Review by Jessica Carr, Andrew Swafford, and Zach Dennis
Jessica: Who knew that we would all get to enjoy the little hidden gem that is Lina from Lima! This musical comedy tells the story of a migrant worker from Peru who works as a nanny for a Chilean family. She escapes her mundane day-to-day life by thinking of musical numbers in her head. I really enjoyed this film, and I thought the musical numbers were really well done. Andrew, I know you were excited for this movie – did it live up to the hype?
Andrew: It did! Much of the film has a mundane, slow-cinema-like quality in how it observes Lina occupying various spaces and transit systems (González has a background in documentary filmmaking, and it shows), and I obviously am primed to like that stuff – but I also thought that breaking the film up with musical sequences was such a winning choice. Lina From Lima doesn’t appear to have an enormous budget, but González does a lot with what she has in these sequences. The costuming in these scenes reflects a slightly heightened version of reality, whether Lina is picking out hand-me-downs (with the musical sequence showing Lina in her employer’s finest evening gown), exploring her sexuality (with Lina dressed as the Virgin Mary), or having to sit on furniture covered in plastic wrap (with Lina a bubblewrap dress, which, as you mentioned in our video diary, may be a nod to the “Diamonds” sequence in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). The musical stylings are eclectic and I found all the melodies extremely catchy. And just on a conceptual level, I admire what these musical sequences are doing: like in Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark, they represent mental escapes from the tedious nature of Lina’s work, escapism being the central theme of the story.
Unlike Von Trier’s notoriously pessimistic film, Lina From Lima takes a very positive outlook on the possibilities of escape: Lina finds moments of respite from her nannying job by imagining these fantasy musical numbers, by taking trips to actual dance clubs, by laying out and playing in the sprinkler, and by indulging in casual hookups, some of which I found to be very sweet and all of which center Lina’s own pleasure and agency (one of the men is even left faceless by the camerawork and editing).
I know the way the film handled Lina’s sexuality initially felt a little questionable to you, Jessica, so I’m wondering how you’re feeling now that we’ve had so much time to reflect and discuss. I’m also curious how y’all feel about the film’s depiction of emotional bonds between nannies and their wards, especially in contrast to Roma, which played TIFF last year and stirred up a lot of discussion on these grounds.
Zach: To answer your second question, I found Lina from Lima to be a much richer portrayal of the emotional bonds you mentioned than Roma because of the rose-colored, nostalgic lens that Cuaron painted his film from last year with. This one shows Lina and allows you to make your judgements about her without seeming to force this almost angelic depiction – she gets much more interiority through her singing.
She is a good person and seems to care for this child she is watching, but also clearly has some questions or issues from her past that have her separated from her son and what could be seen as her “real life.” While it may seem minuscule, I found the entire sequence where she has to forgo her trip to Peru because of the mistake she made with the pool to be moving and difficult. While the father of the child she watches is able to come and go as he pleases and clearly can move past being absent or messing up, Lina is not given that opportunity and is forced to stay and correct her mistake for her employer so that she doesn’t lose her source of income rather than go home to see her own kid.
It must have been hard and challenging, but those are the decisions that are made outside our realm of privilege and that seemed to speak to the experience of a house worker more than anything in Roma. But Jessica, I’d be curious to get your perspective on her depiction of Lina’s sexuality.
Jessica: I've had some time to reflect on the what I think Gonzalez is trying to do with the film vs. my own personal reading of the film, and I've come to the conclusion that some people do use sex as an escape from their mundane lives. It's a way for them to get pleasure, and even though I personally don't find hooking up with people an effective way to cope with loneliness, I can still see what the director was trying to do with this film. It doesn't really negatively affect my view on the film as a whole. I still enjoyed it and I can't wait to see what Gonzalez makes in the future.