Leona (2018) User Reviews

Catábasis

[EdwardSaberhagen · 8/10 · 24 November 2018]

There's no better word to describe this film than that: katabasis. Young jewish girl falls for a non jewish guy, in a sort of rebellious manner, as her closest friend got married and every eyes are on her, for they expect that she'll be the next one. Problems arise when her family learns that she's dating a "goy". But the story is much more than that. It's about a woman becoming her own. Making her own mistakes, by making her own decisions, painting her own image in a truly white canvas. Jewish culture is no that known in my country (Mexico), so it is nice to watch a film that depicts traditions that intimately.

Impressive Family/Millennial Drama

[roger-99-171599 · 7/10 · 7 January 2020]

An impressive, timely directorial debut, Isaac Cherem's modern romance channels this generation's emotional conflicts as they seek acceptance and meaning among family and society. Set in now-a-days Mexico City, the film paints a relevant portrait of a Jewish community preserving their values and traditions. When Ariela (seductively played by Naian González Norvind) starts a love affair with a non-Jewish man, she becomes the center of an interior conflict that could lead them apart, dividing the family. Cherem deeply observes both sides of the conflict and their reasons, with focus on Ariela's search for sexual and professional identity. Vibrant, stylish and precise, it's an accomplished look at family traditions, a young woman's quest for freedom and the uncontrollable force of desire.

Not great, but certainly watchable

[elision10 · 7/10 · 3 February 2024]

The best thing about this movie is its realism. Usually a director goes with a good guys/bad guys dichotomy so we have someone to root for. But this movie has little of that, except maybe a couple of bad dates. The lead isn't particularly likeable; she's often self-centered and somewhat spoiled, and lacks courage. But she's still appealing,and the dilemmas she faces are real. The middle-class Jewish family members are neither admirable nor hideous. And the plot, while not original, doesn't take the usual turns. So it's satisfying that way and makes for an unusual viewing experience, if not a terribly enjoyable one.

Brilliant all around

[jfreeman12 · 9/10 · 4 March 2019]

My wife and I both thought performances were so real that we were not watching actors. The story of this young artist moves along at a pace that you sometimes just don't want to stop. The colours vibrant to plain matched to the scenes involved. It was not magic but clever writing that Ivan's father's final play for the season was to be "Romeo and Juliet" . We just loved this movie.

Mexican Jewish woman loses gentile lover from community and family pressure

[maurice_yacowar · 9/10 · 6 August 2019]

In his debut film director Isaac Cherem uses a young woman's coming of age to probe the tension between insulation and assimilation in the Jewish community of Mexico City. When Ariela dates a gentile man the Jewish community and her family assume the responsibility to stave off her possible loss to them. Shamed by her venture, she is banished by both parents, now living separate lives, and even her grandmother. This family pressure is buttressed by the community's history and need for interdependence and renewal. Ariela is a talented mural painter. That is, she finds her self-expression on large outdoor spaces. Not for her the subdued, private paintings of easel and canvas. She wants to be out there. Committed to humanity, she fills the space with faces, amid elegant flourishes. That spirit enables her to take the gentile Ivan as a lover, though ultimately she can't meet his need to meet her family. Ivan is more respectful of her work than her Jewish lover is. Gabriel presumes she would rather slip into domesticity. But then, Ivan comes from an artistic family, Gabriel from merchants. Still, Ivan sleeps through his father's production of King Lear and won't attend his Romeo and Juliet, which would now be too personal. Ariela's intervening suitors are even more inappropriate, Jewish but vulgarians. Honouring the community pressure, Gabriel courts Ariela's family more than he does her. He clears their marriage with them before he asks her. At their first bedding, her upside-down view of his collection of National Football League memorabilia should have warned her off more completely. The NFL-nerd bowler wins her family but not her. She tries to recover Ivan by painting a mural of his tattoo - "Looking sensational." But now he has a beautiful new girlfriend, Sofia, whom she meets at his friends' engagement barbecue. The narrative is framed by two mikvahs. The first is the formal Jewish ceremony in which her friend is ceremonially bathed in preparation for her wedding. While the friend proceeds into child-rearing, Ariela moves from her passion - which isolates her from her family and the community - through the inapt Gabriel, finally resigning herself to the solitude of independence. In the last shot she immerses herself in her tub alone, an asocial alternative to the mikvah. She will make her own way, choose her own loves, find her own purification, rather than serve her community's will and ritual. In that spirit she signs her new mural Leona, which is Spanish for the "lioness" her Hebrew name Ariela denotes. In name as in spirit, the lioness leaves the herd.

Couldn't get past 30 minutes...

[jake-h-morson · 3/10 · 22 May 2023]

This movie is so choppy, there's no transition nor reason for anything. A random stranger talks to Ariella (Leona) in the street for half a second and 2 scenes later they're on a date? And another scene later they're going steady?

Cue the cliche cultural "shocks" of every Mexican romance movie - he takes her to eat "street food", to noisy bars, etc. And she's just SO fascinated. I stopped at that point.

I don't have much more to say as I didn't watch the full film, but this movie really pales in comparison to The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch, another recent title about a Jew being tempted by dating a non-Jew, dealing with the family fallout, and eventually "finding their own path".

BORING.

Goes beyond the "love outside the culture" genre

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 18 March 2021]

Leona (2018) was co-written and directed by Isaac Cherem. It was also co-written by the star, Naian González Norvind, who portrays Ariela. (Why the movie is titled Leona is revealed at the end.)

Ariela is from a close-knit Jewish family that exists within a close-knit Syrian Jewish culture in Mexico City. (There are less than 16,000 Syrian Jews in Mexico City, so everyone really does know everyone else.)

The basic plot--clear from the beginning--is that Ariela falls in love with a Christian. As would be expected, this is a source of distress for her family and her community.

How the movie plays out from that beginning is unpredictable and interesting. What makes the film worth seeing is Norvind's great acting and the fact that Ariela is not a perfect person trapped in a cultural vise. Unlike many women portrayed in movies like this, she has definite weaknesses as well as strengths.

Leona has a decent IMDb rating of 7.2. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 9.

P.S. Notice that the opening scene and the closing scene both are of a woman taking a bath. Very clever touch by writer-director Cherem.

So amazing...

[Filmboost1 · 10/10 · 2 May 2019]

.... the cast the Directing and the Editing.



Perfection of a Film

Breakout new director

[wschultz-51971 · 10/10 · 18 February 2019]

Brilliant debut. Moving, thought-provoking... at once familiar and exotic. Great music too

Riveting topic

[rimaggio · 8/10 · 1 November 2021]

Excellent treatment of a very interesting subject, with no distracting sun-plots. Continuity was not up to par. Acting was excellent very much in tune with the characters. While realistic, ending is somewhat disappointing.