“Música”, which is currently available on Amazon Prime, gave me a rather mixed impression. The movie is often likable with a series of whimsically musical moments, but it is also quite distracting at times as trying too many things within its short running time (91 minutes). Although it has enough wit, mood, and spirit to support itself for a while, it could hone its story and characters more for some improvement in my inconsequential opinion, and I only admired the result from the distance instead of really getting engaged to the story and characters during my viewing.

Rudy Mancuso, who also directed the film besides serving as its co-writer/composer/co-executive producer, plays an apparently talented Brazilian American lad who seems autobiographical considering that 1) his name is also Rudy and 2) the movie looks like being based on a real-life story as humorously emphasized at its very beginning. The opening scene shows Rudy meeting his rich white girlfriend Haley (Francesca Reale) at a local diner for having a serious conversation about whether their relationship can be continued, but his mind cannot help but get distracted due to how many different sounds around them feel like the music to be processed by him, and Haley eventually decides that enough is enough.

While surely feeling hurt by this unexpected breakup with his girlfriend, Rudy’s mind is more occupied with what to do next for his life. While he is about to graduate from a local university as his dear immigrant mother Maria (Maria Mancuso, who is incidentally Mancuso’s real-life mother) has always wanted, he wants to do more of his own quirky puppet performance outside his New Jersey neighborhood after his graduation, though, so far, what he has routinely done at a nearby subway station is not that successful enough to draw the attention of others.

Anyway, after hearing about her son’s recent break-up, Maria is ready to recommend some suitable Brazilian girls who can be a nice wife for her son someday, and that leads to one silly scene where she blatantly attempts to set him up with some beautiful Brazilian lass in their neighborhood. To Rudy’s perplexed embarrassment, the girl is quite determined to move on the next step within a few minutes, and he has no choice but to tell her clearly that he is not into her at all from the start.

When he later comes to a local fish shop for doing a little errand for his mother, Ruby unexpectedly finds a chance for new romance. Although their first encounter is not exactly pleasant, Ruby becomes quite attracted to a young female employee working there, and it soon turns out that the feeling is mutual between him and Isabella (Camila Mendes). As they subsequently spend more time together, the movie provides several sweet moments to enjoy, and I particularly like when Ruby tries to show Isabella more of how his brain can instantly process many different sounds around him into a musical rhythm (This interesting neural condition of his brain is called Synesthesia, which is, according to the IMDB Trivia, “a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.”).

Although their first official date turns out to be a bit disastrous due to one unexpected happening, Ruby and Isabella are still willing to move on the next step of their relationship. However, not so surprisingly, Haley comes to consider restarting her relationship with Ruby in the meantime, and his situation naturally becomes very complicated as he remains indecisive about which girl he has to choose.

Of course, what will eventually happen during the last act is quite evident to us to say the least, but the movie keeps things rolling as trying one impulsive musical moment after another. Even when he becomes all the more conflicted, Ruby’s mind still cannot help but process every sound into musical rhythm, and we frequently watch how people around him suddenly dance according to whatever is being processed inside his mind. Furthermore, he even begins to talk with his main puppet, and that certainly leads him to some soul-searching later in the story.

However, the screenplay by Mancuso and his co-writer/co-executive producer Dan Lagana often stumbles in its attempts to bring more substance to the story and characters. Most of the main characters in the film are rather broad stereotypes instead of feeling like real human characters to observe, and that is the main reason why one very awkward scene between Ruby and Haley’s rich white family is merely amusing despite some sharp points on the white prejudice against Latino immigrants. While the musical scenes in the film are well-executed on the whole, they are sometime distracting as interrupting the narrative flow of the movie, and you may come to wish that Mancuso put some more restraint on that as fleshing out the story and characters more.

As far as I can see from his solid lead performance, Mancuso looks like a promising new actor to watch. He is also supported well by several other main cast members including Camila Mendes, Francesca Reale, Maria Mancuso, and J.B. Smoove, and Smoove often steals the show as a local food truck owner who is also Rudy’s best friend.

In conclusion, “Música” is a fairly enjoyable product despite some glaring flaws in terms of storytelling and characterization. Although I cannot wholly recommend the movie, the overall result occasionally shows Mancuso’s considerable talent and presence at least, and it will be interesting to watch what this evidently talented actor will do next in the near future.