Tuesday - Movies

The Age

Thursday October 2, 2008

Craig Mathieson

Lower City (2005)

World Movies, 1.35pm

A working-class love triangle set on the waterfront of the northern Brazilian coastal city of Salvador, Lower City is a compelling drama that refuses to conform to the stereotypes of its venerable genre. No one is to blame - and none of the three protagonists are sacrificed so the other two can live happily ever after - in the confined, virtually autonomous, milieu of strip clubs and bars where best friends and business partners Deco (Lazaro Ramos) and Naldinho (Wagner Moura) encounter Karinna (Alice Braga). Both men, who run a river boat, are attracted to her and she, in turn, is drawn to them. The back-and-forth, illustrated by the petty crime and prostitution that's their accepted means of survival, is pensively demarcated and ultimately as physically immediate as their sexual liaisons. Debutante director Sergio Machado captures their confusion. The film has a torrid, in-the-moment energy. Something, or someone, you soon realise, has to give.

Airport (1970)

ABC1, 12.35am

The original airborne disaster movie, with Dean Martin and Burt Lancaster trying to keep an airport open and a jet airliner intact. -- CRAIG MATHIESON

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