romance | Fifth about The Seventh

The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho)

April 15, 2014 by Felipe Rosa

The Way He Looks: certain stories call for a light, delicate touch and Daniel Ribeiro delivers it in spades in this film. Beautifully written, it intertwines its ideas seamlessly and creates a group of characters that are engaging and belieavable, as is their environment. The whole cast works beautifully, and the three principals, Ghilherme Lobo, Fabio Audi and Tess Amorim, are simply tone perfect. Visually simple, unadorned, what puts the focus where it should be: the story. It’s an expansion of a likewise lovely […]

Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama, romance

Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho – Full Short

April 15, 2014 by Felipe Rosa

Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho (I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone): this delicate, lovely short by Daniel Ribeiro, deserves to be seen. (It’s in Portuguese, but subtitles are available.) After winning many awards worlwide, it was expanded by the director into a wonderful feature, The Way He Looks (even thought the literal title translation actually is “Today I Want to Go Back Alone”; the title change is meaningful).

Categories: Non-Reviews • Tags: drama, romance, short

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Notorious (1946)

March 11, 2014 by Felipe Rosa

Notorious: a typically classy Alfred Hitchcock’s film; the story is simple, relatively unadorned, but it nevertheless produces some moments of great suspense.

Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama, romance, thriller

Her (2013)

December 21, 2013 by Felipe Rosa

Her: delicate, low-key and poetic science fiction, this film distills elements of romance into their essence; despite its high concept, the story evolves in a natural way and is very touching. Perhaps more than usual, strong acting is required here, and Joaquin Phoenix delivers in spades a very sensitive and earnest performance; however, he is upstaged by Scarlett Johansson who, despite not having most of her instruments at her disposal, is able to create a rich, round and convincing character simply with […]

Categories: Film reviews • Tags: romance, sci fi

About Time (2013)

November 18, 2013 by Felipe Rosa

About Time: at its best moments, this film has a great sweetness to it; the relationships of the family members are all heart-tugging. This is familiar territory for Richard Curtis, even if this film is lighter on comedy than most of his fare; the cast is well-chosen and well-tuned. However, at its worst moments, it becomes preachy and (clearly) manipulative; worse than that, it does so inelegantly, abusing voice-overs instead of trusting the cast with a scene. Nevertheless, it’s a […]

Categories: Film reviews • Tags: romance, sci fi

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Moonrise Kingdom – Revisit

November 8, 2013 by Felipe Rosa

Moonrise Kingdom: a revisit confirms that the cute, charming story told by this film is its main asset, along with the central pair. Visually, the film is loaded with balanced, well-manicured frames. In other words, this is very clearly a Wes Anderson film: a universe of great precision, where characteristics (both for the world and the characters that inhabit it) are well-defined but the displayed emotions are small, subdued. The cold, distant tone and the very particular aesthetics are an […]

Categories: Film reviews, Revisit • Tags: comedy, drama, romance

Summertime (1955)

July 26, 2013 by Felipe Rosa

Summertime: while the story doesn’t pick up, this film resembles a travelogue of Venice more than anything else. The upshot is that the city looks lovelier than ever, colorful and alive. However, when the characters are introduced and the situation set, the cast shines as one would expect. Katherine Hepburn is great and heartbreaking, playing a bit against type (but she could play it all, and well). David Lean chose to let many scenes play themselves, without cuts, giving enough […]

Categories: Film reviews • Tags: romance

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Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

June 12, 2013 by Felipe Rosa

Much Ado About Nothing: Joss Whedon’s choices for this play are good evidence that strong writing (and a Shakespeare play will almost by default qualify) works in almost any setting, particularly if anchored by good acting. The cast, for the most part, makes the Bard’s words sing and dance, bringing the lovely farce to life. The film has a very simple, unadorned look (to be expected considering how the project came to life) and the black-and-white cinematography is just serviceable; […]

Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy, drama, romance

Behind the Candelabra

May 28, 2013 by Felipe Rosa

Behind the Candelabra: this film tells its story by-the-numbers, conventionally. The consequences of this choice are two-fold: by one hand, it humanizes the characters as they are showed respectfully; however, the flip side of stripping the story of elements that make it distinct also begets a less interesting experience in general. Nevertheless, the story is told well and tastefully; visually, the camera work is sleek but the colors are a bit off putting (this has been haunting Steven Soderbergh’s films of […]

Categories: Film reviews • Tags: biopic / historic, drama, romance

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