Truly Dreadful Film

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

From time to time, a coming-of-age film comes across to paint the already vivid LGBT cinema with new colors. The ones THE WAY HE LOOKS has are subtle, tender, and sweet, but bold enough to leave an indelible imprint.Leonardo (Ghillerme Lobo) is a blind teenager coping up with the changes brought to him by adolescence. He struggles to find independence from his overprotective parents, and he's longing for acceptance from everyone who would rather mock him for his disability. He's well adjusted with all the mess , but his equally super-protective bestfriend, Giovanna, never leaves his side. Albeit anomalous, everything happening—all those bullying, the parents who would not want to miss a single moment without their eyes on him—comes across to Leonardo as essential pains of growing up, and he recognizes the need to go through all of them. Until the handsome new boy, Gabriel (Fabio Audi) , arrives.The movie tries to take a single road as much as it can, keeping its track straight, and all its elements in tack, throughout its route. It grows as it goes, but it never entangles itself with the complications of inserting unnecessary expositories. In what could be seen as its most complicated angle (yet easily perceptible), the movie sheds light on an unlikely love triangle. Giovanna has deep feelings for Leonardo, and she keeps sending hints of her admiration to him, but he couldn't quite decipher them. But Leonardo is in love with Gabriel, and she also finds the new guy attractive. This strike as an immediate complication, but the characters and narrative themselves have ways to easily shrug it off.Yet THE WAY HE LOOKS biggest concern isn't this love triangle. More to it is Leonardo's journey to manhood, his escape from the confines of the world he lives in. This mirrors a universal subject that speaks for all ages, and this is where the movie is most piercingly capable. The movie's tone complements the easygoing nature of Leonardo, and the simplistic approach of the story. It doesn't feed to much on the disasters its subjects, that its conflict mainly comes from Leo's little revolts, and Giovanna's ignoring him when she feels Gabriel has already took her place in Leo's life. These maybe are small, but they affect with utmost warmth and sincerity they would send you crippling inside. In one of its sweetest moments, Gabriel introduces the music he likes to Leonardo, whose musical taste is limited only to the classicals. This gives way to a scene where Gabriel has made the often shy Leo, dance, and while Gabriel might haven't realized it, such moment awaken something inside Leo. Suddenly he is in love. This is only one of countless small moments that makes watching this movie truly emotional. All across, sprawls sheer heartwarming scenes that tug at the heartstrings, like when Gabriel took Leo in the cinema while he narrates what's happening on screen, and when he suddenly kisses Leo, when he thinks no one would let him kiss anyone.Daniel Ribeiro, the director and writer of the film, surely knows well his subject. He has a keen eye on details and has hands to craft them into beautiful pieces of a bigger picture, resulting to a gentle yet affecting storyline. Sweet and compassionate, THE WAY HE LOOKS leaves a cathartic sense of personal liberation, making it one of the most sensible entries to its genre, in a long while. 8/10 The movie is Brazil's entry to the 87th Annual Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

I'm so impressed that this film is very different to the other romantic gay movies I've seen as it brings awareness of having a disability. Ghilherme Lobo suit the role as playing a blind person. His character is lucky to have Gabriel as his boyfriend and his wimpy best friend Giovanna by his side.I was cheesed off with those fellas bullying him just because he is blind and has a noisy tying machine in the classroom. No wonder his parents were overprotective of him planning to do studying abroad because pretty much it's a dangerous world out there lemme tell you! I hope himself and Gabriel live together, get married and have kiddies. They are such a totally cute couple!I wish this movie was longer seriously!

The movie has a familiar topic as seen in many recent LGBT movies, thanks to promotion campaigns for LGBT people and the more open social viewpoint. Thus, throughout the movie, people will experience a gentle feeling about life. No scandals, no climax, and just a lovely ending.Stories about student's love often go this way. A new classmate of a boy falls in love with him, and they eventually get together. But it doesn't really mean that you only need to watch some beginning and some ending minutes.The Way He Looks is more special because Leo is a juvenile blind boy who intensely seeks independence to prove that he's not inferior to those normal boys out there. Fate brings Gabriel close to him. No need for special events, just some daily activities at school, and they start to feel for each other. People will enjoy watching Gabriel accompanying his cute friend all the time, to find out that there are chances for them to express their feelings but nothing has been made.The last scene when the boys stay together in Leo's room is so romantic. As mentioned, there are no special things put into the movie, but people will still love the way Gabriel asks Leo, the way Leo touches Gabriel's face and kisses him, the way the boys hug each other, and even their sounds of breathing. No sexual feelings, just a very pure sense of young love.Neither of the boys are very handsome; however, their actions are extremely effective. They express no feminine behaviors, but people can still feel something distinguishable between the boys' roles in their relationship. The director has been so delicate that he deeply understands which kind of spices to mix into the film.The remained feeling after the movie is a lightly impressive happiness. People will remember vaguely that this love is formed by a friendship, and the boys have overcome some small issues to reach to each other. They will love the boys' contribution to each other. Leo is blind, but his heart and his love are so bright.

It's a nice movie for teenagers, but it is packed with clichés. The first warning sign for me was that Gabriel only listened classic music and then you have "Spiegel im Spiegel". I don't know if that song is more over-used than "Breathe me" by Sia, but it certainly feels like it. Then we have the guys at school. Come on! We've seen them so many times before and nowadays of course youth can be cruel but with Gabriel it wouldn't be as explicit as it is here to mark them as "the bad guys". It would make more sense if it were the microagressions that made him feel weird and out of place, after all he wants to be treated like everybody else and fly alone. I didn't suffer with the movie but I don't think there was enough material for it to be more than a short film.