Alice's House

As the title suggests, the movie revolves around Alice (Carla Ribas), a manicurist, who leads a drudgery of a life surrounded by her three sons, a crabby husband and old mother. A very stark view of the life of lower middle class family in Brazil. But realism always doesn't translate into placing the viewer in a mood of enjoyment or contentment.

Rating: * +

Blindness

A macabre take on how mankind would react to a global epidemic of blindness. Similar in concept to 'Lord of the flies', it shows how destruction is latent in normal people - like you and me. Nicely made - and deals with the 'supernatural' phenomenon in a manner very different to say how Manoj N Shyamalan would. No attempt in explaining, no heroes but just a depressing view of ourselves. From the maker of this series and an adaption of Jose Sarmago's novel of the same name, Blindness can be disturbing to many. But on the flipside, at the end of all of it one can look around with much satisfaction.

Rating: * * *

Elite Squad

The Pope is visiting Rio and everything needs to be quiet in the favelas. Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) of the BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is given the unenviable job of ensuring that this happens. Juggling his stressful job with his imminent fatherhood, Nascimento realizes that it's time he quits. To do so he needs to find his replacement. That's when Neto (Caio Junqueira) and André (André Ramiro), two young upstanding cops, barrel their way into his life. What follows is an almost documentary-like look at what it takes to be a member of BOPE officers. Based on Elite da Tropa by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares and two former BOPE captains, André Batista and Rodrigo Pimentel, the film is just superb all the way through.

Rating: * * *

City of Men

TV Series

Fernando Meirelles spun this Brazilian series from his deadly flick, City of God. The settings and characters are similar, juxtaposing the life in a favela against the backdrop of gangsters and poverty. The camera trails two gawky kids, Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranhinja (Darlan Cunha) and their coming of age in this harsh surroundings. I was strangely reminded of Malgudi Days when the boys end up in situation that kind of parallel those that Swamy found himself in. But then someone would casually walk by with a gun shoved into his trouser and the illusion would end there. In spite of that the series is light hearted and has a streak of humor running through.

Movie

The film takes off with Acerola and Laranhinja about to turn 18. But the unlike the series the mood here is more darker and the violence seen in City of God creeps into the characters and storyline as the young men find themselves helplessly being sucked into the vortex of a gang war.

Rating: * * *

Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)

A corrupt politician using frog farms to launder money meant for the indigenous people of Amazon. A business man who lays out the dangers in his everyday life. The kidnappers and the cops who chase them. The mutilated kidnap-pees juxtaposed with the plastic surgeon that fixes them. These are the characters in this film that highlights the violence and corruption prevalent in the beautiful country of Brazil. A decent documentary but one that lack cohesiveness.

Rating: * *

Love for Sale: Suely in the Sky

Hermila (Hermila Guedes) moves to her home town from Sao Paulo with her baby. The plan was for her husband to follow her. But after a month of waiting she realizes that she has been abandoned and starts to look for ways to make a living. She strangely decides to raffle her body much to chagrin of her family. As the film winds down, you are left scratching your head in puzzlement and annoyance at its empty intellectual posturing.

Rating: *

Almost Brothers

Brazil in the 70's saw political prisoners and common criminals being sent to the Ilha Grande under the National Security Law. This intermingling of the two opposite strata of society is supposed to have given birth to the street gangs of today. Writer Paulo Lins and director Lúcia Murat (who was once in the same prison) captures the decades long friendship between political diffident Miguel and Jorginho who ends up running the slums from jail. Shuttling back and forth between past and present, the film paints a vivid and raw picture of problems facing Brazilian society.

Rating: * * * +

Lower City

Deco (Lázaro Ramos) and Naldhino (Wagner Moura) are childhood friends who run an illegal cargo transport operation in a dinky boat off the Brazilian coast. Their cargo one night is a young vixen, Karinna (Alice Braga). The payment is a roll in the sack for each of them. The roll finds them careening out of control from their close friendship into a nightmare of lust and jealousy.

The presence of Alice Braga and the fact that the film was produced by Walter Salles, who directed Motorcycle Diaries, were the main attractive points of the movie. But they both fail to deliver. Alice for one looked so much hotter in City of God and Walter should stay away from such mundane plots.

Rating: * +

Central Station

A young boy looking for his father finds an unexpected accomplice in a grouchy spinster stranger, who has lost touch with all humanity. They come together under tragic circumstances at the Central Station, where the lady is a professional bitch of a letter writer. In their journey across the country, the inevitable happens - the lady warms up to the boy and vice-versa. The movie is funny and captures the beautiful barren parts of Brazil. The city of Rio also reminds one so much of Bombay. Solid.

Rating: * * *

Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures

Friendship between men are usually simple and uncomplicated. Each giving and taking what the other has to offer. The same goes for the unusual friendship formed on a road trip across the Brazilian countryside between Johann (Peter Ketnath) and Ranulpho (João Miguel). Johann has fled his German motherland to get away from a war he does not want to fight. Now he wanders around Brazil in a truck selling the "magic" drug called aspirin. Ranulpho hitch hikes with him on the road that he hopes will end in Rio. The film like their friendship is simple but yet fulfilling.

Rating: * * *

The House of Sand

A pregnant Áurea (Fernanda Torres) with her mother (Fernanda Montenegro) follow her mad husband's dream of settling in the deserts of Maranhão, Brazil. Death and betrayal soon leave the two women stranded in this remote paradise. Áurea gives birth to Maria and the sands of time sift through their fingers...

The two Fernanda's seamless exchange roles across generation. Seu Jorge plays a stoic role far removed the one he played in The Life Aquatic. The cinematography is breathtaking and the landscape soon becomes the lead actress.

Rating: * * *

The Man Who Copied

Andre is a photocopier operator during the day and at night he spies on his beautiful neighbor Sylvia. Now he needs $38 if he wants to get somewhere with her. But when a women is involved do things stop at just $38? A movie that starts out with much promise but fizzles out in the last half hour.

Rating: * *

The Other Side of the Street

I first saw Fernanda Montenegro in "Central Station". There she does some amazing acting as a school teacher who helps a young boy search for his father. Her role in this movie does not live up to that one. Here she plays a 60 year old lonely woman who moonlights as a police informant. One night she spies her neighbor killing his wife. The movie follows her investigation of her neighbor and the romance that unfolds. And by God I could not watch those scenes of the two of them making out :-)

Rating: * * +

PS: For some reason the phrase "The Other Side of my Life" is stuck in my head now. I wonder what if it means anything...