Pros:
1. The cinematography is gorgeous and provides for some really stunning visuals.
2. There is great chemistry between Gustavo Jahn (João) and Irma Brown (Sofia).
3. Gustavo Jahn, Irma Brown, Irandhir Santos (Clodoaldo), and Yuri Holanda (Dinho) give really good performances.
4. All of the character interactions feel very real and grounded.
5. The sound design is fantastic and helps to add a lot of weight to the scenes, especially during the long takes.
6. There is intelligently crafted social commentary on poverty and socio-economic status which never out-stays its welcome, and it mirrors the ubiquity of poverty.
Cons: 1. There are a lot of wooden side performances.
2. The movie, particularly during the first hour, is needlessly too slow-paced, with a couple filler scenes to accompany said slow pacing.
3. There are far too many characters introduced, and most of them are either unlikable or uninteresting.
4. There are far too many sub-plots competing for attention, and some of them get randomly dropped with no pay-off (like the relationship between Sofia and João), whilst others get introduced out-of-nowhere with no build-up (like Clodoaldo and his brother Claudio (Sebastião Formiga) seeking revenge on Francisco (W. J. Solha) for childhood trauma).
5. There is way too much distractingly confusing symbolism by way of out-of-place lucid dreams.
6. The ending is extremely anti-climactic and unsatisfying.
2. There is great chemistry between Gustavo Jahn (João) and Irma Brown (Sofia).
3. Gustavo Jahn, Irma Brown, Irandhir Santos (Clodoaldo), and Yuri Holanda (Dinho) give really good performances.
4. All of the character interactions feel very real and grounded.
5. The sound design is fantastic and helps to add a lot of weight to the scenes, especially during the long takes.
6. There is intelligently crafted social commentary on poverty and socio-economic status which never out-stays its welcome, and it mirrors the ubiquity of poverty.
Cons: 1. There are a lot of wooden side performances.
2. The movie, particularly during the first hour, is needlessly too slow-paced, with a couple filler scenes to accompany said slow pacing.
3. There are far too many characters introduced, and most of them are either unlikable or uninteresting.
4. There are far too many sub-plots competing for attention, and some of them get randomly dropped with no pay-off (like the relationship between Sofia and João), whilst others get introduced out-of-nowhere with no build-up (like Clodoaldo and his brother Claudio (Sebastião Formiga) seeking revenge on Francisco (W. J. Solha) for childhood trauma).
5. There is way too much distractingly confusing symbolism by way of out-of-place lucid dreams.
6. The ending is extremely anti-climactic and unsatisfying.