User Reviews

Scottish comedian Billy Connolly once described the act of watching Big Brother as 'sitting in a house watching people sitting in a house' with great incredulity, and this film adds a third layer - multitudes of people in the film themselves watch people sitting in a house, and i feel it's a wonderfully sharp and relevant indictment, portrait, celebration etc. of the age of reality TV, of the internet, of the positively voyeuristic, obsessive interconnectivity of this burgeoning cultural era.

3 people who've just arrived in the city, starting a course at university, meet at a party and decide to use the toilet at the same time because they're all dying to go, and the success of that act of cooperation inspires them to move in together the next day and a firm bond between the trio is established; it's also challenged by the complexities of passion, lust, friendship and love, the 4 watchwords described at the beginning;

at the end of their 4 year course, their idea - to host a Big Brother show filled with brands which can then be purchased by viewers online - is seized upon by an alumni who offers to pay them to be the subjects of their own show, which they agree to. i personally think it's a stupid idea, but then i've always despised reality TV; it starts slowly, but when they're told the plug is to be pulled and they get wasted and appear to initiate a love triangle, ratings and product sales explode and various contrivances and characters and plot twists in the house and the film itself unfold.

i found these events that unfold to be fascinating and subtly very clever because we're trying to work out if the characters are being genuine or playing to the cameras, and all the while we're watching a film in which characters are performing this plot - i think it's basically a wonderful parody of dramatisation and acting itself, and it strikes the perfect chord both in the performances and the denouement.

all in all, i thought it was an enjoyable, intriguing and satisfying portrayal of the complexity of human relationships, communication and connections, the nature of the curiosity and intrigue that drives the internet age and the nature of acting itself into the bargain, all in a crisply filmed, distinctly Brazilian package! i give we 3 9/10 with a cherry on top.