Vento Seco

Basically a one-character film: a dumpy-looking middle-aged bear who scores above his attractiveness rating and is obsessed with sleazy erotic dreams (which are quite imaginatively filmed, if not quite on the level of, say, Fassbinder's *Querelle* in terms of color and lighting). Oh, and his jealousies.

The rest of the characters are seriously underdeveloped and not terribly interesting except perhaps for the female coworker who turns 40.

The oral sex looks to be very real, but the director cops out on the anal. I would've found it more honest if all the sex were either hinted at, or all of it genuine.

As far as the natural scenery is concerned, good lord has rampant capitalism made a wasteland out of Brazil.

I gave this film a ten-star rating because it deserves, at least, an 8! I love it when a film which is targeted to a mature audience delivers on its promise, and this film accomplishes this perfectly.

Yes, there are graphic sex scenes and nudity of beautiful men, but at no time did if fall into a porn-flick. And anyone who argues otherwise does not know what is porn.

The cinematography, the background sounds, music, and the arrangement of the scenes are enough to keep your mind focus that this is a serious film about love, identity, fear, a clash of cross-generational perspectives of acceptance of one's homosexuality, among other issues. Ricardo, who appears younger is ready to commit and declare to the world his love for Sandro. But Sandro is stuck in the era when gays navigate the underworld even when in plain sight.

The film is almost 2 hours long but it felt shorter than some Shorts I've watched. This is another indication of how brilliant this film is. The plot was well-developed and easy to follow. The actors played their role confidently. I was very impressed by Renata Carvalho's performance. She did an exceptional job in the supporting role.

There is so much more to be said about this film, but I will end by saying that this will be one of my favorite gay-themed films ever, and I hope there will be more daring and satisfying films like this one in the near future.

Expectation: bad-scripted softcore porn

Reality: stunning visual, decent story, good actings, sex/nudity scenes more sensual than porn

This movie came as a surprise and I quite like it!

This film is beyond the visual impact of the nudity or the sexual scenes. It is beautifully shot and directed. The soundtrack suits perfectly to the story and sequences. All the symbolism that the film shows has its own meaning - you can see it through the neon lights, the clothes/nakedness,the puzzle or Sandro's dreams. His dry lips due to the damp and hot weather makes a point too. This is what a film does, engages you think beyond what the characters say or manifest. Personally, I think the film tries to explain that love and lust are separate things and something in this case came with different people. There is also the issue that Sandro has to hide both love and lust. But sometimes you need to have both to have inner peace.

The closet is a dangerous and horrible place to be trapped in, especially if it leads to betrayal and fear. The hour and fifty minutes of this film flashed by while I watched Sandro's actual life and his fantasy life and desires which were warped by secrecy and concealment.

The plot outline on IMDB tells us of his hidden affair with gorgeous Ricardo. One might imagine their secret trysts to be furtive and brief, but the guys have a more than vanilla time of it. In fact, some of their actions are downright debauched. Their liaisons seem not to be simulated for the filming either. They were doing stuff beyond the call of duty of most actors.

When we peer into Sandro's fantasy life, we enter a world of leather and vice. Unless there were some very clever prostheses being used, nothing in these sequences was simulated.

Enter the new hunk Maicon. Flirting, jealousy, denunciations, a complete upturning of lives. The main characters realised what they had had and what they could lose and had lost. I hoped against hope for the ending I wanted to be in the film.

I groaned to myself when I started watching as I realised how long the runtime was. I needn't have bothered. I wasn't bored for an instant. I honestly thought my review would say "this should have been 25 minutes shorter". It was, however, just the right length.