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Indie soft rock is a genre I’m not afraid to admit I’ve had little experience or knowledge in, especially regarding Grenada’s indie rock scene during the 90s. However, that makes it all the more intriguing that a story about the trials and tribulations of an indie rock band on the cusp of stardom so accurately ensconced me away into this cigarette and hard drug-fueled scene. Every moment of Saturn Return drips with authenticity and style, begging us to look deeper into the madness and loneliness of counterculture fame and success.
via YouTubeWriter/Director and producer Isaki Lacuesta (The Next Skin, Between Two Waters) was tasked with completing the film when original director Jonás Trueba stepped away for an undisclosed reason. The shift in directors isn’t jarring, though, as the style of handheld cameras and a forced aspect ratio perfectly match the film’s grungy aesthetic. With graffiti-covered greenrooms, seedy crimson-colored venues, and stuffy record labels, this film runs the gamut of an authentic music industry case study.
Following a tumultuous snapshot of the band Los Planetas, the audience is brought along for the ride as one of the members leaves due to a heated break-up. At the same time, their corporate label is pressuring them for their biggest album yet. However, the film doesn’t seem too concerned with dealing with the actual stakes of its premise, choosing to forgo the typical band biopic drama, to the point our main characters go unnamed, instead referring to them as El Cantante (Daniel Ibáñez) and El Guitarrista (Cristalino), respectively. Opting for a more surrealist introspection of the motivations and visceral experiences one goes through in the throws of addiction and punishing artistic integrity.
The main cast of bandmates is a mixed bag of outstanding and forgettable performances. Our leads, Ibáñez and Cristalino, are excellent, garnering by far the most screentime and being the focal point of the film’s best surrealist scenes. One partially good moment has El Guitarrista sent to rehab while the band records their final tape in New York. During his isolation, we watch as he painstakingly chugs a bottle of water before a drug test, resulting in subsequent water-poisoned seizures and then culminating in an exorcist-esque levitation through the ceiling. This and many other moments allow the film’s tone and performances to take on an almost supernatural life of their own as we flit through this rich moment in time.
The film’s only real faults are the relatively bland performances of the band’s other members, most acutely shown through the main character’s ex, May (Stéphanie Magnin). Her appearances are scant throughout our central conflict and ultimately feel barren, as I strained to feel the emotion Saturn Returns earnestly wants to convey. But in the end, her story only further enunciates the film’s transient and vulnerable feel, constantly weaving the viewer in and out of this culturally dynamic counterculture. Never concerned with staying too long in any one place lest things get stale and basic, the bane of those living on the edge of artistic honesty and oblivion.