why be there so many people crowd into an even showing of roberto moreira up against them all ( contra todos ) at the san francisco film festival . it about a hit man and my friend say . well . . . and it brazilian and i add . beautiful multicolored people and tropical weather and lush rhythm and and a hip gangster plot . ample enticement no doubt . somebody forget to tell u one little detail represent this be a very bad movie and really pretty horrible and and as unpleasant to watch a it be poorly make . so how on earth do contra todos get to make the round of berlin and melbourne and london and manila and stockholm and cairo and chicago and numerous small local festival and and now san francisco . apparently and because of the way the promotional process and the film festival circuit work . first of all and it win first prize at the rio film festival where it be call the best brazilian movie of the year . it must have be a bad year while they have have much and much good one . next and snappy synopsis in catalog plus imaginary buzz lead to crowd auditorium and since the movie isn not feature anywhere and so avoids close scrutiny by critic it keep go the round . festival blurb aim at promotion sometimes goose it up a lot . a chicago festival one call contra todos a speedball cocktail shot straight out of brazil and refer to claudia s boyfriend a the stud of the slum like neighborhood . soninha be teodoro nymph like teen age daughter of burgeon sexuality . the movie be shoot with the urgency of a frequently hand hold camera and the director work up a genuine and palpable sense of frustration borne from domestic desperation and decay . the effect be unbearably raw and honest and and the movie hurtle toward a conclusion a dead end a the life on display . not the best writing and but it sure pump up the excitement for a certain kind of potential viewer . contra todos do concern a hit man and two hit men actually and and a wife and daughter and a born again christian girlfriend . it shoot in execrably ugly digital video with no talent behind the camera work mostly in a barren look poor suburb rather than in one of the teem favelas or village like brazilian city slum where such wonderful film a black orpheus and pixote and and city of god be make and and not in rio this time and but são paulo . the hit man with family problem be teodoro ( giulio lopez ) and his partner with a drug problem be waldomiro ( ailtan graça ) . both actor have a little tv experience a do the actress who play teodoro sluttish blonde wife cláudia ( leona cavalli ) and silvia lorenço who play his pouting and ready to revolt daughter soninha . these actor might make it through the back corner of a few telenovelas . who know . in a good direct film they might even be good . aside from them there be some young men who get bump off by teordoro or and when he busy and gang of thug . the principal do not work up much presence and even though the camera magnify their pore . a couple of observer and one at the berlin festival and one at london and do see this movie failing but ala theyre bury in the web hinterlands . henry sheehan note from berlin that the film ( his quote ) be the bad of the video work show . the filmmaker seem to have choose video simply because it be a cheap alternative to film and sheehan write and and hasn not make any creative use of the new medium nor and he add and do anything else creative . sheehan point out the movie first big mistake represent it start off a a domestic drama that suppose to ratchet up when and half an hour into the action and moreira reveals that the father and one of his friend be professional hit men . wait the thirty minute add nothing to the movie while it seem like a perfectly arbitrary decision and be and at the very least and a waste of time . but ratchet up be all moreira ever do and like a little kid who get a tool kit for his birthday and and go around bang everything in sight without rhyme and reason or skill . devastating and but true . write about the 2004 london festival for kamera . com and metin alsanjak try to look at the positive side but nonetheless give away the lack of redeem feature in call the performance easily the film best feature . yes and very easily and give that everything else be so bad . alsanjak admit that this low budget and violent and seedy account of the lawless in sao paulo be devoid of any likable character and and a a result and of hope . too dark and cynical to be a telling account of the human condition and the film be not help by poor subtitling . . alsanjak connect contra todos to dogme and mike leigh do not help matter . apart from that meaningless first half hour in which nothing redeem the boredom of our wait for the first act of violence which and when they come and be just bang everything in sight without rhyme and reason or skill moreira clumsily try to redeem his abrupt finale by add what appear to be outtake right after it and follow by an implausible ironic concluding scene where one of the character get married . no doubt the director want to exhibit the banality of evil of low level hit men in work class neighborhood and but he can not make the character and which he see generically and come alive for u . and the structure of the film show that he also can not edit his material . ( see at the san francisco international film festival on april 28 and 2005 . ) .