This innocent and amusing short film tells the story of five boys anxious to see the final chapter of a film serials they follow for some time. Problem is that the cinema
changed their admittance rules which states no one can't enter the theater without shoes, and it's like they're all so poor and so involved with their activities of playing soccer
or some pranks here and there that no shoes are needed...but now they are. The goal is to get some shoes, go to the cinema and watch "Haroldo, the Lightning Man".
While four of the boys manage to create a plan by using just one pair of shoes that are thrown away from a window and borrowed between themselves, one of the boys tries to ask his mom and dad
to buy the shoes for him, yet nothing happens until a sudden appearance helps him out.
It's a cute story about how the power of cinema moves childhood and affects them in positive ways but also makes them desperate and fight for the movies when they realize
they won't be able to see the real event of that small town. They're in it because they want the magic and movies can bring that to us. How many we were anxious about an upcoming
release, sometimes to the point of waiting years for it to come? That's the level of anxiety and I could identify with those kids.
But on the other hand the story didn't convinced me all that much with the shoes issue. Basically, the makers are telling me that there was a time where it was socially
acceptable to enter countless places without shoes but just the cinema blocks such idea after going with it for so long? I mean, they can go to the supermarket, the church,
a school with no shoes on? The environemnt presented isn't rural but it's a small town with some countryside. And I wonder about possible alternatives, what about sandals, flip-flops?
It genuine feels like the makers are giving excuses to make a movie, and I could only believe in such scenario if considering things as extreme situations. Hard to buy, hard to
accept but it's like one percent of chance of happening back in the early 1930's - as the story takes place with an amazing period reconstruction.
Yet we got an enjoyable movie with fine performances by the kids, Leonardo Miggiorin as the cinema announcer, Guilherme Weber as the cinema usher and Vladimir Brichta as
the movie hero (the affected way he speaks, trying to sound really important is hilarious). 8/10.
P. S.: title "Landscape of Boys"? I don't get it.
