“Charcoal”

Movie Review

Maeve Jinkings, Romulo Braga, and Cesar Bordon are the stars of Carolina Markowicz's Argentine-Brazilian drama Charcoal, which was written and directed in 2022. In the movie's plot, a rural peasant family in the Sao Paulo countryside struggles to care for their ailing patriarch; however, one day, an Argentine drug lord shows up with an offer to give them a sizable sum of money in exchange for allowing him to kill the old man and take his place as part of his efforts to avoid being prosecuted.

A song called "Charcoal" that can be heard on a local religious radio station talks about the need to keep one's door and heart open no matter how dangerous or dark the night may be. In order to make way for the criminal Miguel (Cesar Bordon), the matriarch Irene (Maeve Jinkings) had to put her bedridden, terminally sick father to sleep and dispose of his remains in one of the charcoal ovens the family relies on for their livelihood. You might anticipate Charcoal to move into thriller territory from here, with organized crime suddenly setting up shop in this isolated property, but it's a much slower and quieter burn than that.

The focus of director Markowicz's attention is on how this outsider begins to alter the family system right from its very foundations. Miguel isn't very intimidating; he's basically simply bored and trying to make the best of it. Miguel gradually wins over Irene and her small son Jean (Jean de Almeida Costa). Irene (Romulo Braga) is excited about a new "genuine man" in the house even though the scenario disgusts her because her husband Jairo (Romulo Braga) is inebriated and uninterested.

Similar difficulties arise for young Jean, who is performed remarkably well by Costa, a young actor who successfully conveys the brattiness of a 9-year-old boy without becoming obnoxious. He enjoys having someone around to play football with and extort large sums of money from, but he is obviously poisoned by the situation due to its blatant immorality, as evidenced by the decline in his behavior at both school and home. With the help of a very strong cast and a script that does a great job of peeling out these contradictions and ambiguities, director Markowicz's film allows the audience to feel the weight of these characters' lives on their shoulders.

The closest thing Charcoal approaches to a set piece is one of Irene's neighbors being a little too nosy when she comes over for coffee and biscuits. Charcoal can also be a bit of a patience-tester because it frequently seems to travel in circles and has little event. You will need to give in to Charcoal's sluggish rhythms in order to fully appreciate the wonderfully cheeky climax, which elaborates on the moral corruption at the center of this story in an entertaining yet sinister way.

In addition to the intricate, personal writing, Markowicz also demonstrates his confidence as a director of images, even though many of the most intriguing compositions and stunning colors are front-loaded and the style becomes more traditional as the tale advances. Charcoal is a pleasantly unique and intriguing slice of Brazilian life that defies the premise's expectations and leads its characters down unexpected emotional trajectories, although it could be a little too quiet for its own good.

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