The plot is, a father trying to fulfill his daughter with terminal cancer's last wish of a "Magical Girl" costume crashes into the lives of a disturbed girl and a retired professor.Magical Girl is written and directed by Carlos Vermut and (in a Pulp Fiction style) focuses on three stories and characters that are all equally understandable and fascinating. The story is definitely the core of Magical Girl. It is one that subverts expectation. It can make you laugh, cry, or feel disturbed, and all while being a perfect whole. It is also one that makes for an equally great rewatch. There are dozens of details scattered in the movie that can only make sense on a second viewing. Sometimes, these details can even change the context of a previous scene.The acting and camera-work are good without being too exceptional, but the way they work with the unfolding events can make them much more effective. And the movie never feels constrained by its budget in any way. The song choices are not only great and incredibly memorable, but they also have an important role in the story.Magical Girl is one of the most unappreciated gems of 2014. It is entertaining, emotionally powerful, unique, and intelligent at the same time. It takes very little to get invested, and you will be on the edge of your seat. I adore this film and would highly recommend Magical Girl, it is a must-see.

Horrible girl, ill-advised girl, disturbing girl... Anything but magical."Magical girl" has an easily understood plot, which still makes not much sense, because everything is symbolic and with various layers. Which makes the story, quite disturbing to start with, think of itself in a too highly way.It all goes about a young girl, who is sick, and who would like to have a dress from an anime, a Japanese animation series. Her father, decides to do whatever, but whatever, to get her the dress.That everyone in this movie has some kind of mental problem, or is in mental pain, is quite obvious. The young girl is probably the sanest in all the story. Too bad we are all the time with the creepy father, a young woman with a dark past, who has a very controlling and creepy husband, and a creepy old teacher of her who has just been released from prison. All characters are quite creepy. And this without taking into account the constant hammering of symbols, which also have a strange patriotic tinge to it (bullfighting to justify that Spaniards are not like the Nordic people but neither like Italians or Latinos?; the very Spanish music or the TV playing a Spanish selection match...).So, the movie seems to say that people in pain or who see people in pain may do crazy things. It could also be about the sick girl and everything be about her illness. Or about the young woman and the very sick life she has had till that moment (and all the "nice" men that surround her). In the end, magic is conspicuous by its absence, but creepiness overstays its welcome, as the movie is two hours long.

Saw this at the Rotterdam film festival 2015 (IFFR). In short: Unbalanced and illogical all over. Apparently hoping that the feel-good aspects of the story let us overlook all its faults. Anyway, It did not jerk any of my tears.The narrative left more than a few uncharted fields, and focused on other things that I deem mere side-ways. Important aspects of the underlying drama are not revealed to us, like why Barbara's past is so scary for Damian, and what her "psychological" issues exactly were (quote from IFFR website) or why she is a "disturbed girl" (quote from IMDb). The magical trick we see in school, in one of the openings scenes, is not enough to connect the dots later on. Similarly unclarified, we see how Damian reacts on Barbara's phone call, but leaving his defiant attitude devoid of any explanation. He seems just scared for unknown reasons. And near the finale, after learning how Barbara and the girl's father met and (!) that he stayed overnight, he freaks out, even to the extent that his attitude towards the father turns 180 degrees, all of that still for reasons unknown.That the father goes at any length to fulfill his ailing daughter's last wish, may be understandable as this is what parents do. But what we see happening here is certainly over-the-top. He does not even make an attempt to verify whether her wish still exists, as this could have been a short-lived dream from years ago. I admit that I'm trying to be rational here, but I never was a father, so what do I know.Finally, I am prepared to overlook how very coincidental our three protagonists meet each other. It is convoluted, but it could have happened this way, including the loose piece of the jigsaw puzzle lying on the street. On the other hand, the time devoted to all these side-ways would have been better spent on extra background information on the three. The synopsis on the festival website was a required read, yet insufficient to grasp all of the drama that enfolds in two hours time. We are withheld from being pulled in by the story, and also are being prevented from identifying ourselves with either one of the main characters, not even with the father who would be the obvious candidate for our sympathy.

(No spoilers in this review, but a couple of ideas who try to illustrate why I've liked this film) Well, despite the fact that many scenes on this film are quite disturbing, viewers could enjoy a demanding and appealing work from Carlos Vermut.And this is the kind of movie who would let you quite astonished for many reasons. One of these is revealed when you check how violent a scene could be not showing any graphic violence at all, thanks to a wonderful script who works very, very well throughout all the film: this is, indeed, a basic part in Magical Girl, a script designed as a precise swiss machinery. It even works great on many parts who requires a little suspension of disbelief from the part of the viewer. But once you're inside, you remain there.Magical Girl's power reside on the high complex (but also extremely fluid) multi-layered and interconnected scenes. Quite similar as in Pulp Fiction film (by the way... it would be great to know Tarantino's opinion about Magical Girl).Also, as it happens on real life, you could witness the huge impact that a "butterfly effect" could provoke. This is very well shown on the film, and it would remain long time on many viewers thoughts.I really want to know what would be next director's projects, I'm sure that he's going to tune his skills, offering us an interesting filmography.Go watch it, Magical girl is a well crafted artifact. But beware, as it's NOT intended for young audiences, but adult ones.