Socrates Movie Review | Socrates Movie | Socrates | Roger Ebert https://www.rogerebert.

com/reviews/sócrates-2019

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Cast
Christian Malheiros as Socrates , Tales Ordakji as Maicon , Caio Martinez
Pacheco as Chicão , Rosane Paulo as Dona , Jayme Rodrigues as Robson ,
Director
Alex Moratto,
Writer
Alex Moratto, Thayná Mantesso,
Cinematography
João Gabriel de Queiroz,
Drama
71 minutes

| Godfrey Cheshire

August 9, 2019 | 3

The recipients of the annual Independent Spirit award for “Someone to Watch,” are, of course, usually unknown at
the time of their win. But the release of 2019 winner “Socrates,” the debut feature by 29-year-old Brazilian-American
filmmaker Alexandre Moratto, shows why such an award exists: it’s a work whose accomplishments signal a director
of great promise.
A gritty, intimate account of a poor teenager’s struggles following the sudden death of his mother, a tale set in a city
in coastal Sao Pâolo state, the film in outline can sound like many dramas delving into the hardships of marginalized
people. What gives “Socrates” its special distinction are the precision and excellence exhibited in all major areas of
its making, from direction, writing, editing and cinematography to the two standout performances by young actors

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Socrates Movie Review | Socrates Movie | Socrates | Roger Ebert https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sócrates-2019

that anchor its drama.

When we first see 15-year-old Socrates (Christian Malheiros), he’s trying to wake up his mother, and it doesn’t take
too much desperate shouting and shaking her still form for him—and us—to realize that she won’t be waking up. The
stricken boy barely has time to fall into grief, though, before practical matters intrude. He takes his mother’s place at
her janitorial job claiming she’s having a “sick day,” but the suspicious boss doesn’t want to give him her pay.
Meanwhile, the rent is past due. From being a child, the boy is suddenly immersed in a world of adult woes.
A social worker assigned to his case is sympathetic, but she reveals that his options are limited, and that being sent
to an orphanage is the likeliest one. Socrates’ father, it seems, is alive but remains a distant, ominous figure until
later in the story. Given his situation, it’s understandable that the boy’s search for work—and the deceptions he’s
obliged to undertake—have an edge of urgency to them.
He traipses from place to place looking for jobs, but laws meant to benefit the workforce are no help to him: when
one prospective employer after another asks for proof that he’s 18, he can’t supply it. Not every employer follows the
law, though, but when Socrates gets a job hauling metal pipes in a junk yard, he faces an altogether different sort of
challenge.
Also laboring at the site is chiseled, roughly handsome worker named Maicon (Tales Ordakji), maybe two or three
years older than Socrates, and the initial interaction of the two guys comes in a scene as brilliantly staged as any I’ve
seen in a film this year. It’s all a matter of fraught looks and movements and the sinuous way the camera frames
them. Socrates works hard and fast, trying to prove himself, and this evidently gripes Maicon, who doesn’t need the
competition. Soon enough the silent hostility erupts into fisticuffs, and the boss has to threaten them to restore
order. When the two young men separate at day’s end, their apparent enmity still sizzles—but also seems to conceal
something else.
The hint of sexual tension in this scene comes into the open later, when Maicon calls Socrates and offers the
possibility of another job. Socrates shows up at Maicon’s place and it’s quickly apparent that the job was just a
pretext. Maicon is interested in something else, yet he’s not the first one to act on that interest; when Socrates moves
to kiss him, he initially draws back—as if he’s not entirely comfortable with the sexual convergence he just set in
motion.
The relationship that ensues may provide Socrates a bit of solace, but it’s hardly the safe harbor he so obviously
needs. And in a larger sense, being gay is another layer of complication and difficulty he must face, one that seems to
have a particular importance to his murky relationship with his father, whose ultimate affront lies in
commandeering his wife’s ashes.
One of the chief virtues of Moratto and Thanyá Montesso’s script is how it withholds certain information or dramatic
elements until just the right moment, then unleashes them. The film is very skillfully plotted, yet that quality
enmeshed in a drama that feels loose and anecdotal at the same time. The air of cultural authenticity in “Socrates” is
another prime asset. The film is the first produced by Brazil’s Querô Institute, an UNICEF-backed nonprofit that
uses filmmaking to help young people from low-income backgrounds; the crew was composed mainly of teenagers
learning the craft of cinema while bringing their knowledge of Socrates’ world to the production.
Moratto studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Film and served as an assistant to director Ramin
Bahrani on the North Carolina-filmed “Goodbye Solo.” “Socrates,” on which Bahrani served as a producer, may
remind viewers of the director’s early films such “Man Push Cart” and “Chop Shop.” There are also points of
comparison to the work of Belgium’s Dardenne brothers in both the concern with struggling lower-class characters
and a visual manner that makes eloquent use of tightly-framed handheld camerawork. Indeed, Joâo Gabriel de
Queiroz’s extraordinary cinematography deserves special citation.
The performances by Melheiros and Ordakji are likewise exemplary and striking. The two may seem like naturals

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who were discovered in the favelas, but both come from the theater. Their starring work here, which should launch
them into successful screen careers, is one of the reasons that Moratto’s very personal film, which has an edge of
contemplative melancholy, ultimately is no downer: it has the energy and intrepid determination of youth.

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