BACURAU Was The Best Movie From Last Year

Though BACURAU won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2019 and played festivals, its only theatrical release in the U.S. was early last year in NYC shortly before COVID turfed plans for a larger one. While it's listed as a 2019 movie, it wasn't available to U.S. movie goers watchers until 2020. The New York release was enough to make it Oscar/awards-eligible for this season and the movie deserves many props. It was just nominated for Best International Film (Brazil) at the Independent Spirit Awards. 

I started noticing the title pop up more here and there several months back so I sought it out online. Before it was on the usual rental spots, I found it on Kanopy (a great app/site that lets you watch movies for the donut if you have a library card). I didn't watch a trailer, read a review, and didn't know anything about the plot other than it was set in a small Brazilian village. So I basically went in blind on subjective Twitter buzz and the movie blew me the fuck away.

In the aforementioned Brazilian village, a woman goes home for her grandmother's funeral then strange things begin to happen in and around this hard-to-find, out-of-the-way place where people are just trying to make a living. Soon enough, things go from weird to scary and it's appears something nefarious is at play. And I don't even want to say much more than that about the story because less is better here. There are elements of various genres at play: Western, thriller, horror, a touch of sci-fi, and action movie but with a very human story at its center.

There were more than a few times that I asked myself "what the fuck is going on here?" but that only got me more intrigued. The movie reveals itself to be one thing after another and has some jaw-dropping scenes along the way. Directors Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho also provide plenty of fodder for analysis when it comes to colonialism, sociopathy, poverty, revenge, weapons obsession, and other themes you'll find upon repeat viewings. Just strap in and enjoy. BACURAU is a wild ride. 

(Regarding the headline, I haven't seen MINARI or NOMADLAND because they're not available yet.)

I didn't see this trailer until after the movie and it does a great job of making you want to watch without giving anything away (i.e. an ideal trailer). Contains mild nudity (glimpse of tiddies).

BACURAU can be rented in the usual spots and is also available on Kanopy and The Criterion Channel.