Change Your Image
marcuspessoa
Reviews
Les amis (1971)
Cold and passionless
I can't emotionally connect with most old French movies.
When I was young, I admired Robert Bresson, I thought his detached and expressionless style was something revolutionary. But now I find it just boring and trite.
Paul loves Phillippe, but he doesn't show it. People speak of deep emotions as if they were ordering coffee at the bakery.
The film has an excessive decency for a 1971 work. Although it is obvious that Phillipe and Paul have a loving and sexual relationship, there is no show of affection between them.
Even the relationship between Paul and Marie-Laure, shown more graphically on screen, is cold and passionless.
The movie didn't add much to me.
Fotos Privadas (2020)
Adult and captivating
One of the best gay short films I've ever seen.
A very realistic and contemporary approach to relationships between men.
It has a stunning look, a sexy and emotional soundtrack, and a narrative well divided between two moments: sex, and the emotional crisis after a threesome.
Adult, captivating and uncompromising.
Lupe (2019)
Touching movie
This is a genuinely independent film, with a delicate approach to a personal drama.
Rafael is a young cuban boy who goes to New York to look for his sister, who was taken there as a teenager to be a prostitute.
He is an talented boxer and uses his skills when he descends into the underworld of prostitution to look for his sister. He gives big beating to pimps that get in his way.
This creates an interesting contrast, because, despite being a strong and very masculine man, he has transgender desires, and dresses up as a woman from time to time.
The film tells the various sides of the story realistically. Worth it.
Casa Forte (2013)
Arthouse
It is an arthouse film, without a clear narrative.
The first half is a gay man's account of his sex life, with images of building facades with suggestive names.
The second half are idyllic images of a gay couple in a mansion, with the beautiful soundtrack by Itamar Assumpção ("Fim de Festa").
The second half is very beautiful.
The Wise Kids (2011)
Nothing happens
The movie is awful. There's no story developing. Nothing happens.
The "story" is set in a community of the Baptist Church. The problem is this: there's nothing interesting to tell about people with a common life, that are always in church and at home and at work talking and thinking about God. Characters thus only become interesting when there's a story that explores their conflicts.
The protagonists are: Tim, a gay guy, who keeps herself nonetheless Christian; Brea, a girl who loses her faith; and Austin, preacher of the church that also finds herself gay.
But even in these cases, there are no conflicts to be explored. Tim is fully supported by his father, also a Christian one -- which is quite unbelievable. The only ones who criticize are too young, and his father calls him "immature". He has no problems with his sexuality and remains the good and perfect Christian boy.
Brea finds himself an atheist but do not tell anyone, unless Tom. And Austin, although it's in crisis with their sexuality, also speaks just to Tom, and there is no consequence. Continues with his wife and being a preacher.
The most we see of Tim "being gay" is kissing Austin and he also a boy at a party.
In summary, nothing happens. And every little detail boring and uninteresting of life in the church is shown in an "epiphanic" and condescending mood.
Sometimes it seems that the movie is just religious propaganda.
A Little Closer (2011)
Little rural drama
The movie is a little rural drama, which focuses on Sheryl, a single mother, and her two teenage sons, Marc and Stephen. They love each other and are apparently happy, but they are too terribly bored with the lack of what to do.
The action is quite rarefied. Marc tries to convince his girlfriend to have sex, Sheryl goes to parties to seek company, and Stephen goes out with friends to break abandoned cars.
If you like sensitive movies, focused on building characters, this is for you. If you want a well-structured story, full of events, it is better to pass away.
Teenage Angst (2008)
Interesting premise, failed result
The movie seems to have some influence of "The Young Törless", Robert Musil's novel was adapted for the screen by Volker Schlöndorff. The theme is similar: in an elite school, a group of students think they are "beyond good and evil" and bully on of its members, in a way that resembles the fascism.
"Reject the moral" means to them: massive alcohol and drug abuse, and various forms of rape and torture.
Unfortunately, the movie don't develops its interesting premise. What we see is only a strong graphic content with obvious homo-erotic subtext.
It's a weird school, where there is only one teacher and few students, and they are mere adjuncts. The author failed to portray a real school environment.
Maybe the story would be better if there were more brain and less eye candy.
Vereda tropical (2004)
Kitsch
The movie is awful. The Rio of January shown in him does not exist, it is a stylized and kitsch vision.
The dialogs in Portuguese are so badly written what seems that the script was written in Spanish and then translated in an automatic translator. With the exception of Silvia Buarque, all the Brazilian actors are amateur, and they have the worst acting.
There is nothing of interesting one in the history. What we see is only a homosexual without any auto-esteem falling in love for any man who appears in his front.
Manuel Puig was deserving to be shown better.