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★★★★☆
13 September 2018
A movie review of MUSEO. |
“I need to know I can trust you,” Juan Nuñez (Gael García Bernal)
While set in the 1980s, this could be now. MUSEO is a thematic companion piece to AMERICAN ANIMALS (2018). Both are based on true stories. Or as MUSEO states, this story is a replica of the original. Both films, one premiered at Sundance Film Festival, the other at Berlin Film Festival, concern art thefts, but more importantly: They share an interest in privilege and ennui. When societies have attained a certain wealth level, the jobs of their parents do not satisfy a new generation of the ambitious. To many now, to be ordinary is a wasted life. The dream is to make a stamp on the planet. The question reverberating in psyches: How do you achieve greatness? If the modest life would be celebrated more, would we not be more at peace? See the wonderful IN THE AISLES (2018).
While set in the 1980s, this could be now. MUSEO is a thematic companion piece to AMERICAN ANIMALS (2018). Both are based on true stories. Or as MUSEO states, this story is a replica of the original. Both films, one premiered at Sundance Film Festival, the other at Berlin Film Festival, concern art thefts, but more importantly: They share an interest in privilege and ennui. When societies have attained a certain wealth level, the jobs of their parents do not satisfy a new generation of the ambitious. To many now, to be ordinary is a wasted life. The dream is to make a stamp on the planet. The question reverberating in psyches: How do you achieve greatness? If the modest life would be celebrated more, would we not be more at peace? See the wonderful IN THE AISLES (2018).
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Many are stumbling upon an idea that children are not the answer to immortality; that the sole reason to have kids is if you are happy to put another life ahead of yours, not merely because society tells you. Notions of fame and infamy might fill the gap for the amoral. (In contrast, more good can be achieved if you try utilising your passion to leave the world in a better place than you found it.) Watching the two leads in MUSEO makes you wonder about their motivations.
Dostoevsky’s nineteenth century novel ‘Crime and Punishment’ reaches through the ages. MUSEO is also about crossing a moral line, and wishing with all your heart to rewind time (à la Kal-El in SUPERMAN (1978)). Best buds, Juan Nuñez and Benjamin Wilson (Leonardo Ortizgris), are still at veterinary school even though in their 30s. Bored and listless, they hatch a plan to rob priceless historical artefacts from the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. After initial success, comes being out of their depth in the art fencing black market. Remorse follows.
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Far from dour, MUSEO has plenty of wit. Gael García Bernal’s Juan rails against dressing as Santa Claus, because of his belief that Father Christmas indoctrinates kids into capitalism.
MUSEO is a different kind of heist movie. Effervescing with whizz-bang energy, the film is filled with panache, and anger at colonial theft. It also has a ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (2015) meta knowingness.
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