This first full-length feature from young Brazilian filmmakers Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon is pretty to look at, but beyond that, the plot is to the point of being so vague that it renders this esoteric movie far too baffling for its own good.
Set in the extreme south of Brazil in the heart of winter, it is the tale of two teenagers Martin and Tomaz who are very best friends who set out on a road trip to the beach town where they grew up together. Martin has been asked to go collect a mysterious document from estranged family members, and before they leave his father asks ‘you know what to do?’ and whilst he seems very unsure, we have no idea whatsoever.
What is clear though from the very beginning that there is an unspoken sexual frisson between the two adolescent boys although they both hook up with girls after a heavy drinking session. When they compare notes the next day, it turns out that whilst Martin had got physical with his date, Tomaz had just got even drunker so that he could avoid having to have sex with the girl he had ended up with. Whilst they are finally opening up to each other (an hour into the movie) Tomaz admits to his astonished best friend that he is not only gay but actually has a boyfriend. Martin turns out as being bi-curious and so he can only act in one way after that which makes sense, but what follows after that simply doesn’t.
There is a fine line in leaving plot strands unfettered on one hand leaving it to our imagination to fill in the missing parts of the puzzle, and failing to completely give any information into what one can only assume is the thriller aspect of this otherwise rather insipid coming-of-age tale.
Brazilian LGBT movies are usually amongst the very best of the genre: this year alone there were two real stunners in ‘The Way He Looks’ and ‘Futuro Beach’. This one, however, is nowhere in the same class, as simply just being pretty to look at is not nearly enough.
