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."
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."
posted by manila at 10:28 PM
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