Movie reviews of Filipe Freitas

Both the narrative quality and stylistic grounds suggest a crossing between Youssef Chahine and Satyajit Ray, in a sad film dedicated to the victims of the Sudanese Revolution. Review

Even so, the slow-moving passages and dull dialogue make the film drag all along, while the outcome never matches the promises made in the first segment of the story. This self-reverential exercise drowns in a deep melancholy and gets lost in the vision of bovine-like skulls risen from the dead. Review

The resulting documentary is a sincere, funny look at the wild life of a poet/musician, who, emerging here as a survivor of all types of excesses (even musical), is brutally honest when dealing with the life he chose and the circumstances that made him who he is. By the way, MacGowan will also be remembered for his oddly contagious laugh. Review

Despite all its strengths as a sobering, wrenching and well-acted drama, The Sleepwalkers faces some limitations, the biggest of them being the predictability of the story. Review

Honestly, the whole film feels like there’s something off, and because Cooke didn’t invest in thrills and Cumberbatch was not so convincing, the result is a vacuous, low-energy spy thriller that made me exhaustively insensitive. Review

Nobody is nothing major, but there’s enough funny and electrifying moments laced through the uneven plot sequences to make us engaged. Review

Puiu was never more obstinate and futile than in Manor House. Review

Expect a strong central performance by Maeda, whose character completely transfigures while working in front of a camera, and an interesting shift into the minor key from Kurosawa, who typically embraces a tension-filled style. Review

It’s a moderately diverting film with plenty of awkwardness and a gossipy tone that can be occasionally teasing as well. Review

With both the camera work and the atmosphere recalling the works of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Andrei Tarkovsky, Atlantis is a rough film to sit through, but those who really pay attention to its existentialist musings will be rewarded. Review

The film, impeccably edited by Jaroslaw Kaminski, unfolds as an effective nightmare that is suitably appalling in its historical context and extremely heartbreaking in terms of the family perspective. Review

Sun Children might not be among Majidi's best known works such as Children of Heaven (1997), The Color of Paradise (1999) and The Song of Sparrows (2008), but its visual acuteness together with the powerful message makes it a ride bound to be taken seriously. Review

The young Brummer delivers a top-drawer performance, giving the character the reserved posture, emotional complexity and subdued charm that allows us to connect. Thus, whatever didn’t work here it wasn't not his fault. Review

Some might find the subject too grim and the uncertainties frustrating, in a film that sets its mood through a permanent human melancholy and the natural misty atmosphere that characterizes this part of the Galician landscape. Even if they have a point, I can’t help recommending it for the profound impression it leaves. Review

Lux Aeterna is a shamefully underdeveloped charade whose uncomfortable viewing says absolutely nothing relevant in the end, apart from those quotations from directors such as Dreyer, Fassbinder and Godard. Review

This fantasy is intimately linked to a painful reality, and leaves its mark. It’s likable, with tiny imperfections and a constant rhythmic beat of its own. Although not investing in any sort of climax, it provides unwavering entertainment throughout. Review

Provocative yet unconvincing, Enforcement will serve more the interests of unconditional enthusiasts of the action genre than actually entertain those looking for a well-calibrated story. Review

If you’re a fan of fast-paced, violent drama-thrillers, then this is not your dish. See it only if you like the genre to be served with prolonged sharp-tasting notes. Review

Anything but commercial, and featuring a cast of non-professional actors, this portrayal of romantic disillusion still resonates with a good slice of honesty in defiance to an imperfect editing and some forgivable structural irregularities. Review

Economic inequality and critical social gaps, modernization and gentrification, emotional dilemmas and complex family relationships, all these aspects are funneled into a system of satirical criticism, in a fluid, funny film that also plays with visual flamboyance, a relevant soundtrack, and cunning acting to make its point. Review

There’s an undeniable originality in the making of this film, an entrancing prison drama centered around never-before-seen codes and rituals, and with a sharp political bite amidst the chimerical fragments. Review

Although exuding a pleasing old-fashioned appeal, the film owes less to the course of its plot than to the authentic performances. Review

More entrancing than unsettling, this thriller is sort of dismissive of its audience, promulgating style over substance while apparently unaware of the emotional shallowness that emanates from the observant dispassion of Yinan’s lens. Review

Contradicting a recent tendency in the independent drama genre, Fourteen has a darker edge to it, but refuses to fall into immoderately lugubrious places, often plunging the inner disquietness of each character into an apparent tranquility and dissolving it in the daily life routines. Review