Sonia Braga is awe-inspiring.

| Jul 24, 2018

This clever, nuanced drama doubles as a political allegory concerning Brazilian corruption. But it would matter, regardless. A dawning, as the similarly-titled song has it.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 26, 2017

Aquarius is a leisurely character study that is also urgently political in its treatment of race, class and commerce.

| Mar 29, 2017

A performance of tremendous wit, vitality and lusty defiance by Snia Braga drives Brazilian film-maker Kleber Mendona Filho's remarkable second feature.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 26, 2017

Without over-explaining, the film suggests that beneath the elegance of Boa Viagem and, by implication, respectable Brazilian society, there runs an undertow of filth.

| Mar 24, 2017

Sonia Braga is wonderful as a retired music writer who lives alone in a gorgeous old apartment by the sea in Recife, Brazil.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 23, 2017

I mean no offence, and hope Brazilian film-maker Kleber Mendona Filho takes none, when I say Aquarius could be a stage play.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 23, 2017

Indulgent, occasionally unwieldy, but put together with passion and verve.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 21, 2017

Wonderfully evocative of time and place, this considered assault on Brazil's economic and ethical crises revolves around a majestic performance by Sonia Braga.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 16, 2017

There just isn't enough content here to sustain the film's length, and though there are moments of brilliance, the conclusion is a disappointment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2017

"Aquarius" is about a half-hour too long for the story it tells, yet it feels like a privilege to be in the presence of such a powerful character and such a quietly commanding performance.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 8, 2016

This isn't a movie about a situation; it's a movie about a fully formed, red-blooded character dealing with a situation while also dealing with everything else.

| Original Score: A | Oct 28, 2016

This is a film more about the sacredness of our memories than the evil ways of gentrification, but skilled director Kleber Mendonca Filho is clearly interested in both.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 27, 2016

Despite Sonia Braga's fierce performance as a woman of unbreakable determination and proud refinement, this drama by the Brazilian director Kleber Mendona Filho quickly lapses into sentimental attitudinizing.

| Oct 24, 2016

"Aquarius" makes a compelling case for looking up from our ubiquitous distractions to take in the world around us - the one that we live in and, whether we're aware of it or not, lives in us.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 20, 2016

Filho is a born filmmaker whose storytelling rarely follows expected narrative pathways, and "Aquarius" takes its sweet time, focusing on what appear to be inconsequential details and gradually building force by accretion.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 20, 2016

This is an easygoing, plaintively observant picture, one that putters here and there. But Braga is working on another level, and we're happy to be reminded of what she can do ...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 20, 2016

It may feel like it drags a bit in the middle, but Aquarius has so many individual moments of grace that it rewards you for sticking around.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 14, 2016

"Aquarius" is a marvelous and surprising act of portraiture, a long, unhurried encounter with a single, complicated person.

| Oct 13, 2016

A film with an almost Proustian understanding of how a favorite song - or, for that matter, a sacred space or a cherished piece of furniture - can become a repository of personal meaning.

| Oct 13, 2016