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There is nothing quite as exciting as a high-stakes heist with the cops in hot pursuit. Just one month after the release of the well-received second season of the hit Brazilian crime thriller series, Criminal Code. Netflix has announced that the series will officially be returning for a third season, according to Deadline. The streamer can sometimes dally on its renewal decisions. However, the fact that it has opted for such a swift resolution can only point to how impressive the series has been. With a score of 89% on the aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the impressive performance of Criminal Code with audiences certainly factored in the renewal decision. The crime thriller has seen its second season break into the Netflix Top 10 on home turf in Brazil, and in other territories such as Argentina, Portugal, and Nigeria.

Created by Heitor Dhalia, Netflix’s Portuguese crime thrillerfollows a team of investigators, centered...

Netflix has announced that Criminal Code, the police drama that has won over audiences in Brazil and beyond, will return for a third season. The series stars Maeve Jinkings as Suellen, Rômulo Braga as Benício, and Alex Nader as Isaac.

The streaming service says that “fans can expect even more intense scenes and conflicts — after all, last season’s finale made it clear that new showdowns between cops and criminals (not to mention revenge!) are on the way.”

The second season of Criminal Code has already solidified the show’s status as a global hit. Since June 4, it has reached top positions in Netflix’s Top 10 in Brazil and abroad.

In addition to Brazil, where it has remained in the rankings for nearly a month, the show also ranked among the ten most-watched in countries such as Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Portugal, and Nigeria.

“Every time we announce a new season,...

Netflix is kicking off the summer of 2025 with an incredible lineup of new shows! Not all of them are probably worth watching for everybody, but there's definitely something for everyone this month. I shared a list of a few good Netflix shows that viewers simply need to watch in June 2025.

The month is already off to a great start with the release of Ginny and Georgia season 3 on Thursday, June 5. Later this month, the biggest Netflix show of all time, Squid Game, comes to an end with the release of the third and final season on Thursday, June 27. Those are the two Netflix shows everyone will be watching, and because they're so popular, almost everyone knows when those shows are coming back.

Ginny and Georgia and Squid Game only make up a fraction of the good Netflix shows fans need to watch in June. There are so many other good shows coming in June.

Four months can be a long time in federal law enforcement, especially when the ghost you were chasing was never caught. Season 2 of Criminal Code opens not with a quiet simmer but with the engine already running hot. Isaac, the architect of the Ghost Gang’s audacious Season 1 prison break, is still a free man.

More to the point, he has spent his freedom productively. The narrative wastes no time re-establishing its core conflict, thrusting federal officers Suellen and Benício back into a reactive posture against a foe who refuses to play by the rules of a hunted fugitive. He isn’t hiding; he’s planning.

This immediate sense of escalation is the season’s opening statement. Stationed again along the porous Brazil-Paraguay border, a landscape that provides a fittingly chaotic backdrop, the series reaffirms its identity as a gritty, high-velocity procedural. It promises a story less about the hunt...

Netflix star Maeve Jinkings lets slip a hint that has fans eager for news on Criminal Code Season 3. The streaming crime thriller just released its second season on the platform following Jinking's Detective Suellen, a Brazillian federal law enforcement officer who gets more than she bargained for as she uncovers a massive criminal conspiracy that could go all the way to the top.

Criminal Code actress Maeve Jinkings inadvertently teased Season 3 of the hit streaming series as part of a recent interview. Thus far, the show has been fairly successful on Netflix; however, the series has yet to get any official Season 3 news from the streamer. 

In a conversation with film journalist Leozito Rocha, Jinkings mentioned the idea of a Season 3 for the first time while talking about bringing back one of the extras her character killed in Season 2's third episode. 

Read full article on The Direct.

Netflix’s gripping Brazilian crime drama, Criminal Code (Original title: DNA do Crime), returns with its highly anticipated Season 2. Picking up immediately after the explosive events of Season 1, the series delves deeper into the high-stakes cat-and-mouse game between Brazil’s federal police and the elusive Phantom Gang. Premiering globally on June 4, 2025, Season 2 promises intensified action, complex character dynamics, and a deeper exploration of the criminal underworld. In this article, we’ll explore the season’s plot, cast, streaming details, and what viewers can expect from this thrilling continuation.

What Happened in Criminal Code Season 1?: A Recap

Season 1 introduced viewers to federal agents Suellen and Benício as they embarked on a mission to dismantle a sophisticated criminal network responsible for a series of high-profile heists. Utilizing cutting-edge forensic science and relentless investigative techniques, the duo uncovered a web of corruption and violence that extended beyond Brazil’s borders. The season...

Season 2 of the Brazilian action series Criminal Code, inspired by real crimes, is streaming now. The first season of the police drama reached the Top 10 in more than 71 countries, including the United States. Read on for your full report on everything you need to know about the second season.

