*My review of Bacurau was originally published on Film Inquiry. Click here to read the original post and check out more great reviews from this awesome site!*
White supremacist colonizers get what’s coming to them in Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles‘ Bacurau, an often ambiguous film that, after a long and vague slow burn, eventually becomes a full-blown exploitation pic. Heads will roll and blood will spill, as the peaceful villagers of the town of Bacurau face off against the monsters who are hunting them down one-by-one for sport; at times, it plays like an updated version of A Most Dangerous Game, albeit, one that’s saddled with added socio-political context. With such an exciting, strange conceit and the presence of a genre-bending, John Carpenter-infused cinematic energy, it seems weird to emphasize that Bacurau never truly works. The film’s stylish excess, coupled with its insistence on operating in a mode of uncertainty for far too long, renders it a tiresome experience.
Amusingly, for a film that eventually takes some strange detours, Bacurau has an inconspicuous introduction, with nurse Teresa (Barbára Colen) returning to her hometown as her grandmother lies on her deathbed. The town of Bacurau is rather close-knit and remote, so the death of a woman who lived to such an advanced age is a cause for community-wide mourning and celebration. For Teresa, it’s also a re-introduction to the town’s political situation, which is continually a source of instability and anger. The citizens of Bacurau are locked in a conflict with shamelessly corrupt politician Tony Jr. (Thardelly Lima), a leader so widely hated the townspeople hide when his gaudy caravan rolls into town. With access to food and water proving to be increasingly limited, Plinio (Wilson Rabelo) and other community leaders emphasize that Bacurau must remain united.
Then things get….. weird. One day, Bacurau disappears off the map. Later, there’s the unexpected appearance of a UFO outside of town. Then the outsiders start rolling in and the bodies start piling up, which can only mean one thing: Bacurau is under attack.
From here, it gets bloody and nutty, but there’s something about Bacurau‘s slow drip of strangeness that doesn’t full satisfy. Mendonça Filho and Dornelles establish a variety of unique strands—a tense political atmosphere, a community on edge, the steady invasion of outside forces—and suggest an impending subversion, a way of pulling out the rug from viewers with a major twist. This does indeed happen, but it feels far less surprising and shocking than one would expect. Here, I suppose its effectiveness depends on how much you know going in: if, like me, you’ve already heard the numerous comparisons to famous genre movies, then you won’t be surprised when Bacurau goes off the rails.
Then again, some of this must be chalked up to Mendonça Filho and Dornelles‘ undying adherence to a strategy of suggestion and vagueness, an insistence on implication that makes the many exciting elements feel more than a little dull. The film’s use of a genre narrative to present a colonial critique is rich and intriguing—several Brazilian audience members offered fascinating insights at the post-screening Q&A, which made me wonder if some added historical knowledge would have improved my own experience. Regardless of historical background, it is undeniably entertaining to watch the townspeople strike back against their oppressors, who are some of the most despicable villains of the year. They get what’s coming, that’s for sure.
Yet for all the pleasures offered by Bacurau, it is a film without much of a center—its central town is a fascinating creation, but its citizens remain, for the most part, undefined ciphers. After a while, the film’s steely, hyper-stylized trappings begin to feel thin and unsatisfying as well.
THE FINAL GRADE: C- (4.6/10)
White supremacist colonizers get what’s coming to them in Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles‘ Bacurau, an often ambiguous film that, after a long and vague slow burn, eventually becomes a full-blown exploitation pic. Heads will roll and blood will spill, as the peaceful villagers of the town of Bacurau face off against the monsters who are hunting them down one-by-one for sport; at times, it plays like an updated version of A Most Dangerous Game, albeit, one that’s saddled with added socio-political context. With such an exciting, strange conceit and the presence of a genre-bending, John Carpenter-infused cinematic energy, it seems weird to emphasize that Bacurau never truly works. The film’s stylish excess, coupled with its insistence on operating in a mode of uncertainty for far too long, renders it a tiresome experience.
Amusingly, for a film that eventually takes some strange detours, Bacurau has an inconspicuous introduction, with nurse Teresa (Barbára Colen) returning to her hometown as her grandmother lies on her deathbed. The town of Bacurau is rather close-knit and remote, so the death of a woman who lived to such an advanced age is a cause for community-wide mourning and celebration. For Teresa, it’s also a re-introduction to the town’s political situation, which is continually a source of instability and anger. The citizens of Bacurau are locked in a conflict with shamelessly corrupt politician Tony Jr. (Thardelly Lima), a leader so widely hated the townspeople hide when his gaudy caravan rolls into town. With access to food and water proving to be increasingly limited, Plinio (Wilson Rabelo) and other community leaders emphasize that Bacurau must remain united.
Then things get….. weird. One day, Bacurau disappears off the map. Later, there’s the unexpected appearance of a UFO outside of town. Then the outsiders start rolling in and the bodies start piling up, which can only mean one thing: Bacurau is under attack.
From here, it gets bloody and nutty, but there’s something about Bacurau‘s slow drip of strangeness that doesn’t full satisfy. Mendonça Filho and Dornelles establish a variety of unique strands—a tense political atmosphere, a community on edge, the steady invasion of outside forces—and suggest an impending subversion, a way of pulling out the rug from viewers with a major twist. This does indeed happen, but it feels far less surprising and shocking than one would expect. Here, I suppose its effectiveness depends on how much you know going in: if, like me, you’ve already heard the numerous comparisons to famous genre movies, then you won’t be surprised when Bacurau goes off the rails.
Then again, some of this must be chalked up to Mendonça Filho and Dornelles‘ undying adherence to a strategy of suggestion and vagueness, an insistence on implication that makes the many exciting elements feel more than a little dull. The film’s use of a genre narrative to present a colonial critique is rich and intriguing—several Brazilian audience members offered fascinating insights at the post-screening Q&A, which made me wonder if some added historical knowledge would have improved my own experience. Regardless of historical background, it is undeniably entertaining to watch the townspeople strike back against their oppressors, who are some of the most despicable villains of the year. They get what’s coming, that’s for sure.
Yet for all the pleasures offered by Bacurau, it is a film without much of a center—its central town is a fascinating creation, but its citizens remain, for the most part, undefined ciphers. After a while, the film’s steely, hyper-stylized trappings begin to feel thin and unsatisfying as well.
THE FINAL GRADE: C- (4.6/10)
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