Points for originality should go to “Diamantino,” an amusing but scattershot comedy that revolves around a world-famous Portuguese soccer star patterned in part on Cristiano Ronaldo. Co-directed and written by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, this is a film that takes a lot of chances with its tone as it moves from farcical moments to scenes with earnest political messages.
Diamantino (Carloto Cotta) is a national idol on the soccer field, and whenever he scores a goal he sees enormous fluffy puppies surrounding him. This imagery of the giant puppies is funny because they’re so obviously meant to be small and harmless pets, and here they’re seen stomping around like dinosaurs. These giant fluffy puppies are an apt symbol of Diamantino himself, a sports God who is so absurdly innocent that he can be used by anyone around him for either good or bad purposes.
Diamantino is inspired...
Diamantino (Carloto Cotta) is a national idol on the soccer field, and whenever he scores a goal he sees enormous fluffy puppies surrounding him. This imagery of the giant puppies is funny because they’re so obviously meant to be small and harmless pets, and here they’re seen stomping around like dinosaurs. These giant fluffy puppies are an apt symbol of Diamantino himself, a sports God who is so absurdly innocent that he can be used by anyone around him for either good or bad purposes.
Diamantino is inspired...
- 5/21/2019
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
"Something magical happened when I played." Kino Lorber has debuted an official Us trailer for the wacky, brilliant, one-of-a-kind "high camp" indie comedy Diamantino, from directors Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt. This Portuguese film premiered in the Critics' Week sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and stopped by a bunch of major film festivals throughout the film. "Tabu's Carloto Cotta gives the finest comic performance in recent memory as the dimwitted Portuguese soccer superstar of the title, a burlesqued version of Cristiano Ronaldo, swept up in a complicated comic conundrum involving the refugee crisis, Secret Service skullduggery, mad science genetic modification, and a right-wing anti-EU conspiracy." This is easily one of the most creative, original, and hilarious films I saw last year and I definitely recommend it - a "high-camp" international discovery that will be a cult classic very soon. Also stars Cleo Tavares, Anabela Moreira, Margarida Moreira,...
- 5/6/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Review by Peter BelsitoPortuguese soccer icon Diamantino is the most famous person in the world.
So the film begins. And gets crazier as it moves along but in a very funny way.
After blowing his team’s chances at the 2018 World Cup, Portuguese soccer icon Diamantino retreats in shame to his amazing palatial home. Bereft of purpose, confused and desperate to atone for his act of national humiliation, he is convinced to adopt an African refugee youth in a naive attempt to reinject meaning into his shattered life.
While awaiting the arrival of his new son, he becomes the unwitting victim of a government tax investigation, a neo-fascist plot to seize power, and the daily machinations of his cartoonishly villainous twin sisters.
It doesn’t happen that often that when you see something that takes you completely by surprise.
Diamantino, from the directorial duo of Gabriel Abrantes from Portugal and U.
So the film begins. And gets crazier as it moves along but in a very funny way.
After blowing his team’s chances at the 2018 World Cup, Portuguese soccer icon Diamantino retreats in shame to his amazing palatial home. Bereft of purpose, confused and desperate to atone for his act of national humiliation, he is convinced to adopt an African refugee youth in a naive attempt to reinject meaning into his shattered life.
While awaiting the arrival of his new son, he becomes the unwitting victim of a government tax investigation, a neo-fascist plot to seize power, and the daily machinations of his cartoonishly villainous twin sisters.
It doesn’t happen that often that when you see something that takes you completely by surprise.
Diamantino, from the directorial duo of Gabriel Abrantes from Portugal and U.
- 1/20/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
AFI Fest’s World Cinema section unveiled Tuesday includes seven films that have been officially submitted for the Foreign Language Film Oscar, from Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum and Matteo Garrone’s Dogman to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away and the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Directors in the slate include Jafar Panahi, Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Sang-soo, Olivier Assayas, Carlos Reygadas, László Nemes and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
The lineup includes 28 titles from 27 countries. The fest runs November 8-15 and opens with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex and closes with Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots. In the mix too are a host of gala presentations featuring Bird Box, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Widows, Green Book and Destroyer. The latter pic will be screened as part of a tribute to its star Nicole Kidman.
Here’s the full World...
The lineup includes 28 titles from 27 countries. The fest runs November 8-15 and opens with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex and closes with Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots. In the mix too are a host of gala presentations featuring Bird Box, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Widows, Green Book and Destroyer. The latter pic will be screened as part of a tribute to its star Nicole Kidman.
Here’s the full World...
- 10/16/2018
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
“Diamantino” is nothing less (and so much more) than the movie the world needs right now. Co-directed by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, this winningly demented 21st century fairy tale centers on a beautiful, child-like soccer phenom named Diamantino who reacts to a devastating World Cup loss by adopting a Mozambican refugee who claims to be a teen boy but is actually an adult lesbian on an undercover mission from the Portuguese government to investigate a money-laundering operation run by the athlete’s evil twin sisters. Also, there’s a mad scientist who’s trying to clone Diamantino in order to create an invincible super team capable of stoking national pride and “Making Portugal Great Again.” Also, there are giant puppies. A lot of them. A litter of Pekingese the size of double-decker buses. And that’s just the basic set-up.
Unfolding like a blissful cross between Guy Maddin’s...
Unfolding like a blissful cross between Guy Maddin’s...
- 10/5/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The New York Film Festival kicks off later this week, launching the second half of a very busy fall festival season. Each year, the New York gathering loads up on the some of the buzziest titles of an awards season in the making, but it also plays home to never-before-seen narratives and new documentaries that go beyond the usual fare. Alongside all those previously-screened features looking to capitalize on strong word-of-mouth coming out of fellow festivals Venice, Telluride, and Toronto — including “The Favourite,” “Roma,” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” — there are a variety of gems worth seeking out at this year’s festival.
Consider this your roadmap to the best of the festival. The 2018 New York Film Festival runs September 28 – October 14, and you check out the main slate right here. Ahead, 10 essential titles — from instant cult classics to highlights from the 2018 circuit and everything in between.
“Asako I & II...
Consider this your roadmap to the best of the festival. The 2018 New York Film Festival runs September 28 – October 14, and you check out the main slate right here. Ahead, 10 essential titles — from instant cult classics to highlights from the 2018 circuit and everything in between.
“Asako I & II...
- 9/25/2018
- by Kate Erbland, Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich, Chris O'Falt, Jude Dry and Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The pro-European Union lobby just got the silliest, sexiest cinematic endorsement it could hope for in “Diamantino,” and that’s merely one of the surprises nested in Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt’s deranged satire — sure to remain the freshest blast of gonzo comic energy at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Part loopily queer sci-fi thriller, part faux-naive political rallying cry, glued together with candyfloss clouds of romantic reverie, it’s a film best seen with as little forewarning as possible: To go in blind is to be carried along by its irrational tumble of events as blissfully and buoyantly as its empty-headed soccer-star protagonist. The sheer outrageous singularity of “Diamantino” is sure to make it a hot property on the festival circuit, enrapturing and alienating audiences in equal measure; adventurous distributors will want to get in on the ground floor with a potential cult object.
Portuguese-American duo...
Portuguese-American duo...
- 5/12/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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