Review of Léolo (1992) by Aliya D — 04 Aug 2008

"Because I dream, I am..." Leo, a precocious child growing up in abject poverty, concocts an alternative identity as an Italian boy (Leolo) conceived through an encounter between his mother and a tomato, freshly doused with the onanistic spritz of an immigrant grocer.

Surrounded by a (sur)real family - a father obsessed with defecation, a sister who reigns as queen of the insects in the crawl-space below the family's tenament apartment, a bullied brother hiding from his environment in a steroid-enhanced body - Leo(lo) escapes into the fiction of his alternative life, aided by a kind stranger who deposits books at his door-step.

At night Leo reads these fantastic stories by stolen-light, and later they seep into his dreams, where he is enthralled and inspired by the beauty of an older neighbor-girl he fancies his muse and future lover.

"Because I dream, I am..." Leolo reiterates throughout this bitter-sweet tale of a bright mind besieged by the inequities of life. While punctuated with hilarious episodes of mock-heroism, and scored by a delightful Tom Waits soundtrack, the film subtly reveals the brutalities that imperil Leo's coming of age.

While we hope, with the protagonist, that art can triumph over the hardships of life, the film refuses the sadder-but-wiser narratives of redemption that usually underpin this genre. The innoscence and wisdom of a child's perspective is relayed in all of its precariousness.

If you liked My Life as a Dog, 400 Blows, or Slingshot, this film will blow you away! More bitter than sweet, Leolo is a coming of age story that dares to question the faith we put in the creative individual to convert our collective social failures into the necessary conditions of art.

In doing so, it eloquently evokes the beauty and the danger born of an impulse to fight with no recourse but mental flight. Leolo employs the conventions of magic realism while staying firmly within a recognizable universe.

And while it crafts its characters with humor it neither patronizes nor lampoons them. The film's true brilliance is its ability to convey the devastating limitations imposed upon its young hero by an unfortunate and uncomprehending family, while all along betraying their plight as similarly epic and heart-wrenching.

I was 16 years old when I first saw this on late-night television, this is my second viewing; Leolo will haunt you long after you turn off the DVD.