This article contains spoilers for the Prime Video movie, “Música.”
Rudy Mancuso — an Internet sensation since the days of the Vine app — makes his directorial debut with “Música,” a semi-autobiographical, untraditional romantic comedy and coming-of-age film with an ambiguous ending.
Mancuso stars opposite Camila Mendes as himself, a “charismatic but directionless young street performer” from the Ironbound neighborhood in Newark, N.J. For as long as he can remember, his condition of synesthesia has manifested in his brain organizing everyday sounds into complex patterns and rhythms.
Rudy’s synesthesia first gets between his relationship with Haley (Francesca Reale) since he often finds himself distracted by his music-inclined mind. Then he meets Isabella (Mendes) at his local fish market, and things seem to take a turn for the better. Thus, music serves as both an antagonist and protagonist in the story — all the way to the end of the film.
“I’m very allergic to buttoned-up endings. I knew even in earlier iterations of the pages that Rudy couldn’t get the girl,” Mancuso told TheWrap. “He’s dealing with all these self-perpetuated obstacles. He’s lying while also trying to figure out what he wants. I couldn’t possibly let that character end up with the girl of his dreams. And also, it’s not authentic to my actual experience.”
Another trope Mancuso wanted to challenge was his “meet cute” with Isabella, which takes place in a very chaotic manner.
“Although this can be classified as a musical comedy, romantic comedy, I wanted to flip some of the conventions as much as possible,” he said. “I figured what’s the least romantic place for two people to lock eyes and have a love-at-first-sight moment? And I figured it was the disgusting, smelly fish market.”
After he gets hit in the head by a giant fish, Rudy and Isabella start to hang out. When he eventually tries to explain his synesthesia to her, she doesn’t quite understand … but she does recognize that it is a part of who he is.
“Isabella is somebody who is naturally more present as a person. Haley is definitely way more future-focused, and Isabella represents the here and now,” Mendes told TheWrap. “I think she appreciates that Rudy is somebody who is experiencing all these things that she can’t necessarily relate to, but she can appreciate how it’s actually a gift and not something negative in the way that he sees it in that moment.”
“I think Haley is more likely to take his distractions personally,” she continued. “Like in the beginning scene, she’s like, ‘You’re not giving me attention. I’m competing for your attention,’ and Isabella really tries to work with him and work with his condition.”
Mancuso echoed Mendes’ sentiments.
“Rudy’s relationship with music and his synesthetic condition is sometimes a blessing and sometimes feels like a curse,” he said. “Where Haley helped remind Rudy that it’s more curse, Isabella represents the safer, blessing side of the condition that he, for the first time, feels seen by.”
Haley comes back into the mix while Rudy is dating Isabella, and he can’t figure out a way to be honest with both women until they each — plus his mother (portrayed by his actual mom Maria Mancuso) — realize he’s been two-timing them and both want nothing to do with him anymore. He goes after Isabella, who tells him he’s not ready for what she wants, despite his subway puppet thesis.
“That is the resolution. I don’t think we needed to give another 15 minutes to show them how they would end up together,” Mendes said. “I think there’s something really hopeful about the ending where Rudy needed to go deal with his stuff and figure out his life and his path before he could be ready for something bigger. And so having that little button at the end is like a nice wink towards a possible future.”
“Música” is now streaming on Prime Video.
