After several days watching movies with social issues and dealing with current problems, I decided to relax, watching a movie that would bring me only entertainment, I needed a movie that would make me forget the problems and just enjoy a good time.

And the ideal movie to forget the bad moments, is this Spanish film, which mixes the musical with the romantic comedy. Universal genres that in most cases everyone likes.

Besides, this movie has two things that I loved: First, it stars an actress that fascinates me, I'm a fan of Ingrid García Jonsson since I saw her for the first time in the movie Hermosa Juventud. When she announced on twitter that she was making this movie, I was really looking forward to seeing it. So I'm going to be unsubjective with this review opinion. Because I'm a fan of the lead actress...

The second thing is that it is a musical with the hits of the great Raffaella Carrá, I really like her songs, although I am not from that era, I always liked her songs and I think she was a beautiful woman, who broke taboos, before Madonna, Raffaella already caused controversy with her daring outfits and dances, this Italian singer was very successful in Spain and Latin America and is still working on other projects in Italy.

Explota Explota is the debut feature of Uruguayan filmmaker Nacho Álvarez. In Uruguay he had made a short film and worked in the area of advertising and three years ago he traveled to Spain to realize the musical project, where he looked for a producer interested in making a musical and then met with Raffaella to explain the project, who was fascinated with the idea. He achieved the Spain-Italy co-production through the production companies Tornasol Films and Indigo Films.

Nacho is the brother of fellow filmmaker Fede Alvarez, who has carved out a career in Hollywood, having directed the reboot of Hell Possession, the hit thriller Don't Breathe and The Girl in the Spider's Web.

What is the plot?

Maria is a young woman educated in a convent, where she was forbidden to dance, something that fascinated her. Being about to get married in Italy, she regrets and takes a flight back to Spain, at the airport, with a broken heart, she will meet Amparo, a girl who works in an airline company and they will become close friends. That same day she will have a first encounter with Pablo, son of the supervisor of good manners of Televisión Española, and future censor of the public channel, in the Spain of 1973, under Franco's regime. By accidents of fate, Maria is selected to be one of the dancers of the star TV program, making her dream come true, but at the same time the man she loves, will be the new one in charge of maintaining decorum and decency in the program, affecting her work and sentimental relationship. The whole story is told with musical numbers of Raffaella Carrá's greatest hits.

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The film delivers what it promises: a party full of comedy, fun, romance, color, dance and music. A lighthearted product for the audience to enjoy.

Of course, being a film set in the last years of Franco's dictatorship in Spain, it criticizes the censorship system that prevailed in those times.

Spain was ruled by an ultra-conservative and fervently religious dictator. So the figure of the censor was very important within the entertainment industry, especially in public television.

Funny are the scenes in which the censor measures with a ruler, the length of the skirt, which could not be too short and be only eight centimeters above the knee. Any garment that showed too much of the dancers' breasts was covered with some element of the wardrobe, the cameramen were ordered not to focus on the parts that were considered an incitement to sex, to sin!

Sexual repression in Spanish society was a reality, those were dark times, but the film does not pretend to be a sociological study about that time, it only shows us that aspect of Franco's Spain with a lot of humor, so that we laugh at those rules that now seem absurd to us, but that dominated for decades the audiovisual industry of that country.

With this film we will enjoy a careful artistic work, where the sets and costumes, hyper colorful, make many of the frames are beautiful.

All this accompanied by good choreography with the music of Raffaella, a selection of memorable songs that are performed by the different actors and dancers in the film. I really liked the choreography of the song Lucas, where Amparo's character sees how Lucas, the cameraman she fell in love with, leaves accompanied by another guy in the deep Madrid subway. The other musical numbers are also entertaining, each one performed at a relevant moment in the story.

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There is chemistry in the scenes between actresses Ingrid García Jonsson and Verenoica Echegui.

Ingrid plays Maria, the protagonist, the woman who left the man she would marry in Italy to start a new life in Spain, her home. Finding love in Pablo and fulfilling her dream of dancing on television.

Echegui plays Amparo, the Andalusian friend who works at the airport and helps Maria, they become best friends and the actress is phenomenal in her character. Many of the funniest situations involve her character. For this role she has received a nomination to the Feroz awards and another one to the Goya awards as best supporting actress. She really deserved the nominations, she does an overwhelming comedy work.

Ingrid Garcia Jonsson was not nominated for any awards, but no matter, she also does an excellent job, using her comedic gifts to make us fall in love with Maria, her character. She will never read this review, but she has all my appreciation and I congratulate her for her good work.

The character of Pablo is played by actor Fernando Guallar, known in his country for his work in Velvet. I must say that I didn't feel any chemistry between Pablo and Maria, the love story didn't convince me. I have nothing against this actor, I respect him for his profession, but he didn't hook me, that was my impression. He is a handsome actor with a great body, a man who drives any woman crazy, but it was not enough for me. I would have preferred another actor with more charisma for the comedy.

The other male character, aspiring to Maria's love, is Massimiliano, played by actor Giuseppe Maggio. There is not much to add, his character is in the script to be a small obstacle, the actor is Italian and is correct in his role. Fran Morcillo plays Lucas, the cameraman who will start dating Amparo, but he is not very interested in her, because he has other tastes.

Fernando Tejero, famous actor in Spain for his work in the series Aquí no hay quien viva , plays Chimo, an unpleasant character, the typical program director who sleeps with all the dancers or actresses. The character has a perverted face and a tone that makes him repulsive and funny at the same time.

The veteran actor Pedro Casablanc, winner of a Goya award, plays Celestino, the one in charge of censorship in TVE and Pablo's father, to whom he plans to leave the responsibility of taking charge, after his retirement, but he will stay as an advisor. His character is very overacted, becoming caricatured, but that's what makes him funny, turning him into a buffoon, to laugh at all his conservative beliefs and see him suffer with everything that has erotic references. Very well done by the actor, in making this caricature of the gray men who for years determined what the people of Spain could see on television.

The script is written by Eduardo Navarro, David Esteban Cubero and director Nacho Alvarez. The colorful cinematography is by cinematographer Juan Carlos Gómez and the musical compositions for Rafaella's songs were done by composer Roque Baños, who has worked with the director's brother on the films Infernal Possession and Don't Breathe. For English-speaking audiences, the film was titled: My Heart Goes Bom!

Trailer

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