Kings & Rats

Reis e Ratos (Kings and Rats) is a bizarre crossing between black-comedy, cold War, and film- noir settled in Rio De Janeiro in the days before the 1964 coup. An infiltrated agent of CIA (Selton Mello, as Troy Somerset), disguised like a shoes salesman, plans to murder Brazil's president, with the help of a military friend. All his plans fail because a radio-speaker with paranormal powers, whose visions seems to be connected with preserving the life of the beautiful night-singer Amelia Castanho (performed by Rafaela Mandelli), who is involved in a sexual scandal with the president. The plot exploits the strangeness from the theatrical overacting and clichés. Its ridiculous dialogs mimics the dubbing of American thrillers mistranslated to Portuguese. Rodrigo Santoro has a remarkable performance as Roni Rato, as well Cauã Raymond is priceless in the role of the paranormal gay radio-announcer that falls in love for Amelia. The film has neat picture, a complex script typical of thrillers from the 50s and his humor does not make laugh, rather criticizes metaphorically the absurd scam that led to the Coup. People who enjoys independent movies will probably like this one.