Bruna Surfistinha

The movie shouts at every scene: somebody else, like the State, paid for this movie. It reminds me of crappy popular European movies from the 1970s, all made with State money for the mindless pride of politicians and bureaucrats: our nation is so good! Everything is a missed hit about this movie.

The "kids" are much older. And I do not care about the actor's ages. They can be 95 years old as far as I care. But they certainly do not look the given age. See above: some useless actors were used, not because they fit the bill, but because they have enough experience and relationships that the syndicate or some politician did the casting. And how come the fresh flower from a middle class family has fake breasts already healed? Another proof of the power of prayer!

Each and every scene is slow. The actors are moving too slow. The camera is moving too slow. I doubt this story can fill the usual 90 minutes. And it's almost two hours long! Because the wages were certain, nobody bothered to learn anything about the life of the characters. Probably most could not be bothered to read the entire book. Now, Brazil has enough backwards religious communities so some might be surprised about the concept of prostitution or homosexuality. But these are actors. The year is 2011. And there is such thing as the internet. And not only the actors are bad and rigid, but the whole team is junk. Take the scene from the beginning, when the girl is introduced to her flat mates. They are all, like Jesus at the last supper, turned towards the camera. And the newcomer? Easy! She finds a place left for her and turns for the camera.

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Reasonably interesting drama. Does engage you, though there is a feeling of inevitability about the plot.

Good performances, especially from Deborah Secco in the lead role.

I could be wrong but I never saw a good quality of Brazilian movie.

If you are prepared to watch a soft porn film, this one is for you. Otherwise, forget it.

This is the story of a teenage girl who runs away from her adopted family for vague reasons (her adopted brother is cruel to her, she is taken advantage of sexually by the boys in school). She "turns the tables" on everybody by going to work at a brothel, then striking out on her own as an internet call girl, then starting a pseudo-feminist blog as "Bruna Surfergirl" where she "rates" the performance of her male clients (which you would think would be bad for business), and somehow becoming the most famous hooker in Brazil.

This movie is based a real-life story, but it is of a piece with a lot foreign movies I've seen lately from France ("Student Services", "Elles", "Young and Beautiful"), Eastern Europe ("A Call Girl"), and Chile ("Joven y Alocado"). This is less preachy and socially alarmist than some of the others, but I think, like them, it definitely glamorizes prostitution quite a bit, both for women (this really doesn't seem like that bad of profession) and definitely for men since all these actresses are insanely hot and much more wholesome looking and genuinely pretty than any actual streetwalker who services thirty men a week and abuses hard drugs would ever possibly be. You could complain that the actress, Deborah Secco, was nearly 30 here and playing an 18 year old, but she probably LOOKS more fresh and innocent than any real teenager who has spent six months working the streets. Prostitution is obviously enticing sometimes to both female providers and male clients, but at best it's like a tasty-looking meal that happens to be lying in a garbage dumpster. These movies kind of tend to ignore the garbage dumpster.

If you're just looking a hot sex movie with higher production values, better acting, and more of a story than "Cinemax After Dark", this movie is definitely worth watching, but don't expect any profound statement on the human condition.

"Bruna" Marcus Baldini - As if we need excuses to waste almost a couple of hours watching Deborah Seco undressing and doing it like it's hot! The story captivated me for being based on real facts that I personally didn't know. I found it interesting only because of a certain verbal gymnastics that keeps me laughing in the lexicon of the Brazilian Portuguese and the lightness in which the most serious subjects can be portrayed by Brazilian directors, sometimes even in an ethereal fashion. But this movie is worth only for the scenes with Deborah Seco, just because the emotional dimension of it is sometimes lost and one never gets to understand what leads the main character to taking such a shaky turn, one does not understand what kind of analysis is made and for trying to tell a story sometimes the film gets so close to wanting to tell too much without showing great substance. I give it a 7 out of 10, almost pulling in a 6, but our friend Deborah Seco saved the movie (although at the beginning of the movie she acting very stuck up and out of character, perhaps because they wanted her to go through an age that simply is nor hers any more).