Another film of Fellipe Barbosa is starring Marcello Novaes, Suzana Pires as well as Thales Cavalcanti follows a teenage boy's life. He is a decadent of upper-class family and he attempts to escape his parents who always try to control his life.
Precariously balanced social structures maintaining class, race and expectations come crashing down in Casa grande, Fellipe Barbosa's well-made feature debut.
Barbosa's engrossing Casa Grande or The Ballad of Poor Jean spotlights how the downward spiraling of a seemingly wealthy Brazilian family's bankbook propels upward the moral consciousness of its self-involved, horny son, Jean (Thales Cavalcanti).
This isn't the first Latin American drama to follow a rich family on a downward spiral, but the eloquent visuals, strong central performance, and empathetic humor push it to the forefront.
Cavalcanti -- an occasional TV performer whose considerable musical gifts the guitar-strumming Jean shares -- makes for a consistently engaging and intriguing protagonist.
The smartly mounted effort, mostly set in a modernist villa on a lush edge of Rio, follows the young heir to a fast-crumbling fortune, as he hovers between honest self-discovery and numbing entitlement.
