I'm Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) (2024) - NYFF Movie Review!

I'm back at the New York Film Fest, covering the latest and most promising new titles coming soon to theatres and streaming everywhere! Today, I'm reviewing the new film I'M STILL HERE (AINDA ESTOU AQUI), Brazil's submission for the Best International Feature at the Oscars, starring the great Fernanda Torres, and directed by Walter Salles. Check it out, and stay tuned for more thoughts as I cover more NYFF62 films! #FernandaTorres

Thank you for bearing with me as I took a few week hiatus from these reviews, but I'm back and will have all the reviews to you soon!

Also make sure to check out "The Dyl Pickle Podcast" on all podcast platforms! All videos on the channel will now be available in podcast form, and some audio exclusives will also be headed to the podcast, you won't wanna miss out!

Twitter: @dylan_randazzo
Instagram: @thedylanrandazzo
Music Instagram: @dylrmusic
TikTok: @dylanrandazzo417

Also, follow me on Letterboxd for more reviews and star-ratings.
Letterboxd: Dylan_Randazzo

Check out my podcast "Marvel-ous Movie Mondays with Kelsey & Dyl" every Monday on this channel and anywhere you can find podcasts on this channel and anywhere you can find podcasts!

Also check out my four other shows, the weekly RECIPE FOR REALITY (a rundown of all the reality tv of the week), and the monthly FRAMEWRECK (a show about so-bad-they're-good movies), DRAFT DAY (a draft show), and PICTURE THIS (a marathon through every Best Picture nominee ever), occurring exclusively on The Dyl Pickle Movie Network.

Thank you for the support as I continue to build and grow this channel. Please tell your friends and let's build that subscriber total together!

[GrandesFilmes]

Fernanda Torres has a wonderful carrer in Brazil making comedy. She's so funny even on serious interviews, like the ones about I'm Still Here. The author of the book "I'm still here" is Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the little son in the movie, he is a very known writer in Brazil because his first book "Happy Old Year" where he tells the history of the accident that put him in a wheelchair when he was 20. Every teenager in Brazil on 90s read this book.

[MosesGHC]

For me as a Brazilian, this movie makes me angry, and anger is strength. Strength to go and fight for what it is right and good for democracy and freedom in Brazil. In these difficult and uncertain times for democracy in the world, this movie is the one entitled to win the Oscar, no one else no other film but this one.

[anhangamirim]

I saw it in Lisbon in the first week. I still can't get it out of my mind! An amazing film.

[leepay]

I actually found a lot of joy in this one. The characters go through a terrible situation with grace and still find a way to enjoy life. I found myself tearing up more before the father was taken because I was enjoying seeing the family together so much that I was sad to know it would all come crashing down soon.

[esterkaminsky]

I saw a documentary about people who went to testify at the police station on the same day that Rubens Paiva was taken to the police station and 2 witnesses heard him screaming asking for medical help due to severe abdominal pain and asking for water. And then silence. That is, he was beaten to death. He probably had internal bleeding due to the beating and it is believed that he died on the same day or the next day. It is also known that he was buried and then they moved his body several times so that it was not found. Eunice Paiva's great struggle was to obtain her husband's death certificate and during all this time she had no way to sell the house, her husband's assets so that she could survive with her 5 children. She only received the death certificate 25 years later.

[raffausfaus]

It’s so weird to see the world talking about Fernanda Torres. She’s a beloved actress here in Brazil, I grew up watching her roles at sitcoms. Glad we’re sharing a talent with the world.

[rodrigogcoritiba]

great review, just wanted to mention(which I think is very relevant) that the script was based on a real story of a family close to Walter Salles. This means that if the movie isnt a thriller is because their life was not a thriller, if it doesnt end in a high point is because the real life ending wasnt a high point, etc.

It is a film about real life made by an expert documentarist, and with the specific aim of telling the story of the family to make the country remember what the dictatorship did to real, regular people (instead of a glorified version of history only told through the stories of “great men”). And most of the times real life is just depressing but also inspiring and touching

[hmcconsultoria]

Este filme me tocou profundamente, e me fez voltar aos meus tempos de infância/adolescência (ANOS 70). Minha família era muito semelhante aos Paiva, e na casa de praia de nossa família a trilha sonora era muito parecida com a do filme. Éramos 24 primos e vários tios e meus avós. Cantávamos, dançávamos, jogávamos baralho e bingo...Meu avô era um pequeno empresário militante do partido trabalhista, e meu tio advogado que trabalhou no Gabinete de João Goulart em Brasília, ele fumava charuto, bebida whisky e cantava Dorival Caymmi, no microfone do aparelho de som ...Depois de interrogado e fichado no DOPS, meu tio foi aconselhado a evitar manifestações políticas. Minha mãe nos orientava a não discutir estes temas com estranhos. Já no início de 80 como líder estudantil, fui a Brasília várias vezes. Orientações de minha mãe, tio e avô sobre como lutar pela abertura política e participar no movimento Diretas já, foram importantes para mim. Viver a infância e adolescência num regime autoritário, disfarçado de liberal, foi um misto de satisfação por ser jovem e ter uma família progressista, e medo constante por ter consciência dos riscos, pois na vitrola a Gal nos falava:” É preciso estar ATENTO e FORTE”, e entendíamos o seu significado. Agora com o Bolsonarismo e crescimento da extrema direita, vendo esta tentativa de golpe e de assassinato do Presidente Lula, percebo que os riscos continuam. Nunca se iludam: ‘O Preço da Liberdade é a Eterna Vigilância”.

