Bacurau

Perhaps the most recent entry of weird western genre, this is a wild ride form start to finish. imagine mixing Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns with science fiction, horror and disturbing scenes, psychedelic drugs, Udo kier as a former nazi with his squad of savage american-eoropean villains and cultural themes of a local brazillian village and the result is Bacurau.

Written and directed by Kleber Mendonca, an acclaimed brazillian filmmaker, Bacurau is a roller-coaster of a film. It manages somehow to be both 1. reminiscent of Jodorowsky's surrealists westerns and 2. a very modern social commentary film about foreign invasion and colonialism. You may or may not like this film, but you will surely appreciate it's accomplishments.

One of my faves of the past year. Literally have nothing bad or negative to say about it. So I'll keep this one short.

One of the strangest films I've seen, in any language, but it must have been good because I'm still processing it a day or two later. The underlying meaning and the intent are not too far off the mark - we're all targeted, hunted and sacrificed by factions that seek to profit from our misfortune, lack of opportunity, demographic, vulnerability and fear; especially when amplified by poverty - if we don't look after ourselves, nobody will. One for all and all for one!

This movie gets you going in a way that maybe you weren't expecting from an action thriller and shows genuine characters that you come to care about really early. It also introduces you to a place that's rough and angry and you realize that there's a perfect symbiosis with this rugged land and with its people. The problems they suffer on a daily basis ( lack of water, food, unwilling and corrupted government officials ), make them to the eye of certain people and corporations as second class citizens and maybe PREY!!!

Man this movie really goes for it.

A wild, wild movie that feels like both a nod to Sergio Leone by way of Quentin Tarantino (though that's basically just saying this is like a Tarantino movie) and something wholly its own, "Bacurau" is a fiercely original howl of rage at white oppression and exploitation. The inhabitants of Bacurau, a small village in rural South America, are in a literal fight for survival against a band of gun-crazed killers, most of them American, who don't seem to have a motive for wiping them out beyond the exhilaration of killing people. They decide to fight back. That plot summary seems simple and linear. But as it plays out in the movie, it's instead a tangled knot of teased plot strands, information strategically withheld, and a gradual spiral from straightforward storytelling to almost surreal narrative.

I would normally complain about a movie like this that wants us to cheer on brutality just because those committing it have themselves been brutalized. But despite, or maybe because, this movie is so unapologetic in its violence and rage, it's utterly captivating and exhilarating. Disturbing to be sure, but also tremendously exciting.

Grade: A.