With echoes of Fassbinder, Godard and Almodóvar, João Pedro Rodrigues’s tragicomic melodrama of a Lisbon drag queen is redolent with color and desire. One of Portugal’s great filmmakers and a powerful force in new queer cinema, Rodrigues jubilantly plays with baroque theatrics and spiritual themes.
Evocatively remixing the essay film as a thriller, Portuguese auteurs João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata honor the gambling capital of the world with this oneiric trip. Macao is expressed here as if it were inside of a hazy, unforgettable dream reckoning with the shadow of colonialism.
It’s quite rare to see a directorial debut as refreshingly authentic as Joaquim Sapinho’s Haircut. Set within the sunny alleys of Lisbon, this beautifully observed drama stands out as a startling impression of Portuguese youth in the 1990s. A superb example of how vital non-actors can be in a film.
