Les paradis artificiels

A couple of days ago a friend of mine recommended me this movie. But I didn't make much case about it. Tonight, out of blue while I was on YouTube this movie showed up on my recommendations videos, then I gave it a chance.

Funny how this was exactly the kind of movie I was expecting to watch before sleep: some good sex scenes, some shallow and deep conversations, some good and bad acted scenes and a way good soundtrack.

To finish, the hippie guy on the bus has some trippy and remarkable quotes to share all over the movie. "Você é o que sente..."

There are some good Brazilian movies but this isn't one of them. The story itself is just lousely written, with long repetitive passages. I don't care about nudity but nobody likes soft porn, if you want to be interesting than just show some hardcore shots and not that overly boring soft stuff that goes on and on forever in this movie, repetitive non-interesting scenes. Then you have the drugs scenes that are also boring to watch after awhile. Nathalia Dill is candy for the eye so that's a positive thing in this movie, but the intrigue or supposed mystery of the movie is something you can figure out after half an hour and then the rest just becomes boring to watch.

You could reduce the movie to its core message, but it wouldn't be fair to the story itself. And it's nicely edited (with time-lines crossing and giving you bits and pieces to swallow), even though it should be more than predictable early on. Then again there is a spin on that too. And there is some nudity and a lot of music and a lot of partying. "Of course" all that comes with a price.

You could say the bad tries to creep into the good moments someone is having. Like a balance, like yin-yang or whatever you want to call it. Decisions are made and people have to live with the consequences of their decisions. So life then ... as we know it. The acting is nice and the framing/colors are really putting you in the mood. "Enjoying" the movie would be a stretch, but it's powerful at times

To preface - I originally had no intention of watching this film due to the relatively poor reviews found on this site, as well as what I thought would be a shallow story about sex, drugs, and raves. It was pretty random that I ended up seeing this, and when I started the movie I wasn't expecting to watch much more than 5 minutes of it.

Fortunately, I sat through to the end and am very glad I did. The artfully told story and solid acting kept me hooked, though some of the scenes were admittedly a little stretched out. The story is split into three time periods of the character's lives, switching back and forth throughout the movie. As the viewer, you begin to piece together the story and relationships, and make sense of earlier scenes until you have a full picture at the end, which will stick with you for days.

This is not at all the shallow movie I was expecting. Instead, it was a gripping story about love and drugs - how they shape relationships - and a deeper look into artificial paradises. Solid acting, multi-dimensional characters and great cinematography all add to the viewing experience. This is a great addition to Brazilian Cinema which I will add to my favorites along with Tropa de Elite I&II, Cidade de Deus, and Central do Brasil. I strongly recommend it.

Just another unseccesful try to combine drugs, beautiful girls, sex and some lousy story to make a movie and lose some time of yours. I'm sorry for my time lost.. Don't lose yours.