After helping the Ambassador (Nico García Hume)escape from prison, Isaac (Alex Nader) and his Phantom Gang become the Federal Police’s main targets. Increasingly sophisticated robberies turn them into crime legends — and going after them will demand everything from the agents. During the challenging investigation, Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) will have to prove herself as a leader. Meanwhile, Benício (Rômulo Braga) experiences a crisis after losing yet another friend, and discovering that Sem Alma (Thomás Aquino) escaped from prison.

Yes, scroll up for the official Season 2 trailer, set to a remix of “Mi Gente.” Get ready: The conflicts...

Exclusive: Criminal Code is a breakout hit for Netflix. The Brazilian action drama, based on real events, has landed well at home and internationally. Season 2 drops soon and Deadline got some time with series director and showrunner Heitor Dhalia. We can also exclusively share the first pictures from the upcoming season.

Criminal Code scaled Netflix’s top 10 in 70 countries, including the U.S. and Canada. On home turf, it was the most-watched Brazilian series in the second half of 2023 when it launched, and also one of the most-watched shows through 2024.

Set in the crime world in and around the Triple Frontier, a three-border area where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet, the drama was inspired by a robbery that took place in 2017 and ensuing real-life events. The new season involves a prison break and follows a criminal group, the Phantom Gang, undertaking more daring heists while being pursued by the cops.

This review was originally published on October 26, 2024 as a part of our Middleburg Film Festival coverage.

I’m Still Here, Walter Salles’ latest film, is all about the profoundness of feeling in an unstable, tumultuous time, and how it rocks the boat of a seemingly stable family. The Brazilian film is a family drama wrapped in a political story. It’s focused primarily on Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) and her five children after her husband, Rubens (Selton Mello) — a former congressman who was ousted when the Brazilian Military Dictatorship took over — is disappeared in 1971. Written by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, I’m Still Here is an evocative, nuanced portrait of family and the lasting imprint of politics.

I'm Still Here is set during the early 1970s military dictatorship in Brazil, focusing on the Paiva family. As the regime intensifies, Rubens, Eunice, and their five children live in an open house by the beach in Rio.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has invited 487 artists and executives to become members, with Sandra Huller, Justin Triet, Celine Song and Da’Vine Joy Randolph among the high profile invitees.

Also invited to join are actors Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Fiona Shaw, directors Alice Diop, David Yates and S S Rajamouli, and writers Arthur Harari and Tony McNamara.

Executives invited to join that branch of the Academy include British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts and Fifth Season co-CEOs Chris Rice and Graham Taylor.

Among those invited to join the costume designers branch are Holly Waddington and Małgorzata Karpiuk.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) has invited 487 artists and executives to become members, with Sandra Huller, Justin Triet, Celine Song and Da’Vine Joy Randolph among the high profile invitees.

Also invited to join are actors Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Fiona Shaw, directors Alice Diop, David Yates and S S Rajamouli, and writers Arthur Harari and Tony McNamara.

Executives invited to join that branch of the Academy include British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts and Fifth Season co-CEOs Chris Rice and Graham Taylor.

Among those invited to join the costume designers branch are Holly Waddington and Małgorzata Karpiuk.

Every summer, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invites a deluge of new members to join its ranks. Since #OscarsSoWhite back in 2015, the Academy has moved away from its elitist tendencies and toward embracing younger and more diverse artists and executives from all over the world. This year’s invited class is no exception.

If the invitees all accept Academy membership, the total members will number 10,910 and voting members 9,934. And with the addition of the 2024 members, 35 percent of Academy members identify as women, 20 percent of Academy members are from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities, and 20 percent of Academy members are from countries or territories outside the U.S.

As usual, a slew of Oscar nominees and winners are gaining admittance to the club (71 Oscar nominees and 19 winners), including actors Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Hüller, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”), costume designer Holly Waddington...

Jessica Alba, Lily Gladstone, Greta Lee, Catherine O’Hara, and S.S. Rajamouli, director of “Rrr,” are among the 487 artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With all expected acceptances, AMPAS membership will rise to 10,910 from 10,817 last year, with 9,934 members eligible to vote in the upcoming 97th Oscars in 2025—an increase from last year’s 9,375.

This year’s invitees include 44% women, a 4% increase from 2023, and 41% from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities, marking a significant 7% rise. The actors, casting directors, costume designers, documentary, executives, makeup artists and hairstylists branches have invited more women than men. The actors, directors, documentary, and writers branches mainly comprised artists from underrepresented communities.

The directors branch features the most impressive array of filmmakers from both international and domestic spheres, such as Lila Avilés (“Totem”), Jayro Bustamante (“La Llorona”), Jd Dillard (“Devotion”), Alice Diop (“Saint Omer”), Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that it is extending invitations to 487 to join the membership ranks of the Oscar organizer. If all accept, it will bring the Academy’s total membership to 10,910, of which 9,934 would be voting members.

