algebra class by his friend, future songwriter David Porter, to play baritone saxophone on Stax's first hit soul single. "There I was, playing on a record. My dream came true when I was 14 years old."

Working with a mix of Memphis and out-of-town crew, Wignot augments the old material with many new interviews with Stax veterans, notably the uncompromising Jones; the charming Carla Thomas; irrepressible Bettye Crutcher; ace songsmith David Porter ; and recent Grammy-winner Deanie Parker, the former Stax publicity director who is not just a key founder of the must-visit Stax Museum of American Soul Music — the phoenix that was resurrected from the rubble of the razed original building — but, arguably, the embodiment of the Stax spirit — the conscience that wouldn't let Memphis forget that the death of Stax in 1975 was a stain on the city if not a literal crime.

Says Parker: "Those with the power, they wanted Stax Records to be erased." Jones, meanwhile, tells Wignot that the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis in 1968 exposed the fact that "something was amiss" within the seeming utopia of Stax, however hopeful the symbolism of its revered interracial house band, Booker T. & the MG's.

"The relationship that we had in the studio didn't happen outside the studio," Jones says, adding that the belief that mainstream society's embrace of Black-led music meant that racism was diminishing "was not the truth."

STAX STARS ON STAGE: Memphis music stage at RiverBeat Music Festival rocks with Stax and soul greats

The Stax story has been told many times before, in books and in films. Rob Bowman, author of "Soulsville, U.S.A. – The Story of Stax Records," was a key contributor to the new project, and appears frequently on camera; and Wignot borrows some footage from "Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story," a 155-minute film directed by Morgan Neville and Memphis' Robert Gordon (also the author of a book on Stax history) that, until now, was the definitive documentary on the subject.

Wignot's film, which places Stax's triumphs and troubles within an encompassing story of greater Memphis (the 1968 sanitation strike, the assassination of King), may be especially valuable for those for whom the narrative and its many strands (the tragic Otis Redding/Bar-Kays plane crash, the jubilant Wattstax concert) are fresh. Which probably actually means "most people." Given HBO's reach, it's possible that millions of people for the first time will hear Carla Thomas croon "Gee Whiz," which is justification enough for any project.

'STAX: Soulsville U.S.A.'

The debut times and dates for the documentary series episodes on HBO are listed below. In addition, all four episodes become available on the Max streaming service on May 20.

" Chapter One: Cause I Love You ": 8 p.m. Monday, May 20. Named for the father-and-daughter duet by Rufus and Carla Thomas that gave Memphis' new record company its first hit in 1960. Synopsis: "With humble beginnings in Memphis in the late 1950s, Stax Records quickly becomes one of the most influential record labels on the Black music scene, breaking out iconic artists including Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MG’s, and Otis Redding. With growing popularity in the Black market, Stax executives and musicians were determined to transcend racial divides and bring their music into the American mainstream."

" Chapter Two: Soul Man": 9 p.m. Monday, May 20. Synopsis: "Stax Records finally breaks through to the white market, with their crossover hit 'Soul Man' and Otis Redding’s performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. But Redding’s untimely death, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., legal obstacles, and ongoing racial tensions in Memphis reveal cracks in the surface at the company."

"Chapter Three: Respect Yourself": 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 21. Synopsis: "After the tragic death of Otis Redding and the Atlantic Records merger that left Stax in the dust, Stax promotions director Al Bell steps up to save the company, releasing hit records such as 'Soul Limbo' and 'Who’s Making Love?' Stax puts their efforts behind Isaac Hayes, who receives Grammy and Oscar awards for his work composing the music and theme song for the 1971 box office smash hit 'Shaft.'"

" Chapter Four: Nothing Takes the Place of You": 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 21. Synopsis: "By the 1970s, Stax is in its prime and decides to give back to the Black community in Los Angeles by putting on the Wattstax benefit concert in 1972 and recording the event as a documentary. However, not long after, money troubles plague the company when their bank goes under and drags Stax down with them, forcing the company to shutter its doors."