priscillalouzada Reviews

Maldivas (2022)

As a brazilian, I am happily surprised

[9/10 · 19 June 2022]

When Manu Gavassi (Milene) left Big Brother, the singer, who made everyone laugh saying she wanted to be a villain, confessed she wanted to make her own series. The brazilian nation, already captivated by her charisma and marketing skills, smiled happily when Maldivas was announced. Knowing that Bruna Marquezine would be in this project with her friend increased fans expectation about the show.

I admit I was skeptical. After so many bad brazilian series, not only on Netflix, I was raised knowing our way of making TV. But I also knew Natalia Klein talent way before Manu started singing. The screenwriter and narrator already had my heart.

This show is good because of the ideas, the lines, the small details and because, instead of a didactic novela style, it fits in a worldwide known genre. You won't be surprised by the plot, the raised questions will certainly be guessed quickly. But you will laugh and enjoy - and if you are brazilian you will get more jokes.

Hindsight (2015)

A surprising combination

[8/10 · 18 February 2015]

I love time travel stories. The sci-fi thing, the complications, the paradox... This series is a time travel and a romantic comedy.

The time traveling is used to make the main character confused about her future. She realizes she can change her future when she comes back on the day of her wedding. Then she has to make choices and she thinks a lot about them. She wonders about fate and doesn't want to make any damage in other people's futures as well. She is older but she doesn't know how to avoid the problems that made her life a mess.

The other characters are nice and likable. The 90s makes us nostalgic and the quotations about movies, fashion and pop culture are funny.

Each episode is showing so far one change at a time. I guess the love triangle will be dragged more. I hope this won't ruin the story.

Playing It Cool (2014)

Shallow

[6/10 · 18 February 2015]

I agree with most what has been said here in other reviews. I think this movie tries to be nice, cool, different. But what moves a story is conflict and there are basically 3 oppositions to the main character: the inner conflict, the girl refusal and the boyfriend.

Problem is, the girl is so nice, so smiling, so special, so "oh i love her", that I couldn't really get why she refuses to date the main character. Really, what is her problem?

The boyfriend is unaware of her friendship with the guy, and never shows up, only sometimes. We can't really define his character. There is no personality.

And what is left is the inner conflict, the voice over, the cool writer friends giving advices in order to build an idea of love.

Seriouly?

White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)

A "careless" teenager point of view?

[2/10 · 6 December 2014]

According to Robert McKee, in a movie, the main character must have a goal. At the beginning, the audience must empathize with the character and understand her enough to wish that she achieves her goal. "White Bird in a Blizzard" is very slow in its first half. Then, 2 years passes, the character grows up, and suddenly she gets a goal: she wants to understand what happened to her mother.

The puzzle is reduced by the teenager flashbacks, her perceptions of her mother, her dreams. Too much information that could have been reduced to increase the mystery, it's placed to show a teenager point of view. That is supposed to be a careless behavior of a girl that is unaware of the main information that solves the puzzle, a girl that is comfortable with her mother disappearance and thinks she knows enough.

Actually, the first half contradicts the essence of a movie, maybe because it's based on a book, a kind of art that brings the audience to drama. The mystery plot serves the drama, to bring a "coming of age" kind of story.

If you like mysteries, you won't like this movie. You will sleep on the first part. You will wonder what her goal is.

If you watch it as a "coming of age" story, you will miss in the character a little sadness, just her like shrink. Kat is not really affected. She cares so little, she has no goal, not until the mystery engages. And this is not how movies work well.