This year’s list across 19 branches include 2024 Oscar winners Da’Vine Joy Randolph from The Holdovers; Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington and production design team James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek; 20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav Chernov, War Is Over! producer Brad Booker; The Zone of Interest sound duo Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn; the Godzilla Minus One VFX team Tatsuji Nojima, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Takashi Yamazaki; American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson; and Anatomy of a Fall writing duo Justine Triet and Arthur Harari.

Jefferson and Triet are among eight names on the list who were invited to more than one branch (noted...

Pandemic times gifted Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz with fraternal film twins. Toll would turn out to be her sophomore feature, but she broke out with Charcoal — a film set in rural Brazil features Maeve Jinkings as the matriarch struggles to hold her nuclear family together when everything around her is burning up. Markowicz explores the shifting hierarchy of this one family (with a new visitor) and the community that surrounds it with a generous touch of comedy noir with hot plate of revenge. Just after having its world premiere (in the Platform section) at TIFF in 2022, Charcoal (Carvão) would then splash at Donostia-San Sebastian.…...

The Brazilian TV show Criminal Code can drive one nuts with its winding car chases and fantastically shot gun-fights, but if you’re not one to care so much for the details, this show may feel extremely overwhelming. The show does manage to include some comical moments that give a very colloquial feel to the police force that we’re following in this story. The show is divided into multiple subplots, mainly about a beat-up federal cop, namely Benício, trying to get revenge for the death of his partner, and a massive criminal organization that crosses borders and wreaks havoc. The show is a thriller that delivers an electrifying mix of intense gunfights and high-speed chase scenes. The thriller delivers a massive punch with its speedy car chases and Fps-like gunfights that often feel like a high-budget music video with Brazilian rap music in the background.

Criminal Code delivers eight...

Criminal Code is a Brazilian series directed by Heitor Dhalia, starring Pedro Caetano, Maeve Jinkings, and Thomás Aquino.

If you’re into thrillers, action, and criminal intrigue, this new series has all the elements to captivate you. Its realistic setting, well-defined characters, and gripping police stories, presented in a style that combines handheld camerawork with expertly crafted editing, make it truly compelling.

The series offers a fast-paced, expertly filmed action-packed storyline revolving around the lives of dedicated police officers.

About the series

“Criminal Code” is primarily a police procedural series that leans more towards pulse-pounding action rather than the tragic realism of “Hill Street Blues.” It explores the psychology of its characters, albeit briefly, without delving into the dramatic side of the story or approaching it as a tragedy. This series is all about action, and it definitely delivers.

The series is primarily targeted towards action movie enthusiasts, particularly those...

“A Batalha da Rua Maria Antonia,” directed by Vera Egito, nabbed the main Redentor prize for fiction film at the 2023 Rio de Janeiro International Film Fest which wrapped this year’s edition last weekend, consolidating its position as South America’s largest fest and world’s main showcase of Brazilian productions.

The fest held the world premieres of 40 Brazilian features and four TV series. Its competition, reflecting the country’s production strength, included 54 local features, selected from 318 submissions.

With a series of 21 long takes shot in 16 mm black and white film, “A Batalha da Rua Maria Antonia” (“The Battle”) depicts the true-life 1968 police massacre of Sao Paulo State University Philosophy School’s students who rose up in opposition to the military dictatorship then in place in Brazil.

Carolina Markowicz’s “Toll” scooped both best actress, for Maeve Jinkings, shared with Grace Passo of “O Dia que te conheci,” and actor...

A violent courtyard scuffle between teens roils into a string of increasingly devious and vengeful acts perpetrated by their parents in creator Lucas Paraízo’s “The Others.” Slated to screen at this week’s Mipcom market in Cannes, the Globoplay original series tackles masculinity and miscommunication with urgency.

Paraízo, whose prior medical drama “Under Pressure” sold to more than 60 countries, expressed an interest in breaking down the intricacies surrounding the frail state of human connection and points to intolerance for a lack of constructive everyday dialogue.

“The series brought this idea to a scenario in which neighbors don’t know how to live with differences and are unable to accept the view of the ‘other.’ In that sense, I consider the series to be quite universal. We all live surrounded by neighbors anywhere in the world, but we’re increasingly less willing to dialogue and negotiate points of view,” Paraízo told Variety.

In its first five minutes, Toll does a great job of showcasing how life is for lower-class Brazilians. Waking up at the crack of dawn, contemplating a house in dire need of maintenance all around, running to catch a shuttle because the public transportation system in poor neighborhoods is precarious. All so that you arrive in time to start a job that pays the bare minimum for you to survive and come back the following day. That initial segment is essential for us to understand Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) – especially when you consider what she will do in the following hour and a half.

For three decades, the Oldenburg Film Festival has been devoted to celebrating independent cinema outside the mainstream of both Hollywood and the international art-house market.

