Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 2.5
Music critic/cancer survivor/widow Clara (Sonia Braga) lives alone in the Aquarius apartment complex in Recife, Brazil ... but a slimy real estate company wants her out, so when she refuses to move, they turn to nefarious tactics (like filming orgies upstairs, filling the hallways with feces and using termites to destroy the place). It's kind of refreshing to know such a low-key movie can have such an alarming political impact in Mendonça Filho's native land (the cast has been critical of current president Michel Temer) and Braga is a captivating, headstrong lead, however the movie is needlessly ponderous and ultimately unsatisfying, moving at its own deliberate pace but never culminating in anything stirring (she starts off stubborn and ends up stubborn ... how's that for consistency). There are some nice little details in there - old/new music (and ways of listening to music), the termites/cancer parallel, the recurrence of the dresser - to reflect the changing of the times (not always for the better).
