wel2005

Adapting comic books is quite a challenge, especially for an iconic character like Chico Bento, present in the childhood of millions of Brazilians. Those responsible knew this and took extra care, preferring to be faithful to the work rather than risk doing something "modern", at the pace of today's world: it is in simplicity that depth is found. Chico Bento is a defender of nature and its roots in confronting such savage progress, but he doesn't know how to act. Together with his classmates at Vila Abobrinha, he learns, by force, what his role is. Director Fernando Fraiha has the delicacy to talk about important topics lightly, with good humor, without didacticism or moral lessons. The round script creates an interesting and inventive arc. The animated scenes are one of the best I've seen in Brazilian cinema, they alone are worth going to the cinema, and all the secondary characters are authentic, well constructed, not just the main one. I confess that in some scenes I didn't understand the caipirês, yet another reason to watch it again and appreciate the film better. Critics have been generous, with lots of praise, let's see if the general public will enjoy it. It's not often that, in this world full of violence and disagreements, we can go back to childhood, be naive for an hour and a half.

Brazilian film with the greatest international repercussion in recent years, winner of the best screenplay award at the Venice Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar, I'm Still Here dramatizes the trajectory of the Paiva family between the arrest of Rubens Paiva, the father, and Eunice's struggle after her husband's disappearance. Walter Salles immerses the viewer in the intimacy of this family and makes them an accomplice, making them care about the fate of each one, creating three-dimensional, real, believable characters. Fernanda Torres plays the role of her life, almost a Greek heroine marked by tragedy, with subtlety, without ever falling into excess or caricature. Detailed scenography, lean script, natural interpretations, hand-picked soundtrack, precise editing, everything contributes to the director being able to convey exactly what he set out to do. As I knew the story, I had read the book on which the film is based, in addition to reports about it, my attention focused on the cinematographic solutions used by the director. He manages to turn this particular story into something universal, capable of communicating with audiences anywhere in the world.

It's not easy to escape the clichés when talking about crime and drug trafficking in Rio de Janeiro. We see the sensuality and rawness of funk balls, guns, swear words, cocaine lines, sex, but Dom offers much more than that. The story revolves around the relationship between Dom and his father, who does everything to save the boy predestined to a tragic life. The two are on opposite sides: the father on the side of law and responsibility and the son with two feet rooted in marginality and vice.

A breathtaking series, with 8 electrifying chapters of a lot of drama, humor, action and reenactment of an exquisite period, the highlight, at the end, is the direction of actors. Gabriel Leone and Pedro Lima at the front. Director Breno Silveira is an ace, he knows how to extract emotion from actors like no one else.

Another quality of the series is the contextualization of the Carioca environment in the 60s and 70s, showing the beginning of drug sales in the favelas and police corruption, including in the military sphere, during the dictatorship, with a general dealing weapons for the bandits, protected by dome.

A super-production like that is not common in Brazil.