Estranho Mas Verdade

This is a solid movie. Slow in parts, but not too slow. It throws in a few surprises, but I saw many of those coming. Very few movies are truly original these days, but this film does a good job of repackaging what has come before. Can't complain about the acting and directing. It's solid enough for a film of this kind.

It's a decent little movie, which I would recommend.

Movie thrillers and mysteries usually revolve around a "McGuffin," an art of fiction set up to establish the plot and motivate the characters but which matters very little by the end of the movie. It's the trap the filmmaker sets to capture the audience to invest them in the story he/she wants to tell.

In this movie, the McGuffin is the mystery itself. The filmmaker doesn't ask us to believe that a ghost can impregnate a sad and grieving girl. Instead, it asks us to look at how loss can become grievance and become toxic, and what it takes to remember who and why we love.

Give it a chance.

This is newbie director Rowan Athale's second full length feature film (plus one short), and aside from a few technical errors and editing issues, he pretty much nailed it behind the camera and in directing his cast.

The film is an adaptation of the novel (I haven't read it) of the same name by John Searles, turned into a screenplay by novice writer Eric Garcia. The pacing started out decent, then slowed down midway, and felt dragged out towards the end, that the 96 min run-time felt longer. I wasn't a fan of the non-climatic stretch of cross-cutting time lines, and I felt the story would've been better told in the proper order.

Casting was excellent and all actors were convincing in their roles, especially Margaret Qualley, who was outstanding in her starring role.

The cinematography was on point, and the score perfect for this type of film.

For a low-budget B-grade film by unseasoned filmmakers, this was a surprisingly enjoyable noir-thriller about grief, belief and the things we keep hidden.

It's a recommended watch and a well deserved 8/10 from me.

Not sure what happened here but it's an interesting case study.

This worst titled movie ever starts with a well-crafted, unpredictable mystery with just enough hints dropped to completely engage the audience and keep them guessing. All the way up until the final mind-blowing clue, the movie works.

And then that all goes away, and it's one contrived, cliched confrontation after another. Complex characters all become one-dimensional morons, and the movie degrades into mindless, forgettable action replacing thoughtful dialogue.

Great premise ruined at the end by amateurish, unnecessary "guns and blood!"

Then you didn't pay enough attention.

It bugs me when people give the movie low rating but their comments make it obvious that they didn't pay attention or missed major parts.

This was a slow burn at the beginning but once we found out who the father was it picked up and concluded very well.

The acting was great

over all

5.9