Often captivating.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 7, 2003

A myopic, histrionic picture that never lets us know why this legendary character is legendary, and worthy of our attention.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 31, 2003

While the depiction of the Lapa district and the details of repressed homosexual life in Rio 10 years ago is always intriguing, we come away learning very little about the individual known as Madame Sat.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 27, 2003

Director Karim Ainouz's film draws you in close.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2003

It's a vivid, emotionally charged snapshot that makes no apologies or excuses for Madame's behavior and lifestyle.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 25, 2003

Madame Sata is only a chapter in Francisco's story, and even that feels incomplete.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 21, 2003

A fascinating study of gay identity politics.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2003

What emerges in Anouz and Ramos' mesmerizing portrait of Dos Santos is a fearless man who had the courage to explore and express every aspect of his being.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 22, 2003

If we never really understand Joao, there is another problem with the character, and that is: He isn't very nice. I refer not to his crimes, but to the way he treats those who care for him.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 22, 2003

Keeps us engrossed, steeped in this seething portrait of a body and soul in lust and agony -- and, finally, on stage and in glory.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 21, 2003

As a celebration of a figure who fashioned his own identity from pieces of pop culture and street poetry, from song and fashion and fury, it's memorable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 31, 2003

An intensely realized, beautifully shot drama.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2003

Brazilian filmmaker Karim Ainouz doesn't glorify dos Santos but examines the hot, reckless fever of his life in all its thorny complexity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 11, 2003

Overall, the film feels stagy and a bit too safe and moralistic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 11, 2003

In this vibrant character study, newcomer Lzaro Ramos plays Francisco with an almost animal intensity, a reflection of the man's volatile and ambiguous spirit, where any given event seems equally likely to end in either a cathartic fit of laughter or a s

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 11, 2003

Madame Sat is an admirably uncompromising journey, but one you wouldn't want to have to make more than once.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 10, 2003

Madame Sata is no exotic tour of the slums of Rio. It takes you deeper into the soul of its title character and his desperate world than you imagined a movie could go.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 9, 2003

One of those films that takes up a potentially fascinating subject only to fumble it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 9, 2003

There's no denying the incendiary power of Ramos's performance -- he's present in nearly every scene.

Full Review | Jul 8, 2003