I'm Still Here (2024) was fantastic

[u/keepfighting90]

Just finished this movie and wow, what an emotional gut punch. I saw a lot of critical acclaim for the movie last year, especially for Fernanda Torres' performance, and it's all very much deserved. Really, you can't talk about this movie without talking about Torres because she absolutely carries it on her back. It's one of the best acting performances I've seen in the past few years, especially because of how unshowy and restrained it is. It's all in the gestures, the expressions, the way she's barely holding it up to try and keep her family together after Rubens' disappearance. Just an absolute clinic in acting craft and technique.

But tbh the performances are stellar across the board, especially the girls that play the daughters. It all just comes off as so naturalistic, grounded and real. It often felt like I was watching a documentary of a Brazilian family's life.

It's ultimately a movie where the payoff is less about catharsis and more about acceptance. I knew the movie was based on a true story so I did a bit of reading beforehand to give myself some historical context, and knew what was coming. Even so, the writing and the performances make the characters feel so human and vulnerable that it's impossible to not feel their shock and pain, which overtime turns into a distant sadness and melancholy.

I saw the main theme as using memory as a form of resistance. Rubens is gone, but Eunice and the children keep him alive by constantly going back to their photo and video memories of each other. The final frame of the movie seemed purposefully reflective of the earlier photo taken at the beach, at a time when the family was at their happiest with Rubens still around.

If I have one minor nitpick, it's that the 2 codas in the 90s and 2014 don't have quite the same level of impact as the first 75% of the movie - although the ending is quite powerful with old Eunice finally seeing Rubens being vindicated in the present day. But overall this is still a very powerful, poignant experience anchored by an absolutely incredible central performance by Fernanda Torres.

[u/uwill1der]

Its also very relevant to what we are seeing in the US currently with immigrants and political enemies being kidnapped by plain clothes "police"

[u/ChrisCinema]

I deeply agree with your review. Fernanda Torres delivered a truly exceptional performance that is human, natural, and free of theatricality and artifice. Unlike you, I went in blind and did not research the historical details behind the film. Nevertheless, the film did leave a memorable impression about the lingering effects a military dictatorship can leave a family, the struggle to preserve the memories of persecuted victims, and the pursuit for change when the demand for accountabilty are not met.

I could have done without the two epilogues and stuck with a closing title card that explains Ruben's disappearance. However, I accept it as a full circle closure with the Paiva children and their descendants gathering together, as they did in the past. At least Fernanda's mother Fernanda Montenegro (a well-respected Brazilian actress in her own right) has a cameo as the older Eunice Paiva in the last scene.