Audience Member
The best part is its music score.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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Audience Member
Fairly dumb movie featuring some fine actors.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
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Audience Member
It is an excellent piece of work about Rio. There are so much sarcasm that I believe only very few Brazilians would be able to understand... Being more precise, only very few would watch to the end. Most of the less than 2% of the population out of the low income average will never understand or just pretend that the movie is as ridiculous as stupid. It is the opposite and it is for sure not for everyone. I totally recommend it if you really wanna know what Rio is about...
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"Rio Sex Comedy" is a title that's maybe about half true. There's certainly tons of Rio, as that's the city that the film is set in, but there's not a whole lot of sex and even less comedy. A more accurate title would be "Rio Drama," but that wouldn't sell, would it? Include "sex" and "comedy" in your title and you can guarantee some viewers, even if you don't market your film and barely scrape together a DVD release after your film did poorly at the festival circuit.
So, we have <i>Rio Sex Comedy</i>, which is all of this. I'm not sure how many festivals it got to, but seeing as it has few reviews online, I can't think that number is very high. The DVD tells me that it made it to Toronto, which is something to be proud of, but I wonder how much of that audience laughed. I know I didn't, except for at one part that I can't even remember as of writing. I'd think about re-watching to find that one part, but then I'd have to sit through two hours of people walking around Rio de Janeiro, learning about a different culture, and showing no respect for anyone even remotely close to them emotionally.
This is an ensemble film, with a few main stories that we follow. Since it arguably gets the most focus, let's start with the storyline involving a French woman, Irène (Irène Jacob), who is currently in Rio to interview a bunch of maids who are mistreated by their employers. She's filming a documentary of sorts, although that gets forgotten about after she begins having an affair with her husband's brother, Robert (Jérôme Kircher). Seriously, the whole plot point involving the documentary is completely dropped to allow us more time to watch this bubbling romance. The translator, allowing the French woman to speak to the maids of Rio disappears in the middle of the film for no reason, as no more filming of this documentary takes place.
Next, we have the U.S. Ambassador, William (Bill Pullman), who doesn't want to be an ambassador and therefore runs away and hides with a couple of people living in the local favela. It's here where he actually learns more about what the population needs, how the government is ignoring the poor, and so on, which might allow him to do his job if he actually wanted to do it. A couple of interesting characters in this plot include Fish (Fisher Stevens) and Iracema (Daniela Dams), who get their own subplot involving their love or lack thereof.
Finally, we have a plastic surgeon named Charlotte (Charlotte Rampling) who has come to Rio in search of philanthropy but soon enough realizes that she'd rather work at a private office. Here, she does absolutely no surgery and basically convinces everyone that they're perfect the way they are. She's the "moral" character to our story; while everyone else is trying to change in order to be approved by everyone else, she's fighting to get everyone to stay the same. This is despite being the "best plastic surgeon" in the entire city, which makes me question her career of choice.
I can kind of see where writer/director Jonathan Nossiter was going with this. In one story, abusive house owners are targeted. In the second, the government is. Finally, we have the superficial crowd who all want to look like celebrities. Okay, it all makes sense on that level, and I can appreciate that the film is quite clearly about something, but is there anything else to admire? From where I'm sitting, there isn't much.
The problem is that none of the individual stories work on any other level than accusing their preferred target, and even then none of them do anything than point out things that we already know. Gee, the government shouldn't ignore problems with part of its population? That's a huge surprise, <i>Rio Sex Comedy</i>. Please, tell me more. None of these characters act like human beings; they instead act like impulsive parasites, doing whatever they want whenever they want just because they want to -- and it will benefit them and hurt someone else.
It's possible that one or two of these stories would work if expanded to feature length. The affair storyline might be worth watching, and the Fish/Iracema one, which involves a white guy and a Native girl involved in a relationship, could be poignant. But mashed together with these other ones, and there's nothing here worth seeing. Any interesting idea isn't given enough time to develop, and as a result, there's nothing to take from the film except for the potshots that get taken that you're already aware of and therefore didn't need to see anyway.
Since none of the individual stories works in the context that they're presented in, we're left watching dull plots play out that contain nothing even remotely close to genuine insight or emotional involvement. It's like if you were to follow random people around Rio for a few days. You might learn about their lives, but how much do you really expect someone to grow in that period, or make a point that's actually important? Not much, is my answer, and the film supports my conclusion.
<i>Rio Sex Comedy</i> contains a lot of Rio, little sex, and one scene of comedy. There's little fun thanks to containing too many stories, and as a result, there's nobody to care about and nothing to take. The film wants to be about something, and if it had limited itself in scope, it might have been engaging and interesting. Unfortunately, it took the ensemble route, which means that none of the stories are impactful and the film is a waste of time for its audience.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
fun sexy comedy where rio is also a character.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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Audience Member
OK so been through a lot in the past 12-14months so you probably shouldn't hold me to this review, yet at the same time if in my current state a movie can keep my attention and not bore me, then it has to be good! So here it is....This is one of the best movies I've seen in AGES!!! Hilariously funny, though at times disturbing, but hey it's in part a commentary on beautiful people trying to stay beautiful, and the uptight, supposedly cultured and rigid (and you know what I think of those) discovering their playful, who cares for form and structure side. So many scenes jump to mind don't know where to begin.
It felt like a spoof of all those movies like Lambada of the 1990s even going as far back as the 1970s that paint the stereotypical images of Rio and Brazil in general as this sexy place with people who need NGOs to save them from the white man cutting down their rain forests or rescuing the street kids and so on. I'm sure it is true but Rio Sex Comedy really puts a great comedic twist on those images!! It is such a funny movie, I luv'd it and have to say I can't believe I'd not seen Rio Sex Comedy until the weekend before last!!
What really struck me was the constant and seamless transitions between English, French and Brazilian-Portuguese, even if I only understood the English and French dialogues.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
Full Review
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