Reviews

The movie is very predictable. Everything goes wrong, then all of a sudden he is a straight A student. The movie always follows this cycle. It is funny that there are almost no cases of racism in the entire movie. You can almost predict what will happen next. All the problems Re solved way too easily. Kid gets new glasses, and gets good grades. He ditches the lectures and get an A on the conveniently important exam he had to pass. It doesn't even make sense to put this dramatic part of the movie - we all know he ia going to pass. And what the heck was this university student Ben? He looks like a 40 year old!! I honestly wish the movie was more centred on the two important surgeries than on those boring and predictable childhood stories.

The photography is not memorable. There are beautiful locations, but no interesting camera work or good compositions. Even TV shows like House have done much better. Music is good... If you ignore the soap-opera dramatic background sounds used on intense scenes. They should have stick with the proper classical music.

Overall it is an interesting story, but told on a movie that has many flaws that make it very predictable and boring. I can't imagine this being played on a movie theatre.

The movie does has a pretty photography, until you realize it looks pretty much as shaky camera movements and cheap instagram filters. Acting from many characters is simply poor. Caio is not wearing a shirt 90% of the time. OK, OK, we get it. He is hot. And has a huge line of pubes coming from his groin. The story is told in the synopsis of the movie. Girl has that strange sexually tense relationship with Caio. He is a junkie with a predilection for an easy life. He does actually wear more handcuffs than shirts. There are some stories inside the movie. Believable stuff as a homeless underage kid with a full sleeve tattoo. It looks like he will be more important for the story, mostly because he takes one third of the movie and another instagram still shot of a mirror. All of a sudden the story takes a spin (that was stated on the synopsis). We get a LOT of bad acting from random people. After some nonsense that seemed to be based on detective movies. One of the last and most important characters for the storyline act on such a terrible way that you really can't say if she is lying or telling the truth.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this film. It really felt as a documentary on the beginning. The characters are really good - and work pretty damn well. I only noticed they were actors on the middle of the film, after the mother's interview. A thing that annoyed me was the part between the mother's interview and his final decision. It just felt off - annoying footage that did not add anything to the story. It felt quite fake and silly, in fact. Some other things start to scream "CHEAP MOVIE". They could have worked more on some of the story lines, such as the sister's reaction. About the ending... Better than I expected. Made me swear quite a bit. But it also made me really like the movie again. I almost gave up on the boxers part (seriously, no movie but American pie should be talking about boxer shorts for more than 1 minute. This movie spend at least 20 on that stupidity). Great mock-documentary, with interesting songs. If it was a bit more polished it would be on my top 10.

I watched this movie yesterday night, on the International Cinema Festival here in São Paulo, Brazil. This movie is astonishing. It really feels lie a good-bye movie, but that is not what makes it sad. Although the movie is uplifting, colourful and with an amazing music score... it is quite sad to think that Grave of the Fireflies happened just a few years later! This movie is deliciously colourful. We can also see Miyazaki's style on the characters. They actually do the Totoro's head size changing thing when expressing strong emotions. One of the things that I really liked was the music score. It starts as a simple guitar, but in the end it evolves to a full orchestra. The sound effects are quite amazing as well. I felt that the Germany part of the movie was a tad slow, and some parts could be more developed, such as the flashligh part of the movie. This is a bit annoying, but is soon forgotten. The mixture between dreams and reality is delicious. I felt happy and warm inside watching all the happy people riding Caproni's plane. But in the same time... I felt sad, because, as I wrote above... this would all end in a few years or months. It is disturbing that the Zero would be used as a weapon and that many would not return. It is funny - the movie makes you feel good and uneasy on the same time. Still, this was one of the most gorgeous animation's I have ever seen. Mr. Miyazaki finished his career with a great movie, and his work sure be missed.