MG

We want our whimsical stories to be sweet and fluffy. We want to see children who have been dealt a shitty hand get their wishes granted so that they can forget about reality for a little while and lose themselves in happier feelings. We never consider that the road to such kind deeds could be paved with utter shit.

So when we have to walk on such a road, it’s shocking to say the least.

MAGICAL GIRL begins with Luis, whose daughter might not live past her thirteenth birthday. When he discovers that it’s her heart’s desire to own a Magical Girl Yukiko dress, he dearly wants to make that happen. The hitch is that the dress costs €7,000. Luis has no idea how to raise such a sum, and then he gets vomited on from a second-story window.

That brings the story around to Barbara. Barbara is in a kept relationship, and seems to be feeling a tad desperate herself. Her suicide attempt leads to her vomiting up her meds and alcohol – and reaching out to Luis to make amends for hitting him with her sick. Her reach leads to the two sleeping together, which gives Luis an idea.

Barbara must come up with his €7,000 – otherwise he’ll contact her jealous husband and share the audio recording of their affair he illicitly captured.

It’s around here that MAGICAL GIRL really gets crazy, dark, and violent. It is a film that is violent both in sight and in thought since the domino effect of this blackmail plot takes us to some truly horrible places. A core idea that the film floats is that Spaniards have a particular chemistry to their character; that they are a perfect balance of reason and emotion…methodology and spontaneity, if you will. We see this on-display within the film, since it takes us sown such a dark and ugly road, but does so while explaining the reason in perfectly reasonable thoughts.

Much of the movie takes place in stone silence, leaving us alone with our thoughts to soak-up how truly terrible what we’re seeing really is. It wants to remind us that some truths in this world are absolute – that two-plus-two always equals four. A bad deed is a bad deed, no matter how good the reason.

The irony in MAGICAL GIRL is that we witness a bad act interrupted, only to see the interruption lead to an even worse act. It’s reminiscent of what can happen when you support the enemy of your enemy. No amount of magic can save you when that happens.