[kjjkbkvhhgc]

I met one of Eunice's daughters and went to the family's apartment a couple of times when I was a student. On one of those occasions, the family was being given yet another false report about where Rubens Paiva's body was.

[davi_random_mode]

I watched this film in the cinema, and it was profoundly moving. It begins with the beauty of a family’s life and grows into a gripping tension that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. The strength of the central character amidst such tragedy left me shaken, yet inspired.

By the end, I felt an overwhelming need to reflect—not just on her incredible resilience, but on what this story means for all of us. It left me with a cry caught in my throat, a desperate urge to scream against the injustices and tragedies that shaped her story. In this moment of history, the film is a powerful reminder that dictatorships and tyranny, no matter where they arise, must never happen again. It’s not just a story; it’s a call to collective memory—and it deserves the Oscar.

[kjjkbkvhhgc]

The film is set during the far-right military dictatorship that was established in Brazil in 1964 and lasted 21 years until 1985. It was sponsored by the USA like all the military dictatorships that existed in the region at that time (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, etc.). The USA also sponsored Operation Condor.

[cezariovdiogenes]

Thank you for your review! So true, I’m from Brazil and my great grandfather was also arrested and tortured by the Brazilian military dictatorship in the 70’s, but in the city of Fortaleza. He only came home after four months being tortured and he was forever after traumatized for it.

This movie, notably because of my family’s history, does hit me deeply and it is such a strange and strong honor for me to see its story bringing Brazil to the top of world cinema!

Definitely an outstanding, real, raw and truly Brazilian artwork! A must see, I assure you all, especially considering it’s being released at a time where democracies, including the Brazilian one, are profoundly under questioning and extremist movements try to undermine and diminish its pillars.

Academy, please, we, Brazilians, deserve our first Oscar🙏🏻

#ImStillHere #AindaEstouAqui

[vitorialima]

Thanks for your wonderful review!! Means a lot to us🎉

[Leo.Galhardo]

The melancholy and the uneasy feeling of powerlessness is a very important part of the time in Brazilian history, the movie starts at the beginning of militar dictatorship (ditadura militar), a very strict extreme right-wing movement in Brazil (planned and endorsed by the USA at the time as a tactical maneuver to get the USSR and the "communists" away from the americas... )...
Again, the melancholy and powerlessness that the movie depicted are very real feelings of people who lived and survived the dictatorship, the Brazilian ex-president Dilma Roussef was one of thousands of people who were tortured ate the time...
Fernanda Torres was mostly know for her more comedic roles in romcoms in Brasil, like Os Normais and Entre Tapas & Beijos, but she surely had experience with more dramatic roles, and is a force of nature... she's Brasil's most loved nepo baby (her mother Fernanda Montenegro is a legend). I think the movie and crew did a phenomenal job, and a very respectful one too... Brazilian military dictatorship is one of the heaviest topics to tackle, and the movie did it beautifully

[reisinamar]

This film is based on a book written by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, son of Eunice and Rubens Paiva. It's a real story, and the goverment only recently admitted the kidnap and torture of Paiva and many many other people. Paiva died in prison, being tortured, and, on an recent interview, Marcelo said "his luck was that he didn't last long", because it was common to drag family members to be tortured in front of each other. Former president Bolsonaro tried multiple times to end investigations about what heppened during the military dictatorship, saying "only dogs search for bones". Lets never forget

[giovannauehara]

Great review! Your comment about "every scene you get deeper into the story, but further from the truth" is actually a great parallel with what we know about the story in real life. Rubens Paiva was detained and disappeared in 1971, but the government never gave straight answers about his whereabouts. Only in 1996 they issued the death certificate, but without clarifying anything about it. We, as a country, just began to learn things about his and others assassination by the militaries in 2014/2015 with the establishment of the National Commission of Truth. But still, we don't know much about what really happened, just that he was really tortured and killed, they moved his dead body a lot trying to hide it, and it was never found. I think that even with the reopening of the investigations about his death (april 2024), we'll unfortunately never find the truth.

[pedrogodoy]

Congratulations for the video!!! Fernanda Torres is fantastic! We still here! 🇧🇷❤

[jonastonini]

The Academy Awards has to appreciate non-english speaking roles in the acting category.

Fernanda Torres gives so much to the performing arts in Brazil. I’m so happy for her praised in this honest film about the impacts of a repressive regime in a society.

Hopefully she’ll get the honor of a nomination 💛💙💚🏆🥳🇧🇷

[JúlioAbelardoHonaiserTeixeira]

It’s a must see! Fernanda Torres’s performance is outstanding!

[xiwinks]

You said it well. When was out the teather it took me a week to “be happy” again. Everytime someone asked about it, I explained it and ended in tears. A week to heal. It felt like losing someone from my own family, watching a story that could’ve been mine, and I kinda think this feeling is a little with all Brazilians, specially when you know what went on during those years and how much all these families fought to have answers about their missing peers.
I’m usually very emotional, but this movie really touched parts of me that hurt and made me think about our current society. We shall NEVER forget or forgive the past! May it NEVER repeat again!
Thank you for your review and honesty! Hopefully we will take those awards!

NÓS VAMOS SORRIR!!!