Sundance Film Festival Review: Leonor Will Never Die
By: Joseph Perry (Twitter - Uphill Both Ways Podcast)
Fans of foreign action movies from the past and cinema lovers in general should get a big kick out of Leonor Will Never Die (Philippines, 2022), a lighthearted drama with fantasy elements and a big heart.
Writer/director Martika Ramirez Escobar’s film finds elderly formerly popular action director Leonor Reyes (Sheila Francisco) behind on her utility payments, much to the chagrin of her live-in adult son Rudy (Bong Cabrera). She sees a newspaper item about a screenplay contest and decides to dust off an old script she had worked on long ago. Unfortunately, a blow to the head from an errant television puts her in a coma. The upside is that she is now roaming through the world of her screenplay, interacting with its characters. Adding to the fanciful narrative, the ghost of Leonor’s deceased son (Anthony Falcon) is visible to the rest of the family and shares the name Ronwaldo with the hero of her unfinished screenplay (Rocky Salumbides).
Leonor Will Never Die is heartwarming, wholly entertaining, thrilling, and often surprising. The proceedings take a meta turn and things get pretty bonkers, but Francisco’s charming portrayal of the title character always keeps things fascinating. There’s plenty of action, family drama, some romance, and plenty more in this valentine to the movies and moviemaking.
Leonor Will Never Die screens as part of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which runs online January 20–30. For more information, visit https://www.sundance.org/.
Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/). He also writes for the film websites Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), and Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).
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