All the Better to Eat with Dutra & Rojas’ Good Manners | DVD Review

Premiering in competition at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival, Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas’ superb second collaboration Good Manners was purchased by Distrib Films in the US and re-leased in significantly limited theatrical release in late July of 2018 (across four screens it took in just over thirty-thousand at the box-office). One of the year’s most underrated and underseen theatrical offerings, it’s a deserved cult classic waiting to be discovered by art-house horror acolytes, which the Icarus Films DVD release might not exactly catalyze in the US. Beyond its success at Locarno, Dutra and Rojas picked up a raft of film festival prizes throughout its extensive festival circuit run with one of the most notable titles from a burgeoning new wave of Brazilian auteurs. From our 2017 AFI review: “as its title would indicate, social etiquette and desiring acceptability are at the forefront of Good Manners, the phenomenal second feature of Brazilian directing duo Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas (which took home a Special Jury Prize at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival). However, it should immediately be noted, in ways one can’t begin to predict. Re-teaming after their 2011 debut Hard Labor, their latest is a heady reconfiguration of genre flavors used as the framework to explore class, race, and sexuality in modern-day Brazil.”

Disc Review:

Icarus Films distributes Good Manners on DVD only in 1.85:1 with 5.1 Stereo. Although picture and sound quality are serviceable in this transfer, this is the glorious type of heady genre splice which demands a high-res remastering in a significant package. No extra features exist on the disc.

Film Review: ★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