Michael's Movie Grade: A+
A fantastic political thriller from Brazil.
This film tells the story of a man who in 1977 Brazil goes back to his hometown of Recife only to discover that it has changed for the worse, turning him into a political refuge.
As this movie starts, we are quite unsure of who this character is as well as his past. Yet the opening sequence sets up a real sense of dread. We open with our main character pulling into a gas station where a dead body is lying outside because the cops haven't come around to pick it up yet (though it has been there for days). When we see the cops finally come, they do nothing about the dead body but instead search the car of our main character, despite his various objections. This is a perfect opening. It tells us little of anything, yet it pulls us in and intrigues us automatically. This is an opening scene that will stay with me for a good while. The film slowly reveals what is going on, a little at a time. This type of storytelling can be dangerous because it can either come off as intriguing or boring. However here it works perfectly. That is because the excellent filmmaking and well written script make it incredibly compelling, even before we fully figure out what is going on. The whole film is fully of beautiful looking shots and very intelligent dialogue. The musical score is also excellent and lends much to the sense of atmosphere. Meanwhile each reveal is fully worth waiting for as each one is very smart and makes what came before even more effective. The movie also gets more intense as it goes along with a climax that is very exciting and disturbing.
I am keeping this review short as to not give away too much. However, I give it my highest recommendation.
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