I’M STILL HERE: A Scary Movie

I’M STILL HERE (Blu-ray)

2024 / 137 min.

Sony

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Princess Pepper😺

Walter Salles' I’m Still Here won Best International Feature Film at last year’s Oscars. It also scored nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress (Fernanda Torres, who’s magnificent here). Having finally just watched it, I don’t think it’s the best of all the nominees (I was pulling for Conclave). But it just might be the scariest, partially because it’s a true story, but also…well, more on that in a minute.

The film opens in 1970, when Brazil is a dictatorship following a military coup d’etat a few years earlier. Seemingly out of the blue, civil engineer and former congressman Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) is taken away for questioning. So is his wife, Eunice (Torres) and one of their daughters. Eunice is imprisoned and interrogated about her husband’s involvement in aiding revolutionaries. She knows nothing and is soon released, as is their daughter. Rubens, however, is never seen again.

Most of the middle act focuses on Eunice’s attempts to learn where Rubens is being held (or if he’s even still alive), as well as the long-term financial and emotional toll the incident has on her family. Storywise, the latter is especially affecting because the first act does a masterful job revealing the idyllic life this close-knit family had before being devastated by the actions of the regime. Eunice demonstrates inspirational amounts of resolve, not only regarding sacrifices taken to care for her children, but exposing what really happened to Ruben. The latter ends up taking a couple of decades.

Does calling "Slug Bug" count if you're sitting in it?

Though there are plenty of heartwarming (even funny) moments throughout the story, I’m Still Here is an appropriately somber depiction of true events. Whether or not it’s an accurate account doesn’t matter, because we’re invested in Eunice as a character. While the film boasts excellent performances all around, Torres carries a majority of the dramatic weight on her shoulders. Her understated approach is perfect for the role, which requires putting on a brave front while Eunice’s world threatens to fall apart around her.

As I said, I’m Still Here is also pretty scary, mainly because it’s unfortunately timely in light of recent events…at least as I see it. On this site, we try to remain apolitical, since nobody comes here for our take on current events. But while watching this, I couldn’t help but be reminded of ominous things happening in my own country, where a certain leader with oligarchical aspirations is using both military and deputized forces to target perceived enemies without due process. And just this week, it resulted in the death of an innocent woman.  

Or am I just being an alarmist? I don’t know…maybe. But the fact remains that some unnerving parallels can be drawn between events in I’m Still Here and what we’re seeing in the news. So for this writer, this makes the film more than just another period piece. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Characters and Actors are both very short, consisting of cast interviews and scenes; Interviews is similar and runs a bit longer. Considering the accolades the film has gotten, you'd think more substantial bonus features would be included.

BLUE DESERT: Looks Aren't Everything

BLUE DESERT (DVD)

2013 / 92 min

FROM INDIEPIX

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Baffled😾

This Brazilian sci-fi film is visually striking, both naturally, with numerous scenes of red desert hills vividly contrasting a piercing blue sky, and through creative production design, depicting a future world of ethereal technology and aesthetic eye-candy.

However, looks aren’t everything.

Blue Desert is an utterly baffling film about a young man named Ele (Odilon Esteves), who’s tormented by his mundane daily existence and seeks to find transcendence. Also serving as the narrarator, Ele is repeatedly reminding us of his quest as he goes through life trying to empty his mind of societal clutter. He also has visions of an old man in the desert, whose goal is to paint it all blue. Hence the title, I guess, though the significance of these scenes are never clear…

…nor is anything else, really, including a lengthy and interminable sequence in a nightclub that we’re forced to endure twice. This is where he meets a mysterious woman, Alma (Maria Luisa Mendonça), who leads him through a perplexing conversation about love before making out with him. Then she disappears. Later, the same sequence is played again, only with their roles reversed. The entire time, an MC spouts pretentious gobbledegook about…well, your guess is as good as mine. Ele's best friend pops up now and again to verbally spare with him, but neither he nor Alma have any discernible relevance to the narrative.

Ele loses his beach ball.

I'm saying 'narrative' like I could actually follow it. I don’t have a problem with ambiguity, or even a filmmaker’s attempt to leave viewers completely perplexed. However, director Eder Santos should at least keep things interesting. Not only is Blue Desert confusing, it’s a colossal bore and moves at a snail’s pace. Characterization is almost non-existent and the only significant thing revealed about the main character is he likes to tinker with robots. It’s just a series of hallucinatory sequences strung together by indecipherable dialogue that sounds profound, but maybe someone smarter than me can explain what the hell any of it means. Speaking of which, some of that dialogue is apparently lifted directly from a book by Yoko Ono, which should tell you something. 

The film ends as it begins, in the barren desert beneath a blue sky. There’s no climax, no discernible resolution and absolutely no clarity. Ultimately, watching Blue Desert is like going on a date with someone who’s drop-dead gorgeous, but might be the dullest person you ever met.