For its 30th edition, which runs through Sunday, festival founder and artistic director Torsten Neumann continues to highlight weird, extreme and cutting-edge indie movies from around the world.

Here are five can’t-miss movies from the 2023 crop.

The Wait The Wait

After the success of his debut film Before the Fall (2008), Spanish director Javier Gutiérrez followed Hollywood’s call and directed Rings (2017), the third entry in The Ring horror franchise. Despite grossing $83 million at the box office, the film was considered a flop, and Gutiérrez returned to Spain, spending six years developing his third feature, which will have its world premiere in Oldenburg. The raw drama, about a hardscrabble family whose life slowly descends into a nightmare, looks like a return to form for one...

The juvenile scarlet ibis is black, we are told. Actually it’s a sort of muddy grey colour with white bits, but let’s not quibble. The point is that this is its natural colour. It takes on its stunning red plumage as it enters into adulthood, as a result of its diet of red crabs. In other words, it deviates from its natural status as a result of its behaviour. With that in mind, the pastor (Isac Graça ) suggests, any person, no matter how difficult it may seem, can simply change their behaviour and revert to their natural state.

The difficulty with this, of course, is that it’s natural for the ibis to eat crabs – and that the world is more wonderful with a dash of scarlet.

“It’s tough for people like you, out there,” Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) declares during one of several heated exchanges with her...

Carolina Markowicz returns to the circuit to release her second feature “Toll” (“Pedágio”), cementing another world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, this time in its Centrepiece strand, billed as championing “compelling stories, global perspectives,” before heading to San Sebastian for closing night honors in its Horizontes Latinos competition later this month.

Paris-based Luxbox handles international sales and has provided Variety with an exclusive first look at the riveting trailer.

After high praise for her feature-film debut “Charcoal,” Markowicz, among Brazil’s top-tier cineastes, returns with another compelling societal study, this time with an eye on a complicated mother-son relationship that leads to a keen understanding of just what people are capable of under the influence of their fragile, yet righteous, morality.

Produced by Karen Castanho, Bianca Villar and Fernando Fraiha, founding partners at Brazil’s Bionica Filmes (“Welcome Violeta”), Luís Urbano and Sandro Aguilar from O Som e a Fúria,...

A Brazilian family struggling with their ailing grandfather are offered an unusual way out in Carolina Markowicz’s darkly comic and suspenseful feature debut

Brazilian director Carolina Markowicz won awards left, right and centre for her touching 2018 short film The Orphan (O Órfão), about a queer teenage boy suddenly placed in an unfamiliar family. Her feature debut, Charcoal, once again centres around an outsider forcibly placed in the heart of family, but this time the algebra of sympathy is much more complex – and the threat of violence adds an unquantifiable extra variable.

In rural Brazil, Irene (Maeve Jinkings) holds her struggling nuclear family together as best she can. Her husband Jairo (Rômulo Braga) earns money seasonally burning charcoal, but when he’s out of work he spends what little he has on booze. The couple’s nine-year-old son Jean is a sweet kid who shares a bedroom with his bedridden...

Pedagio

Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz surprised us last year when she pulled out an entire other feature film rabbit from her hat. Charcoal became her feature film debut and her sophomore film is poised to launch this year making for an intense back to back years of premieres. Pedagio (Toll) went into production in November of ’21 – re-teaming the filmmaker with actress Maeve Jinkings and Bionica Filmes’ producer Karen Castanho. Luis Armando Arteaga (Private Desert) is the cinematographer.

Gist: Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) is a toll booth attendant who starts using her job to help a gang of thieves steal watches from people driving to the coast.…...

Sem Coração

Based on the 2014 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight winning short of the same name, Nara Normande & Tião reunited on Sem Coração (aka Heartless) this past September for an on location shoot in the Northeast of Brazil. Maeve Jinkings is among the cast of actors here on a project that is set in the summer 1996 and delves into attraction and mystery. This directorial debut was selected for the Venice Gap market in 2021 and is produced by Emilie Lesclaux (Bacurau).

Gist: In the small village of Garça Torta, Tamara enjoys her last holidays before leaving for preparatory studies to enter college.…...

It is the debut feature from Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.

Signature Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights for satire Charcoal – the feature debut of Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz.

The rights were picked up from Paris-based Urban Sales at this year’s American Film Market (AFM), with a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland planned for March 10 2023, followed by a digital release on March 20.

It is produced by Zita Carvalhosa’s Superfilmes (Brazil), alongside Karen Castanho of Bionica Filmes (Brazil) and Alejandro Israel of Ajimolido Films (Argentina).

A family in São Paulo’s countryside accept a mysterious guest into their home,...

