20140225: Drama Review--Bruna Surfistinha

Bruna Surfistinha (Little Surfer Girl)

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. Brazilian live action feature length film, 2011, TV-14, 107 minutes, biography, drama.  Spoken word is in Brazilian Portuguese; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 2,583 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 4 million BRL.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 37% liked it from 309 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 19,022 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Marcus Baldini.
6. Starring: Deborah Secco as Raquel/Bruna, Cassio Gabus Mendes as Huldson, Drica Moraes as Larissa, Fabiula Nascimento as Janine, Cristina Lago as Gabi, Guta Ruiz as Carol.


2. Setup, Plot
1. Raquel Pacheco was adopted by an upper middle class family in Sao Paulo.  However, at 17 she broke away from this life to live in a brothel.  She uses Bruna as her working name, and Surfistinha as her nickname.  She does well for a while, but her relationship with the other women becomes turbulent.  She moves to a new apartment setting with Gabi after meeting Carol at a dance club.  She has even more success, starts a blog about her activities, which brings her even more business.  She enjoys the spotlight for a while. Eventually she starts using drugs; unfortunately, the drug use and the fame hit about the same time.  She crashes over this, and ends up chasing men in cars.


2. After recovering from the drugs, she writes a book about her experiences, and the book does fairly well.  Her popularity in Brazil inspired the current movie, which is a dramatic representation shown on television of a section of her life.


3. Netflix showed this as 'Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl.'


3. Conclusions
1. There is quite a lot of skin and simulated sexual activity shown in this film.  TV14 seems a bit light of a rating; NC17 might be closer to accurate.  So watch under advisement.


2. Bruna Surfistinha is a soft core porn film that exploits Deborah Secca's physique more than anything else.  The acting is better than that of American 'reality' television, but not by a whole lot.


3. As a dramatic treatment of a difficult life, the film seems too rosy, even though it depicts hard times that Raquel experienced.


4. One line summary: Rise, fall, and recovery of a Brazilian call girl and media star.


5. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 The film looks good for the most part, but it often shows TV/VHS quality rather than theatrical quality.


2. Sound: 6/10 was not that relevant to me.  I do not understand Brazilian Portuguese, and the incidental music was not a factor.  The subtitles seemed to be in reasonable parallel to the actors' intentions.


3. Acting: 5/10 OK, but not great, as noted above.  Deborah Secco and Drica Moraes were the best.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 The film does tell a story, though it is more than a bit disjointed at times.