- Writer
- Gian Cassini
- Director
- Gian Cassini
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 98 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Comala is a documentary about a deeply personal journey for answers through the lens of violence and more specifically, the ripple effect certain decisions can have through a family for generations. Gian Cassini serves as the film’s guide as the murder of his father, El Jimmy, who was a hitman in Tijuana, sends him on a discovery of the dual life that his estranged father actually had.
Where Comala struggles is in its inability to separate itself or its subject matter from a familiar storytelling path that has been well-trodden. The personal aspect can be captivating especially when Cassini expresses his feelings towards his father based on certain occurrences during his childhood or when he’s weighing his newfound revelations against the family members that share various expressions of Cassini’s father. The film achieves a deft balance of exploring Gian’s desire to better know his father while also being grateful for avoiding the terror of not ever fully knowing him.
It’s a push and pull that keeps interest in its subject at a premium throughout the runtime, however, is at constant odds with the miscalculated pacing of the narrative which is its biggest setback. The pacing seems at peace with Comala slowly unraveling the mystery of his father and spaces out the majority of the family interviews in a way where they are the sole pieces keeping the project afloat. This is disappointing but not detracting from the personal resonance that the film’s journey takes the audience on as we are allowed inside his thoughts during each revelatory moment which is hauntingly authentic and somber, but the catharsis that Cassini encounters is well worth the experience.
The beauty of Comala comes from its honesty which is surprising given the subject matter featuring the murder of someone who gathered many enemies and led a lifestyle where the outcome was expected. Cassini’s family is open and willing to allow the audience into their homes projecting a feeling almost of relief as they each share their perspectives on the subject but it only is successful when measured by Gian.
In the end, validation is achieved but not from where one would expect and when it arrives, it does so in such a beautifully simplistic manner.
still courtesy of TIFF
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