{"id":54591,"date":"2023-03-23T11:51:20","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T15:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/?p=54591"},"modified":"2023-03-23T11:51:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T15:51:20","slug":"when-being-young-is-the-hardest-part-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/2023\/03\/23\/when-being-young-is-the-hardest-part-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"When Being Young Is the Hardest Part of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roger Costa<\/strong><\/p>\n

SADNESS AND JOY IN THE LIFE OF GIRAFFES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Portuguese director Tiago Guedes’ award-winning adaptation of Tiago Gomes Rodrigues’s play is a bittersweet coming of age fantasy following the adventures and discoveries of a nerd girl dealing with her mother loss and finding console through her vivid imagination.<\/p>\n

When things get hard to handle with her dad, she goes on a self-discovery journey through Lisbon in search of answers for a school project. But that’s just an excuse for seeking out what life has to offer her. She is accompanied by her super big imaginary friend, a teddy bear who is probably Ted’s European cousin due to the gigantic amount of dirty vocabulary coming out of his mouth. But that doesn’t take away the brilliance, quirkeness and cute appeal of the narrative, as it is anchored by a lovable performance provided by Maria Abreu as the 10-year old girl named Giraffe trying to figure out a way to survive the hardest pain ever (losing a loved one), coordinate her relationship with her father and blend in society with her insightful, provocative questions while armed with her super intellectual vocabulary. That’s actually an interesting contrast to the way people act around her: her father is trying to impersonate both roles as father and mother and his conversations are frank and direct; her teddy bear is as slang and dirty as anyone could ever be; in the other hand, she uses hard, very uncommon words to describe people, situations and personal feelings, constantly defied by such intellectual gift.<\/p>\n

The director coordinates the material with sensitive eyes, and also demonstrates urgency in the matter of grief, abandon and displacement.<\/p>\n

Winner of the Sophia Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and nominated for Best Picture at Guadalajara Film Festival, the result is a beautifully executed dramedy about the transition of childhood into maturity, a joyful, delicate and reflective experience.<\/p>\n

(Premieres Exclusively on IndiePix Unlimited 3\/24.)<\/p>\n

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THE WORST ONES<\/strong><\/p>\n

An amazing discovery, this beautiful film feels like the son of the Dardenne Brothers. Even more, it celebrates the art of filmmaking, its process and all the obstacles that come along. The center story is also one of the most discussed topics in modern society: how we are treating and educating the young ones, how we are shaping and serving as role models of a future generation. A film crew arrives at a school where they select the most harsh students, problematic teens who had been previously involved with rebellion or are currently dealing with some traumatic issue to be part of a movie. Oh, well, which kid isn’t now a days?<\/p>\n

As the filmmakers engage in depicting the rebellious, aggressive side of youth, the community protests against it, while the teens are totally in for it, using it as a form of escaping boredom, social and home problems, and their individual trauma. They risk exposure, opportunity, influence and redemption. At one point there’s a tumultuous sex scene wannabe that leads to even more trouble later in the narrative, where one of the crew members is insulted and forced to leave the set. Winners of the Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Grand Prize, directors Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret deeply explore all the effects surorunding these kids: the film experiment, the adults’ choices and the supposedly role models around them. Their sensitive eyes resemble a lot of Dardennes’. And that is an attribute, a compliment to a major pair of newcomers who are leaving an impressive mark. In a perfect world, these kind of collaborative\/duo filmmaking would make all way up to the Oscars. As for the kids, they deliver convincing performances, obviously a reflection on themselves, making it an intriguing look at the process of working with non-professional actors. Must-see.<\/p>\n

(Kino Lorber. 3\/24. Quad Cinema.)<\/p>\n

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TORI AND LOKITA<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this scary and worrying era of mainstream consumerism, distortion of pop culture, financial threats against arthouse industry and major awards going nuts for ridiculous fantasy fanfare, I bring good news: there’s still hope in cinema, the essence of the art is, thank God, not dead. And thanks to the talent of the Dardenne Brothers, a distinguished duo who overshadows everything around them: while many filmmakers are going with the flow, transforming their art in personal (yet relatable) protests, these guys remain truthful to their art, principles and style, once again confirming their status as the most efficient and humanistic filmmakers working today: they fight for a better communal world where people would actually respect one another. Their films are like letters of peace attempting to end wars. With their latest contribution to the legacy of cinema masterworks, the Dardennes deliver their most touching, powerful and timely work since “The Kid With A Bike”. Not to discard all the other great films they did in between, because personally I love all of them. But this is a slowburn that tears us apart with its urgency and tragic depiction of human suffering. Exploring modern slavery, trafficking, abandon, refugee crisis, and the worse side of humankind, they have conceived one of their strongest films ever. It also displays one of the most suffering characters they ever created, embodied by Lokita, an African refugee who claims to be the sister of Tori, a kid in process of transition into Belgian guardianship. As they investigate the veracity of their biological bond, Lokita must pay the coyote who brought her out of Italy into Belgium, while also being pressured by her mother who needs money overseas to send off her brothers to school. Even worse, Lokita pairs with Tori and work for an abusive chef, selling hard drugs to club bouncers and hipsters alike at night escapes. Then an opportunity pops up: work for a 3-month period at a secretive, isolated drug plantation. That puts their intense, co-dependent relationship at serious risk of another forced separation. With their usual, unique, sensitive, perceptive, naturalistic, truthful and engaged to his characters’ emotions’ aesthetic on top of their games, the Dardennes display a powerful and horrifying mirror to modern society’s lack of moral and virtue. As our protagonists try to survive for a living and for the stability of their strong, united bond, they tragically cross paths with the worse kind of people, even at random situations when they are just trying to go to the next level of their journey as refugees. Kubrick has once created Lolita, and now the Dardennes give us an unforgettable Lokita. And so is Tori, an enchanting, courageous boy who breaks the silence and embodies the director’s alter ego, a Christian-like figure who might lead into salvation and who will always be there for someone. It was worth the wait. This is the best film of 23- it will be a hard task to dethrone it. In a perfect world, this kind of masterwork would score Oscars and everything else all at once. Bravo masters!<\/p>\n

(Janus Films. 3\/24. IFC Center.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roger Costa SADNESS AND JOY IN THE LIFE OF GIRAFFES Portuguese director Tiago Guedes’ award-winning adaptation of Tiago Gomes Rodrigues’s play is a bittersweet coming of age fantasy following the adventures and discoveries of a nerd girl dealing with her mother loss and finding console through her vivid imagination. When things get hard to handle with her dad, she goes on a self-discovery journey through Lisbon in search of answers for a school project. But that’s just an excuse for seeking out what life has to offer her. She is accompanied by her super big imaginary friend, a teddy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"views":1047,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54592,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54591\/revisions\/54592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}