Tag: Brazilian Cinema
The Blue Trail (O último azul) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Crimes of the Future: Mascaro Envisions Trouble Ahead
“Getting old ain’t no place for sissies,” a quote often attributed to Bette Davis (or similar variations...
The Best Mother in the World (A melhor mãe do mundo) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Life is Beautiful: Muylaert Takes Aim at Domestic Abuse in Heartfelt Drama
In A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World), the...
I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) | Review
Still Missing: Salles Returns with Survivors of the Dictatorship
“The dictatorship’s mistakes was to torture but not kill,” former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro proudly claimed...
Power Alley (Levante) | Review
That Time of the Month: Halla Offers Ringside Seats to the Courts - Both On and Off
In one’s timeline, it’s the pre-adulthood teenage years...
Motel Destino | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review
Destiny Indemnity: Ainouz Retrofits a Noir Classic
“Love, when you get fear in it, it’s not love any more, it’s hate,” wrote James M. Cain...
Malu | 2024 Sundance Film Festival Review
A Streetcar Named Desejo: Freire Mines Matriarchal Tendencies
Having directed several short films and television series, Brazilian director Pedro Freire unleashes a motherlode of intergenerational...
Interview: Nara Normande & Tião – Sem Coração (Heartless)
For their feature debut collaboration, Brazilian filmmakers Nara Normande and Tião returned to the heart of Guaxuma, the beachside setting in Alagoas, for their...
Always on the Run: Karim Aïnouz Checks into “Motel Destino”
Before moving on to his next weighty film project in Rosebushpruning (set for Spring 2024), Karim Aïnouz has already begun filming his next feature...
Rodrigo Santoro Finds “Outro Lado do Céu” Deep in the Amazon
We saw that Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Mascaro was hard at work on a new fourth feature, and now we have the title, cast and...
Body Heat: Gabriel Mascaro Sets Sail on Fourth Fiction Feature
August Winds (2014), Neon Bull (2015) and Divine Love (2019) filmmaker Gabriel Mascaro has began production on his fourth fiction feature film in his...
The Buriti Flower (Crowrã) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Rites of Resistance: Messora & Salaviza Provide Historical Ellipses of the Krahô
Researching a community without causing hindrance or harm has long been a concern...
Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #32. Marco Dutra’s Enterre Seus Mortos
Enterre Seus Mortos
We've been big fans of the filmmaker since he broke out with Locarno preemed Hard Labor (2011) and Un Certain Regard selected...
Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #108. Carolina Markowicz’s Pedagio
Pedagio
Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz surprised us last year when she pulled out an entire other feature film rabbit from her hat. Charcoal became her...
Interview: Carolina Markowicz – Charcoal (Carvão)
Pandemic times gifted Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz with fraternal film twins. Toll would turn out to be her sophomore feature, but she broke out...
Scar Tissue: Maeve Jinkings Populates Nara Normande & Tião’s “Heartless”
A debut tandem feature that is among the Brazilian film items we are keeping our eye on for 2023, Nara Normande and Tião are...
Charcoal | 2022 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Business (Wo)Man: Rural Brazil Opt to Pray & Prey in Markowicz’s Debut
If God isn’t listening, maybe the devil is. It’s a compelling idea, and...
Regra 34 (Rule 34) | 2022 Locarno Intl. Film Festival Review
Cam and See: Murat Explores Pleasure Principles in Provocative Portrait
“She does it for the thrill, even if it kills,” might be a good tagline...
The Pink Cloud | Review
Endemic Pandemic: Gerbase Unveils Prophetic Debut of Life During Lockdown
The uncanny prescience of Iuli Gerbase’s directorial debut The Pink Cloud is as stunning as...
Medusa | 2021 Cannes Film Festival Review
O Kill, All Ye Faithful: Da Silveira Kills the Teen Dream in Capricious Sophomore Film
If there’s anything for certain in approaching Medusa, the extravagantly...
Divine Love | Review
Mighty Aphrodite: Mascaro’s Second Coming Cloaked in Complex Allegory
The Immaculate Conception remains one of the notorious suspensions of disbelief in Christian folklore, and Brazilian...
It Takes a Village: Filho & Dornelles Smash Art-House into Grindhouse Bacurau (2019) | Blu-ray Review
Bacurau, the third feature from Kleber Mendonca Filho, co-directed by Juliano Dornelles (who served as production designer on Filho’s Neighboring Sounds in 2012 and...
Bacurau | Review
It Takes a Village: Filho & Dornelles Smash Art-House into Grindhouse
A heady melding of local cultural motifs, morbid politically-minded histories and exploitation slasher vibes,...
All the Dead Ones | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Turn and Face the Strange: Caetano & Gotardo Navigate Displacement in Stellar Period Piece
The tagline for George Cukor’s 1939 classic The Women read “It’s...
Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #133. La Casa de Antiguidades – João Paulo Miranda Maria
La Casa de Antiguidades
Brazil’s João Paulo Miranda Maria seems primed for international success with his feature debut La Casa de Antiguidades (Memory House), produced...
Interview: Gabriela Amaral Almeida – The Father’s Shadow | 2019 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival
With barely a year between productions, Brazilian filmmaker Gabriela Amaral Almeida moves from survivalism in O Animal Cordial to enlarger genre parameters to delve...
Sick, Sick, Sick | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Lover, Come Back: Furtado Hearts Hemoglobin in Sinister Debut
The heart is a lonely killer in Brazilian director Alice Furtado’s apprehensive narrative debut Sick, Sick,...
