71
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Washington PostMichael O'SullivanWashington PostMichael O'SullivanThe tale, from Brazilian writer-director Daniel Ribeiro, is told with such tenderness, such intelligence and such aching honesty that it takes on the weight of something far more significant than puppy love. Like its subject, first kisses and best friends, it’s hard to forget.
- 80EmpireEmpireTouching and well-acted, Brazil's Best Foreign Film entry is a worthy Oscar candidate.
- 80The New York TimesAndy WebsterThe New York TimesAndy WebsterThis winning movie — directed by Daniel Ribeiro, making his feature debut — dexterously weaves the social challenges of adolescence into a story of broader self-discovery.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijRibeiro’s screenplay, which is marbled with moments of humor as well as emotion, feels extremely well-tuned into the conflicted emotional lives of his adolescent characters, who often retreat into the safety of their childhood comfort zone after every exciting, but also scary, excursion into the adult unknown.
- 75Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardWhat progressively mounts tension is the film's understanding of a boy's gradually realized homosexuality as being inextricable from the central metaphor of compromised vision.
- 75TheWrapInkoo KangTheWrapInkoo KangAdmirable throughout is the balance that Ribeiro strikes between dewy eroticism and the contextualization of sexuality as just a single aspect of one's identity, albeit an essential one.
- Ribeiro captures the experiential awkwardness of young love pitch-perfectly.
- 60Time Out LondonDave CalhounTime Out LondonDave CalhounThere are no great upsets or fireworks here, just a tender sketch of what it means to (probably) be gay as a school kid. The storytelling style is as inoffensive as the music (Arvo Pärt, Belle and Sebastian), and the performances are amiable and relaxed.
- 60VarietyJay WeissbergVarietyJay WeissbergThe pic has genuine appeal, though in truth the script and direction are little more than average.
- 50Village VoiceViolet LuccaVillage VoiceViolet LuccaThe shuffling of who's an important/close friend transcends the specificity of being gay and disabled, and that experience is rarely depicted as realistically as this. But the film crosses into self-parody.