Neon Bull


Neon Bull is a 2015 Brazilian drama film directed by Gabriel Mascaro. The film premiered at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival and won the Horizons - Special Jury Prize. It was also shown in the Platform section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received an honorable mention from the jury. At the 31st Warsaw International Film Festival it received the main prize of the International Competition, the Warsaw Grand Prix.

Plot

Iremar is a bull handler, working for a traveling group who transport bulls from rodeo to rodeo, who dreams of becoming a tailor and making fashionable clothing for women. He finds an outlet for his creativity making custom horse masks and provocative outfits for Galega, the group's driver who also performs sexually enticing dances for groups of men after each rodeo. They are accompanied by Galega's daughter, Cacá ; and Zé, a buffoonish bull wrangler who is the butt of the other's jokes. The film deals mainly with the interactions between the members of this group, interspersed with Iremar's attempts to design clothing, and rodeo scenes. After an attempt by Iremar and Zé to steal valuable horse semen from a stud auction goes awry, Zé is offered a new job as a horse wrangler; he is replaced in the group by Junior a young, attractive, and vain, but kind, man who befriends Cacá and becomes sexually involved with Galega. During a rodeo, Iremar meets Geise, a pregnant woman selling cologne and perfume from a large factory where she also works as a nighttime security guard. After the rodeo, Geise brings a bottle of cologne to Iremar as a gift. Later, at night, he visits her at the factory, where he is impressed by the industrial clothing machinery. She seduces him, the pair engage in sexual intercourse and the film ends.

Cast

The feature film had its first worldwide screening on 3 September 2015, at Venice Festival. Its first Brazilian session took place at the Rio Festival on 4 October, where it won four awards. The film reached the Brazilian commercial circuit in January 2016.

Reception

Critical response

Neon Bull earned critical acclaim upon release. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 87% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Neon Bulls hypnotic visual poetry occasionally borders on exploitation, though its reflective nature softens its animalistic gaze." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 80 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It is ranked at number 60 on the "Best Movies of 2016" list.

Accolades

YearGroup/AwardCategoryRecipientResult
2015Venice International Film FestivalHorizons – Best FilmGabriel Mascaro
2015Venice International Film FestivalHorizons - Special Jury PrizeGabriel Mascaro
2015Toronto International Film FestivalPlatform – Best FilmGabriel Mascaro
2015Toronto International Film FestivalPlatform - Special MentionGabriel Mascaro
2015Festival do RioBest FilmGabriel Mascaro
2015Festival do RioBest ScreenplayGabriel Mascaro
2015Festival do RioBest CinematographyDiego Garcia
2015Festival do RioBest Supporting ActressAlyne Santa
2015Filmfest HamburgFIPRESCI AwardGabriel Mascaro