To be clear: Asensio is not a lesser filmmaker for trying so hard to get viewers to like Luciana. Rather, the way that she depicts Luciana's pre-horror-party life is regrettably wearisome. It's a perfect storm of flat line-readings, blunt dialogue, and monotonously exhausting pre-party scenes. Eventually, I stopped feeling bad for not caring enough about Luciana's plight, and started waiting for Asensio's story to either end, or get more interesting. Thankfully, the latter happens before the former can. 

So, yes, Luciana does eventually attend a sketchy party, because she needs money to make ends meet. But until then, we watch her life spiral out of control, and repeatedly hit rock-bottom. Because Luciana has no options at this point, so she has to barrel through several nightmarish experiences, any one of which could sink someone's day. She runs out of money on the pre-paid phone card she calls home with. This is after she has a trying phone call with her mother, who begs her to return to Spain, and tries to convince Luciana that people have forgiven her for an unexplained trauma. Still, Luciana presses on. Because her rent is due, as her roommate's passive-aggressive fridge post-it note insists. And Luciana's barely scraping by with her two jobs: costumed mascot for a fried chicken restaurant, and baby-sitter for two bratty children. She always runs late for her baby-sitting job, so her two pint-sized charges walk all over her, demanding ice cream, running off, and threatening to tattle on Luciana. 

And through it all, Luciana never has any money. She barely skates by thanks to the kindness of strangers, and the eternal promise that she'll be able to pay them back tomorrow. Which, again, is theoretically sympathetic. But after a certain point, watching "Most Beautiful Island" really does grind away at you. 

The storyteller's manner of address is assaultive, and lifeless. Asensio won't take no for an answer, and she just keeps piling on scenes that demand viewers not only understand her character's dilemma, but appreciate that there are very real conditions that could lead an unattached female immigrant to agree to attend a creepy party in an undisclosed basement. There are many warning signs that Luciana willfully ignores, particularly the fact that fellow chicken mascot Olga (Natasha Romanova) does not provide many details when she offers to hook Luciana up with this seemingly easy, one-off gig. But Luciana has to go, and viewers must understand that. 

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