As all of them repeatedly bottle up their feelings in quiet teenage angst, it’s hard not to wonder what’s actually going on with them. It’s not only the characters who are affected by the silence. It’s breathtaking and nerve-wracking, as Ribeiro expertly plays between what the audience knows and the characters don’t, leaving those watching wanting to literally stand up and yell what’s going on at the screen. Leo, who can’t see her, doesn’t realize any of this. In a scene in which Leo and Giovana are no longer on speaking terms, she silently walks over to him, looking as if she’s finally going to try to talk things out, only to give up and walk away. Like any teenager’s life, The Way He Looks is almost devoid of a soundtrack, with many of the film’s biggest moments being delivered in total silence. There’s not a lot of dramatic, high-stakes moments, but The Way He Looks easily carries on without them: it’s more interested in the small, everyday things, making its characters feel like people you could run into on any street or school patio. They talk about music and school projects, and they sneak out late at night only to bike over to a park and watch the eclipse. He only listens to Beethoven and Tchaikovsky until Gabriel introduces him to the rock band Belle and Sebastian.
Leo hates sunscreen but won’t stop hanging out in the sun. The characters also feel remarkably real. There is something refreshing and surreal about seeing these stories being portrayed on the big screen, especially with a well-executed script and great performances, particularly from Lobo, Amorim, and Audi. A lot of the major conflicts-from rebelling against parents to dealing with bullies to falling in love-stem from Leo’s struggles with his identity: of being blind, of being gay, and of simply being a teenager. Ribeiro, writer-director whose previous short films centered around LGBT protagonists, continues working with these narratives in his feature-length debut. Brazilian coming-of-age films are hard to find, almost as hard as finding a great summer romance.Īnd yet that’s exactly what Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks (originally titled Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho ) is: a beautiful, rare, coming-of-age movie. I grew up in Brazil watching coming-of-age movies set in American cities and suburbs, so seeing teenagers go through romantic subplots and growing pains in neighborhoods that are so familiar was a first. Meanwhile, as the two get closer, Giovana distances herself, feeling hurt over the fact that Leo has replaced her, leaving him without his closest friend when he needs her the most.įor me, watching this film was strange. The two slowly begin to fall in love, but their doubts about how the other feels leave them clueless to the fact that their feelings are mutual. At school, he finds himself getting closer to new student Gabriel (Fabio Audi), as they work on school projects, bond over music, and watch horror movies and eclipses together (which Gabriel watches and describes, in hushed whispers, to Leo).
Leo, a blind high school student from São Paulo, struggles to find freedom in his overprotective environment, especially in his never-ending fight with his parents about going on school camping trips or studying abroad in the US. We all know how this ends.īut The Way He Looks (2014) isn’t that movie: the all-too-familiar plot ends along with summer as the film transforms itself into an honest take on growing up. From there spring talks of first kisses, while Giovana, who has been best friends with Leo since forever, looks at him as if she wishes they were something more. While Leo regrets having to go back to school, Giovana is sick of nothing going on: they never get a great summer romance in their summers. With summer ending, Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo) and Giovana (Tess Amorim) hang out around the pool.
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