I took the DVD by chance to home and had a wonderful surprise. Well, there were some good reviews made by critics from important Brazilian papers and that was the only reason why I decided to watch it. But, anyway, it didn't look very attractive to me at first sight.
After the first 20 minutes, I thought "Damn, it's just another movie about teenagers snorting coke and stuff like that". However, in the end of the movie, I was just like: "Jesus! How could this man make such a great film with so little money?!" It's obvious that a film with practically no resources (13,000 Brazilian Reais, what, in 2002, was about 4,000 US dollars) has its defects. The photography lacks quality and some dialogues are unnecessary. But these "problems" only contribute to bring us the "Audacity" that Alexandre Stockler looks for. The Brazilian director created a manifesto called TRAUMA (in English, Trying to Realize Anything Urgent with a Minimum of Audacity). In Cat's Cradle there's certainly much more than a "Minimum of Audacity". Using black humor and social criticism, Stockler alerts us about how sadly nihilistic and hedonistic our society became. Although the movie may sound pessimistic, its realization shows the director's belief that it's still time to think what we want from our lives. Let's wait for Alphavella, Stockler's next project.
*If you have the DVD at home, take a look on the extras where you'll find an interview with the director and the complete interviews with young people which appear during the beginning and the end of the movie.
