Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho)

[Boner M]

IMDb

[Boner M]

Belated thread for this year's most criminally underseen film (at least on this board), and probably 2012's most exciting debut (Ben Rivers' Two Years at Sea is the best, but it doesn't really count since it's an extension of his shorts & mini-features).

It's director compared it to Playtime and Assault on Precinct 13, and both are pretty accurate; maybe Do the Right Thing by the way of Lucrecia Martel too. I only mention a bunch of films because it's pretty hard to describe the bristling energy that makes the film so special... I've read a bunch of reviews and each seems to describe a different film, and they're all right. Few films have better captured the sense of a melting-pot community.

[Stay Puft]

It didn't open in Toronto, which boggles my mind. Waiting for Netflix or something.

[Derek]

I've been wanting to see this for a while. If it's played in LA, I missed it and I can't find it anywhere else. It's pretty much the only film left I feel I've got to see before making a legit top 10/20.

[NickGlass]

I've been wanting to see this for a while. If it's played in LA, I missed it and I can't find it anywhere else. It's pretty much the only film left I feel I've got to see before making a legit top 10/20.

I hear ya. It played in NYC for two weeks (and overlapped with TIFF) and then completely disappeared, save for one screening two weeks ago in Queens I found out about the day after. Given its regard and my sensibility, I know it's got a chance to be among my favorites of the year. I can't even find it online.

[Peng]

One of the most impressive debuts direction-wise last decade, as Kleber Mendon?a Filho is distinctive in his voice right out of the gate with assured, socioeconomic visual glide and striking soundscape; he would sharpen it further in Aquarius and explodes it with genre energy in Bacurau. Even if I liked his next two better, this first outing still proves an effective Altman-esque slice-of-life story in which Filho's direction provides a low-key horror vibe over it. 7.5/10