Tag Archives: Wagner Moura

Praia do Futuro [Futuro Beach] (2014)

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Praia do Futuro
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Writer: Felipe Bragança, Karim Aïnouz
Cast: Wagner Moura, Clemens Schick, Jesuíta Barbosa
Part of: identities Festival
Seen on: 13.6.2015

Plot:
Donato (Wagner Moura) is a lifeguard in Brazil. After he fails to save a German tourist from drowning, the first person he loses, he meets Konrad (Clemens Schick), the victim’s friend. He offers Konrad a ride and next thing you know, Donato is very much in love with him – and vice versa. When Konrad’s stay in Brazil draws to a close, Donato decides to come with him to Germany, abruptly severing all contact to his home.

Praia do Futuro is divided into three parts and fortunately, the last part makes up for a lot, because the first two parts dragged and constantly left out the things I was most interested in.

praiadofuturo

[SPOILERS]

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Elysium (2013)

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Elysium
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Writer: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner

Plot:
2154. The rich people have left the polluted and pretty much destroyed Earth to live with all the good things on the space station Elysium, while the poor people are stuck down on Earth, living in squalor and sickness and pain. One of these people is Max (Matt Damon) who works hard and tries his best not to go back to prison. But when he’s exposed to a fatal amount of radiation in a work accident, which could be cured on Elysium, he takes on a mission with far more reach than just his own life.

Oh for fuck’s sake, Elysium was so freaking dumb I barely have words for it. It also used way too much shaky cam and it was boring. Dumb, boring and bad to look at (except the occasional space porn image) is like the movie trifecta of “stay away from me with your fucking film”.

elysium

[SPOILERS]

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Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora É Outro [Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within] (2010)

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Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora É Outro
Director: José Padilha
Writer: José Padilha, Bráulio Mantovani
Sequel to: Tropa de Elite
Cast: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz, Maria Ribeiro, Seu Jorge
Part of: Viennale

Plot:
Nascimento (Wagner Moura) has given up his thoughts about retiring from the elite squad BOPE, though he does feel pressure from the civil rights movement, spearheaded by Diogo Fraga (Irandhir Santos). When a prison riot escalates in the worst possible way, Fraga calls for Nascimento’s removal from the force but instead Nascimento is promoted and starts working for the Ministry of Defence. But that doesn’t keep him from continuing his war against everything that threatens Brazil – it only takes it to the next level.

Somehow this movie doesn’t work as well as the first one. It still has very smart writing and the reduction of violence and torture should work to its advantage. But the character of Nascimento suffered a blow. And without his insane genius, the movie just isn’t in the same league.

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Tropa de Elite [Elite Squad] (2007)

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Tropa de Elite
Director: José Padilha
Writer: José Padilha, Bráulio Mantovani, Rodrigo Pimentel
Based on: Elite da Tropa by Rodrigo Pimentel, André Batista, Luiz Eduardo Soares
Cast: Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz

Plot:
1997. Rio’s slums are overrun with drug criminality and the overly challenged and underfunded police turns to bribery and crime in general. And whenever the police can’t handle things anymore, the BOPE (Special Operations Force) gets called in to save the day by basically shooting everyone involved. Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is one of the Captains of BOPE. When his wife becomes pregnant, Nascimento wants to quit BOPE – but not before he can find his own replacement.

Tropa de Elite is a pretty disturbing film. It pretty much shows what happens when the system doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to and in the place of functioning police force you get a bunch of psychopaths who feel they are on a mission for society. It’s not pretty.

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