A debut tandem feature that is among the Brazilian film items we are keeping our eye on for 2023, Nara Normande and Tião are at the midway point on production on Sem Coração (aka Heartless and fka “A Garça”) and from what we gather on the socials they have re-teamed with Maeve Jinkings. Best known for being in what is easily Brazil’s best two films this century (Neighboring Sounds and Neon Bull), Jinkings recently teamed with Carolina Markowicz on her first two features in the TIFF preemed Charcoal (2022) and next year’s Toll. We believe that Jinkings would be playing the same roll as she did in the same titled short on which this is based on which was a prize winner in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section back in 2014.…...

Business (Wo)Man: Rural Brazil Opt to Pray & Prey in Markowicz’s Debut

If God isn’t listening, maybe the devil is. It’s a compelling idea, and one of a handful competing for attention in writer/director Carolina Markowicz’s feature debut Charcoal. Set up like a thriller but unfolding like a shaggy dog story, the film is abundant in thematic and metaphorical concepts. And while they never quite cohere to achieve the smoldering tension the title suggests, Markowicz’s knack for unconventional storytelling and the film’s central performance by Maeve Jinkings keeps viewers lured to a world ruled by secrets and adaptable morals.…...

It’s hard watching somebody suffer. Irene’s father, Firmino, has been bedridden and barely conscious ever since he suffered a stroke. The nurse who come to check on his breathing says that there’s basically no chance of him getting better. So she visits her priest to ask if God wants him to suffer or if He wants him to die. it’s complicated, says the priest, but he welcomes her pledge to donate a bit more, telling her that the Church has been struggling financially – as the camera pulls back to show the beautifully appointed building in all its splendour.

With nowhere else to turn, Irene (Maeve Jinkings) is easily persuaded to make a deal. The problem with her father will be taken care of. In return for this, and for what to them is a significant amount of money, she and her family will play host to criminal kingpin Miguel.

Carolina Markowicz’s dark satire “Charcoal,” which world premieres on Sept. 11 at Toronto Film Festival, has debuted its teaser trailer with Variety (below). World sales are being handled by Urban Sales.

The film, which plays in the festival’s Platform section, centers on a poor family living in a remote area in Brazil, who earn a pittance from their charcoal business. When a shady nurse asks them to host a mysterious foreigner they accept. The home soon becomes a hideout as the so-called guest happens to be a highly wanted drug lord. The mother, her husband and child will have to learn how to share the same roof with this stranger, while keeping up appearances of an unchanged peasant routine.

Diana Cadavid at Toronto Film Festival commented: “For her unsettlingly precise feature-film debut, writer-director Carolina Markowicz blends biting social commentary on the pervasive forces that prey on the least fortunate...

Paris-based Urban Sales has swooped on international sales rights to Brazilian writer-director Carolina Markowicz’s awaited debut feature film “Charcoal” (“Carvão”), which is set for its world premiere at at Toronto’s prestigious Platform showcase before heading to San Sebastian for a Europe bow as part of its just-revealed Horizontes Latinos lineup.

Urban Sales has also shared with Variety a first look still from the film.

Distribution in Brazil is handled by Pandora Filmes, founded by André Sturm, which launched the country’s first classic film streaming platform Belas Artes in 2019, bringing big-name, cult, and regional classics to audiences nationwide.

Markowicz has written and directed six short films that have been selected by 400 festivals including Locarno, SXSW, Toronto and AFI. Her short film,“The Orphan,” a gritty tale about a young queer boy who tries to navigate his most recent adoption after being placed with a well-off conservative family, premiered...

Title: Aquarius Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho Starring: Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos, Humberto Carrão and Soraide Coleto The movie acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival, ‘Aquarius,’ discusses an incredibly timely topic: the way real estate investments will stop at nothing to speculate. The Brazilian drama, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, has a majestically intense Sonia Braga bringing to life the story of Clara, the last resident of Aquarius building who refuses to sell her apartment to a construction company that intends to replace it with a new edifice. She is a strong, dignified, self-sufficient woman who has contrasted cancer all her life. She is a fighter and does not [ Read More ]

The post Aquarius Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Sônia Braga with her Aquarius director Kleber Mendonça Filho Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Aquarius stars a magnificent Sônia Braga with Thaia Perez, Maeve Jinkings (Gabriel Mascaro's Neon Bull), Humberto Carrão, Irandhir Santos (Neighboring Sounds with Jinkings), Zoraide Coleto, Paula De Renor, Fernando Teixeira, Buda Lira, and Barbara Colen.

Kleber Mendonça Filho talks to me about Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick in Alexander Payne's Election, John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann links, the madeleines, colours, creating the perfect tactile version of a childhood memory, and Diego as the international evil.

Sônia Braga as Clara

Aquarius begins with a get-together in 1980. A large family celebrates the birthday of Aunt Lucía (Thaia Perez), an elegant woman in a pink suit who has led a full active life and smiles benevolently at the children's attempt to honour her by containing her in a nutshell. We get a...

