DARK HORSE

"Dark Horse" is a light comedy about a Danish slacker who surprises himself by discovering responsibility. The second feature by French-born Icelandic director Dugar Kari doesn't follow a traditional plot, but rather proceeds in fits and starts through a series of comic vignettes that occasionally toy with flights of whimsy.

Kari shot his film in and around Copenhagen in a slightly hazy black-and-white, which he says is his homage to movies of the '60s. (There is one telling shot in color.) "Dark Horse" does remind one of '60s European films that played with romantic notions of anti-authoritarianism and youthful misfits. Kari shows little interest in looking deeper or letting the supporting roles do more than add to the jokiness. So other than in Scandinavia the film will have little impact outside of festivals.

Kari co-wrote the film with Danish screenwriter Rune Schjott and has cast several up-and-coming Danish actors including shovel-faced Jakob Cedergren as the lead. Daniel is a young fellow with little faith in the concepts of paying rent, maintaining a job or keeping a fixed abode. He makes under-the-table money as a graffiti artist when young men commission him to spray romantic tributes on walls to their girlfriends.

One day Daniel meets Franc (Tilly Scott Pedersen), a young woman with a shared sense of irresponsibility. The two fall in love, and when she becomes pregnant, decisions need to be made.

Meanwhile, the movie diverts its attention to focus somewhat fuzzily on a judge (Morten Suurballe), who appears to have something of a slacker streak within him, but this subplot never finds a comfortable home in the story.

Characters on the periphery -- a pal who dreams of becoming a soccer referee; Franc's libidinous mother; Daniel's enigmatic father -- are fleeting comic personalities without much substance.

Kari's own band, Slowblow, provides the whimsical music while Manuel Alberto Claro's black-and-white cinematography gives Copenhagen a wistful glow."

CIDADE BAIXA

"Poverty raunch is the genre for this saga about a fighter, a stripper and a robber. It's a down-and-very dirty melodrama set amid the squalor of the northeast coast of Brazil, featuring cock fights, boxing matches and hard and sweaty sex.

Produced by Walter Salles and Mauricio Andrade Ramos, "Cidade Baixa" does not promenade as social commentary but rather rampages as an in-your-face depiction of three lowlifes in a sexual triangle. Discriminating audiences who don't want their sex and violence sullied by relationship-speak should enjoy "Cidade," but it's unlikely that even the most sophisticated or jaded of festival audiences will kindly endure the onslaught of viciousness on display.

In this menage, there's Deco (Lazaro Ramos), a boxer, Naldinho (Wagner Moura), a petty criminal, and Karrina (Alice Braga), a sexually insatiable stripper. Deco and Naldinho have fallen on hard times: They work the docks, unloading cargo, but the shipping business has dried up in their area. They seek greener pastures, setting out for El Salvador, picking up Karrina along the way. For the lift, she lifts them both.

Soon, the three amigos are holed up drinking, screwing, scrounging and warring. As the sexual arithmetic indicates, one of the guys is going to be the odd man out, and neither of the testosterone-fueled louts will defer. Karrina is sensitive enough to understand this, though her carnal appetites are so voracious that she fuels the tension by driving them both wild in bed. Soon, the two male lunks take off the gloves.

Despite the sordid strut of Sergio Machado and Karim Ainouz's screenplay, the performances are properly fleshed out. Braga's uninhibited, sexual rampage is incendiary, igniting the pent-up violence and craziness of her lowlife world. Similarly, both Moura and Ramos are convincing as the macho, reckless dregs of the harbor.

Overall, filmmaker Machado blasts together an appropriate aesthetic: "Cidade Baixa" is loud, frantic and brutal. Technically, the aesthetics service the story line, especially the onslaught of sounds from composers Carlinhos Brown and Beto Villares."