Centro do Brasil

I received 3-month "Netflix" subscription and I've finally started catching up on some movies I haven't seen over the past decade or so. I used to go to movies quite regularly, but I guess with travelling so much and working a hectic schedule, it's been tough. My fist rentals were "Babel" (4 of 5 stars) and "Rushmore" (4 of 5 stars). "Rushmore" has been on my list for years. just never got around to getting it. This was Bill Murray's prototype for his character in "Lost in Translation", which ranks as one of the top movies I remember seeing during all my flights to Brazil and back. I saw "Office Space" (4 of 5) this weekend, another one I hadn't gotten around to, and I can see now why people consider it a classic. The sorta "Beastie-Boy-video-esqe" scene of them smashing the fax machine is hysterical.

I rented "Central Station" the other weekend. I had not heard of it previously, but it received high marks in the foreign film section on Netflix. It's a Brazilian film which won a bunch of international film awards in 1998 when it came out. It's a good story, and not what exactly what I expected. I recommend it if you're looking for a good drama, and want to see some of the more rural areas of Brazil.

Click for movie preview.

The movie follows the main characters from Rio de Janeiro to the some of the poorest regions of Brazil in the Northeast. This is an entirely different Brazil than we were exposed to. Let's face it, we lived a somewhat sheltered and a very comfortable life there. The town we lived in was rated one of the top best in Brazil, was relatively safe, and was in the most affluent state in Brazil. By contrast, the Northeast is the Third World. It's eye-opening to get a glimpse into the lives of the people that live there through this movie. Although extremely poor and struggling at every turn just to get their next meal, they keep a nearly fanatical devotion to God and family. I guess in those circumstances, you need to have something else to focus on rather than reality. See it and you'll know what I mean.