Sonia Braga as Clara in Aquarius. Photo credit: Victor Jucá / CinemaScópio © 2016

Sonia Braga is marvelous as Clara, an iron-willed 65-year-old retired music critic who refuses to be forced out of her seaside condo by a developer planning to replace her aging building with a luxury high-rise, in the Brazilian drama Aquarius.

Aquarius is the name of the apartment building in Recife, Brazil, where Clara lives, as well as director Kleber Mendonca Filho’s drama. The developer plans to demolish the iconic mid-century Aquarius and replace it with a high-priced luxury condo building, as has been done other older buildings in this prime beachfront location. The company has bought all the other units in the building and only Clara now remains.

Braga looks, by turns, weathered, strong, vulnerable and still sexy, as this fierce, complicated woman. Director Filho gives Braga the space to round out this multilayered character, creating a moving,...

Aquarius Vitagraph Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B- Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho Written by: Kleber Mendonça Filho Cast: Sônia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Bárbara Colen, Irandhir Santos, Humberto Carrão, Zoraide Coleto Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 9/26/16 Opens: October 14, 2016 If you did not know that “Aquarius” was made before Donald Trump’s campaign heated up, you might swear that the film is a thinly veiled satire aimed at the Republican nominee. In 1986, after a five-year struggle to avoid eviction, tenants of a 15-story building on New York’s Central Park South owned by Trump won the right to stay in their rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments. The tenants are [ Read More ]

The post Aquarius Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Aquarius producer Emilie Lesclaux and director Kleber Mendonça Filho with Anne-Katrin Titze in the Museum of Modern Art sculpture garden for Neighboring Sounds Photo: Jytte Jensen

Kleber Mendonça Filho's volatile ode to the private and the public, stars Sônia Braga with Thaia Perez, Maeve Jinkings, Humberto Carrão, Irandhir Santos, Zoraide Coleto, Paula De Renor, Fernando Teixeira, Buda Lira, and Barbara Colen.

Before the Us premiere at the New York Film Festival, the director/writer and I spoke about Brazilian society, outside/inside, Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick in Alexander Payne's Election, shooting wide, sense of place, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann associations and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy, the ever present madeleines, creating the perfect tactile version of a childhood memory, and Diego as the international evil in Aquarius.

Sônia Braga as Clara: "That's where she lives, that's where she has lived and that's what she is trying to keep.

Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) is a roughneck. He’s a cowboy, a bull handler really, wrangling bulls into and out of a shoddy rural Brazilian rodeo. It’s dusty, difficult work, and the shows themselves are brutal, the bulls entering into a ring where two riders attempt to bring them down. The arena is spattered with the lost tail tassels of the bulls, ripped off by the riders. Iremar dutifully collects these tails, for use in his fantastical costume designs. So yes, Iremar might be a roughneck, but he’s a roughneck with dreams of designing delicate women’s bikinis and clothing. Don’t judge a book by its cover. The question of appearances and their complicated meanings is at the heart of Gabriel Mascaro’s remarkable and arresting “Neon Bull.” The film centers on Iremar and the nomadic group with whom he lives and works. Galega (Maeve Jinkings) drives the...

More often than not, the first thing a given critic discusses when diving into a film (besides its narrative) is the work of the director. And in many cases that’s more than justified. Especially when that director is a superb craftsman like Gabriel Mascaro. However, for the director’s latest film, one of its greatest stars isn’t in front of the screen or directing the action, instead he’s a beloved photographer lensing what may very well be one of the year’s most profoundly beautiful motion pictures.

Entitled Neon Bull Mascaro taps Diego Garcia to shoot his story of gender roles within the world of Brazilian rodeo, the vaquejada, a sport where cowboys try to rope bulls by their tails only to drag them violently to the ground. Focusing on a handsome, strong cowboy named Iremar who daydreams of becoming a fashion designer, the film spends the...

Neon Bull (Boi neon) Kino Lorber Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director:  Gabriel Mascaro Written by: Gabriel Mascaro Cast: Juliano Cazarré, Aline Santana, Carlos Pessoa, Maeve Jinkings, Vinicius de Oliveira, Josinaldo Alves, Samya de Lavor Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 3/22/16 Opens: April 8, 2016 Bullfighting was banned in Catalonia, Spain, in 2012.  Computer models are available for examining frog anatomy, making dissection unnecessary in biology classes.  American companies are falling over themselves, advertising that no animals were abused in the making of their products.  Seaworld is under pressure to stop exploiting the services of whales and dolphins.  Yet rodeos in the U.S. are still popular out west  [ Read More ]

The post Neon Bull Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Aquarius

Director: Kleber Mendonca Filho

Writer: Kleber Mendoca Filho

We’ve been patiently awaiting for the sophomore effort from Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho ever since his excellent 2012 debut, Neighboring Sounds, which premiered at Rotterdam and went on to sweep up a number of awards and nominations during its festival run. He’s been developing two projects at the same time, both with elements of science fiction. While Bacurau will film next, Filho is finally in post-production on Aquarius, which concerns the 65-year-old Clara (Sonia Braga), a retired music writer and critic, widowed and alone in the apartment building Aquarius after her three grown children have moved away. Oh, and she’s mastered the gift of time travel.

