+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Brazilian Movie of the Year
+ Best Debut Movie of the Year
+ Best Romance of the Year
 |
| A deliciously photo-drawn poster for Daniel Ribeiro's The Way He Looks |
Young Leo is an ordinary teenage boy, who, however, does stand out from his classmates in that he is born blind. He and his best friend Giovana have their lives changed, when a new boy, Gabriel, begins in their class.
Within the first few minutes I fell head over heels for The Way He Looks, which is the feature debut of Brazilian master writer-director Daniel Ribeiro (You, Me and Him/Café com Leite (2007, short)), which is based on his short I Don't Want to Go Back Alone/Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho (2010). Its original, Portuguese title means, 'today I want to go back alone'.
This romantic youth drama is both an aesthetic joy, - Ribeiro and cinematographer Pierre de Kerchove (Joaquim (2017)) demonstrate an exquisite eye for capturing beauty in many shapes and forms, - and a phenomenally sensitive portrayal of first love.
Ghilherme Lobo (Dangerous Liaisons/Ligações Perigosas (2016, miniseries), who is not really blind, is absolutely incredible as protagonist Leo. Fabio Audi (Forever and Ever/Alto Astral (2014, TV-series) and Tess Amorim (Spread Through the Air/Espalhadas Pelo Ar (2007, short)) as Gabriel and Giovana are also priceless, and even the smaller parts of Leo's mother, grandmother, father and his class tormentor (Pedro Carvalho (The Devil Lives Here/O Diabo Mora Aqui (2015)) is Fabio) are acted superbly.
The Way He Looks made me giggle and shed tears, but above all else it made me warm in both stomach and heart as a bonfire on a wintry night. It is a perfect, tender, intelligent gem of a film, completely entrancing and surely among the year's absolute best.
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Cost: 2.7 mil. R$ (Brazilian real), or approximately 0.86 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Big flop
[The Way He Looks premiered 10 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. The script was selected and refined at the 2010 Berlinale Script Station. Shooting took place in Ribeiro's native São Paolo from February - March 2013. The film opened #51 to a small 26k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it spread to 14 theaters but never a higher position, grossing 101k $ (8.3 % of the total gross), the second biggest market. The biggest market was the film's native Brazil with 1 mil. $ (83.3 %), and the third biggest was France with 48k $ (4 %). More than 205k paid admission to it in Brazil, which also made the film its Oscar-entry of the year. Regrettably, it wasn't nominated. The film won two awards at the Berlin Film Festival and several other honors around the world. Ribeiro is working on his second feature now, transgender drama Amanda e Caio. The Way He Looks is fresh at 92 % with a 7.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Way He Looks?
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