Doing to some slight research into the most recent DVD screener I received from Spout, The Man of the Year, I felt there might be some promise. Alas, this was one of the worst I've seen in a while.
I watched the trailer for the movie which was on the DVD as well after I had finished. It featured a quote from who knows where stating "If Quentin Tarantino had been Brazillian". I'm not sure what the second part of this sentence was because the trailer failed to let us know. But I tried to think of a number of possibilities. One of the simplest ones probably would have been, "he would have made a movie that looked nothing like this one." Really this movie has none of the wit or enjoyable dialogue that you would find in a Tarantino movie.
For another comparison, I saw a quote from a review by Phil Villarreal from the Arizona Daily Star. He says "If 'City of God' is Brazil's answer to 'The Godfather,' then 'The Man of the Year' is Rio's 'GoodFellas.'" Thematically yes this is about a person who gets swept up into organized crime and violence of sorts. He also has to deal with machismo and women and family problems. Yes, but he speaks in platitudes. "Learning to kill is like learning to die" and such. The other movies named have much deeper levels of character.
The supposed premise to this movie is that this normal joe type of guy gets roped into a life of violence and crime through a series of events that started with something quite harmless and trivial, dying his hair blonde after losing a bet in a soccer game. This history of this character Máiquel (played by Murilo Benício) is never explored, but it's pretty apparent from the beginning that he was never much of a nice or innocent guy in the first place. What actually happens is that after getting his hair dyed, he walks into a bar where some guy named Suel makes fun of his haircut. Suel doesn't do anything but sit there and laugh. Máiquel is the one who goads him on and instantly threatens violence. Suel seems content to avoid violence. Máiquel buys a gun and finds Suel later. When he encounters Suel, Suel is calm and doesn't even threaten back. Máiquel shoots Suel who was unarmed and not doing anything.
We find out later that everyone in the community treats Máiquel like a hero for killing Suel because I guess he was a real nuisance and an asshole. They could have done a better job of showing this. Máiquel looked like the asshole though the whole movie. Actually everyone did. I don't think there was a single sympathetic character in the whole movie.
I've never been to Rio, and I know of it's big problems with gang violence. But I have friends who have been there and I don't think it can be as desperate and clichéd as this. The Dentist whose daughter was raped and wants the guy dead for it when his daughter is obviously a total whore. The uncle who won't shut up about how once you get married your wife will turn into a fat, screaming, selfish banshee. And of course that ends up happening. The other young whore to suddenly jumps to a life of worshipping Jesus and talking about his virtues but the portrayal of this just completely weird and unbelievable. The corrupt cop. Ok, these things happen. People like this exist, but what new insight does this movie have? None. Every time any type of compelling drama looked like it was about to begin, all of these clichés just overpowered it.
I guess I don't want to say that it was complete rubbish. Despite the bad acting and writing, there were often some engaging visuals. The photography and editing were both notable at times. Other than that I just cannot recommend this.
Again I've never been to Rio and maybe this is what it really is like down there. Maybe I'm just avoiding the truth. But if that's true well it's just too depressing for me to want to experience. That's probably not a good reason, but I am still pretty sure it's not really like that. People are people and I've met enough of them to recognize what's real and what is narrative cliché.
Rating: 4/10