Cast: Sonia Braga, Jeff Rosick, Irandhir Santos, Maeve Jinkings

Production Co.: CinemaScopio Producoes, Sbs Productions

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic). Tbd (international).

Release Date: Reportedly, Filho has hundreds of...

Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) is a roughneck. He’s a cowboy, a bull handler really, wrangling bulls into and out of a shoddy rural Brazilian rodeo. It’s dusty, difficult work, and the shows themselves are brutal, the bulls entering into a ring where two riders attempt to bring them down. The arena is spattered with the lost tail tassels of the bulls, ripped off by the riders. Iremar dutifully collects these tails, for use in his fantastical costume designs. So yes, Iremar might be a roughneck, but he’s a roughneck with dreams of designing delicate women’s bikinis and clothing. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Read More: Check Out Our Coverage Of The Marrakech Film Festival The question of appearances and their complicated meanings is at the heart of Gabriel Mascaro’s remarkable and arresting “Neon Bull.” The film centers on Iremar and the nomadic group...

The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.

AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.

World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...

★★★★☆ Debuting in the Orizzonti sidebar at this year's 72nd Venice Film Festival, August Winds (2014) director Gabriel Mascaro's Neon Bull (2015) tells a bizarre and sensuous story of a team of bull handlers in a remote corner of Brazil. They go from town to town in a large Hgv with the bulls which they supply for a strange rodeo event. A bull is released and the horse riders, ride alongside the bulls and try to pull them to the ground by their tails. A film featuring such an exotic and dangerous, albeit decidedly cruel, sport might be expected to focus on the riders who risk their lives as lead characters. However, these guys hardly get more than a line.

Mascaro prefers to follow those who have to look after the bulls, sand their tails (so they're easy to grip) and shovel the shit. One such vaqueiro is Iremar (Juliano Cazarre), an...

The Tiff folks have unveiled their slated dozen features for their spanking brand new competitive section and they’ve managed to lasso some high profile world preems that will compete alongside Int. and Na premieres. Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland and Jia Zhang-ke for which the name of the programme section is named after (Tiff referenced his 2000 film), will see a class comprised of the likes Joachim Lafosse and his piping hot The White Knights, David Verbeek (Full Contact starring Grégoire Colin – see pic above), Fabienne Berthaud and yet again actress Diane Kruger with Sky and Ben Wheatley‘s highly anticipated High Rise. Also included in the comp we find Pablo Trapero‘s Venice-bound The Clan, Eva Husson‘s hotly tipped directorial debut Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) and a docu entry that sounds absolutely brutal true story from Alan Zweig in Hurt. The winner will be announced on...

Sex and Candy: Gomes’ Wise, Intricate Character Study

Arriving over two years after its world premiere at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, Brazilian director Marcelo Gomes’ sophomore effort Once Upon a Time, Veronica (receiving a slightly tweaked new title) finally arrives stateside. Picking up several notable awards back home and through its round on the festival circuit, with a little luck the film should position Gomes as one of the most promising new voices from Brazil, and place him in the ranks of Karim Ainouz (with whom he co-directed a film in 2009), and Kleber Mendonca Filho, whose 2012 title Neighboring Sounds seems to have eclipsed Gomes’ title and stole some of his thunder with its rapturous critical reception.

Veronica (Hermila Guedes) has just passed her exams and has retained a position as a psychiatrist in a Recife public hospital. However, dealing with people face to face is not what she had expected,...

The Weinstein Company’s The Imitation Game is the big kid on the block among this holiday weekend’s batch of newcomers. The title is following in the footsteps of past TWC heavyweights The King’s Speech and The Artist, both of which opened to solid box office numbers and eventually scored Oscars for Best Picture. The distributor is expecting good numbers for Imitation Game over the Thanksgiving frame. IFC Films’ horror pic The Babadook has some good buzz heading into the weekend, though it might show its biggest heft via VOD with its day-and-date rollout. Remote Area Medical is one of those films one hopes everyone will see. Timed perfectly for this time of the year’s focus on thanks and giving, the documentary shows the underbelly of America’s healthcare crisis by way of people who provide free medical services to needy people in pop-up clinics around the country.

