Just got out of a showing at the first day of screening of this film at a cinema in Israel with my family. Firstly, this film is perfectly made on the technical side. Everything looks beautiful and fully immerses you into the world created as if it were real. Underwater shots as well as shots of the city. The story is not completely unique, a "fish out of water", a story of a character learning and developing -- overcoming adversity as well as self doubt. A classic worth telling and it is a good feel good story with well defined characters, each helping the story move along. I think emotionally, this story gives a lot of things to think about and the communication between characters, Luca and his friends, are very well written and very believable even though we're dealing where the fantasy part (becoming a "sea monster") is an occurrence. If I have to nit-pick, I would say that the film on one hand shows that dangerous things could be dangers but also that it is important to confront your fears -- perhaps in an instance or two it might have been good to add a band-aid or something to make it slightly clearer that a character went a little too far. Overall, though, this is not an issue to worry about. I don't think any kid is going to jump off a cliff because of this movie and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for good character building with an arc. It is not Shawshank, or Empire of the Sun, but it is a lovely movie. Very happy this was my first film-house visit after the pandemic.
Review of Luca
