Neon Bull

Most of the movie is poking bulls, blaring rodeo announcers, time spent in the back of the truck as the bulls are moved from point A to point B. Not exactly riveting stuff ...

With all the grace and symmetry of a peacock fanning its tail, director Gabriel Mascaro reveals his hand in quixotic blasts of expressionistic color, graphic sensuality, and a few things we've never before seen on film...

The cowboy character would have benefited from a stronger story arc, but Cazarré is quietly charismatic in the role, a Brando-esque figure searching for meaning beyond maschismo.

Mascaro works much like his protagonist, gathering together details, images, and scenes to create unexpected visions. The narrative seems desultory and repetitive until it coalesces into some arresting, if not perverse, sequences.

Visually ravishing and sexually provocative, Neon Bull offers an unforgettable portrait of a changing Brazil, at once earthy and arty.

The film is filthy with nuanced moments of fierce, sweaty intimacy, all shot with a precise eye for detail. At the very least, it will make you rethink your next rodeo.

Neon Bull doesn't move viewers toward political consciousness about either animal cruelty or human tenderness. Iremar and his disadvantaged cohorts rouse fascination about beasts (mammals), not human beings or citizens.

The documentary filmmaking background of Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro informs much of his second dramatic feature, which ventures deep without judgment or undue instigation into the lives of a group of itinerant rodeo workers

A strangely hypnotic experience.

Laced with empathy, insight and more than a few narrative, visual and emotional surprises, Neon Bull proves a winner.

...hypnotic...

There are some arresting images at the beginning of the film that signal a visual storyteller and indeed the film opens a window into a world that is at once half familiar and foreign