Magellan

"i had to do it. i had to do it for my freedom." finally i found a way to watch this movie, it was maybe my second most anticipated film of 2025 and it did not disappoint in the slightest.  last year i heard Diaz was releasing a new film which immediately made me lock in, then i found out it would be centered around Ferdinand Magellan and i remember saying to myself “no fucking shot”. i was ecstatic, i could not think of a more fitting director to tackle such a monstrous and complex figure.  for the film itself, there is almost nothing i can say. this felt less like a movie but more like work of renaissance era art. every single scene is like paint strokes on a canvas, every movement made with intention and a sort of divine guidance, the monotonous and the intense displayed with striking beauty and realism, its long form slow cinema at its most enormous and impressive.  much like ‘From What Is Before’, this film delves so vigorously into faith, pain, and death but also ego or delusions of grandeur as well as both colonialist and personal greed via the story of Magellan. its visceral, its almost vicarious, you feel everything. the sounds, the emotions, the film in its entirety. it transcends immersion much like ‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’ does, you don't feel immersed, you feel like you are in the film itself.  its really just insanely fantastic and indescribable as how a human being could create such a motion picture. it somehow managed to par or even exceed my titanic expectations.