Neighboring Sounds, Brazil's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : The Cinema Guild. International Sales Agent: FiGa Films

Sound is a noble entity. It disregards the immense efforts people carry out to create separation. Walls, doors, windows, and all other material boundaries set in place to protect privacy or dictate who or what is allowed to enter a certain space. They are however absolutely no match, and are bypassed by the sneaky intangible, but very present, waves of sound. Staying loyal to its self-explanatory title, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds is a sensorial exploration of the mundane. It pretends to be a story about the rational and circumstantial interactions of a group living in an affluent community in Recife, Brazil, yet, its underlying story about the consequences of the past is pristine and solidly delivered by the ensemble cast.

Intending to depict varied experiences within the same context, the filmmaker has carefully chosen an array of subjects from different walks of life which coexist in this exclusive realm of which they form a part. Enjoying the stability that old money provides, João (Gustavo Jahn) is the grandson of prominent millionaire Mr. Francisco (W.J. Solha) who claims ownership to several of the apartment complexes in the area. Unlike the arrogant patriarch, João shows a friendly and grateful demeanor towards those below him, including his maid Maria whom he treats like family. In the same prosperous manner, Bia (Maeve Jinkings) is a mother of two whose biggest banal concern is how to stop the neighbor’s dog from barking. For all its seeming insignificance, it becomes her sole purpose in life. Lastly, the other group in focus are the recently assimilated security guards for hire, spearheaded by Clodoaldo (Irandhir Santos) who have come to this tightly knit micro-society to protect the tenants from petty theft. Despite the seemingly unperturbed ambiance in which everyone lives, dark motives and vendettas are disguised by the noisy nights and hypocritical repentance.

Voyeuristic in its approach, the camera hides behind the divisive surfaces and observes meticulously all the trivial occurrences that compose this urban intersection of dramas. Piercingly moody, the sound design emphasizes the layers of suspenseful atmosphere and acquires esoteric qualities which direct the narrative away from the simple exposition of situations and into the territory of experimental artistry. The film additionally uses the organic inclusion of dream sequences which rather than disconnecting the viewer from the factual setting that this concrete urban ecosystem embodies, serve to grant a different understanding of the fears and remorse the characters hide internally.

Inside the walls of these opulent living spaces, there is an unspoken discrepancy between those with enough acquisitive power to pay servitude and those forced to be servants as only source of income. Classist as most societies in developing countries, grudges and revenge plots have been brewing for a very long time between those at both ends of the spectrum. In this cinematic creation by a superb new Brazilian voice, those callings for payback might finally receive justice. Whether or not Mr. Francisco can fully comprehend the antagonistic behavior Clodoaldo and his minions exhibit or the obscure, almost intrusive, way in which they became part of the neighborhood, the past will catch up with him sooner rather than later. On his own terms, João vividly experiences the residual guilt passed down through generations literally soaked in the blood of the family’s invisible victims. Clever and bold, everything that happens on the screen is there not precisely to advance the plot into a defined direction, but to create a nerve-racking tension based on how ordinary it all looks.

Genuinely interested in telling stories far from the commonplace favela-dwelling tragedies, Mendonça Filho creates a fascinating study of the Brazilian upper-middle class, embellishing it with an abstract mix of surrealist nightmares and the more than noticeable auditory palette, Neighboring Sounds, the visionary director’s first feature, is one of the most audacious debuts in a long time, and surely one of the most original works of the year. All the restless barking, pounding drums, and the loud vibrations from a sexualized washing machine, tend to, ironically, convey more visual commentary than straightforward imagery could ever do.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

★★★★☆ Taking place behind the high walls and security gates of an affluent district in the Brazilian city of Recife, Neighbouring Sounds (O Som ao Redor, 2012) is a taut social drama brimming with urban anxiety. It's a fantastically assured debut from Kleber Mendonça Filho, who dexterously combines visual and aural manipulation to create a pervasive sense of dread. Eschewing the propulsion of traditional narrative, Filho instead opts for a sprawling mosaic that presents the lives of a dozen or so residents of a particular street, subtly taking the temperature of middle-class Brazil - a strata currently in a state of riotous flux.

Through its compulsive opening sequence, ties are grafted between today's society and an old-fashioned way of life emphasis placed on contrasting strata. Monochrome photography of the prosperous and the penniless from decades ago are partnered with a beautiful gliding tracking shot in the present day city. It's not just...

One of the year's best so far, Brazilian film critic-turned-director Kleber Mendonça Filho's festival favourite Neighbouring Sounds (O Som ao Redor, 2012) arrives on DVD this Monday (24 June) following a limited theatrical release back in March. Starring Irandhir Santos and Gustavo Jahn, and set within a closed-off residential community in the northern coastal city of Recife, Neighbouring Sounds' offers up a complex narrative as lives intertwine and old feuds resurface. To celebrate, we have Three DVD copies of the film to give away. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.

Life in a middle-class neighbourhood in present day Recife, Brazil, takes an unexpected turn after the arrival of an independent private security firm. The presence of these men brings a sense of safety and a good...