FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
howie73
Set in the nocturnal, mundane world of Lisboan rubbish-collectors, this troubling and unforgettable study of erotomania leaves a lingering sense of mystery an confusion. The mystery is sustained by the nocturnal wanderings of the protagonist, Sergio, whose erotomania the film charts in a stylised and disturbing way.The film never tells us what is fantasy or reality - the ever-present darkness envelopes every desire as Sergio hunts for sexual thrills and the unobtainable object of desire, which in this instance, is a handsome swimmer, oblivious to Segio's ways. And this state if unrequited love/desire triggers a downward spiral in Sergio, and is symptomatic of his enveloping erotomania.Structurally, there is little story or plot. The film's sense of time is also slippery and non-linear. There are hints that the start is the actual end - so is what is seen in between a mixture of fantasy or reality or neither? Such questions remain unresolved in this provocative and atmospheric study of homosexual desire and alienation. Best seen at night.....
robb_lewis2001
i found this film a little hard going to start with, the explicitness didn't bother me after all we now are in the 2000's, and we should all live equally together whether gay straight or bisexual. the film follows Sergio and his peccadillo's of sado-masochism, his excessive sexual fantasies lead him around Lisbon during his work at night, masturbating a police officer and oral sex in a public convenience are graphic but was not off putting, he has a life that is different to a lot of people, working a night shift he has the chance to "enjoy" himself, and does so. Going through the rubbish and picking out gloves and used swimming trunks which he wears and even gets turned on by wearing them, the shower scene is not graphic which makes it more of a turn on, by watching his face, he gets to the point of no return, the actor portraying Sergio (Meneses) give an excellent performance and isn't afraid to show his feelings in such a film, good luck to him in the future, with his looks and body he should be very busy within the film trade, give the film a chance i found it excellent.
biflexx
This is a somewhat interesting idea - if it really went anywhere. I enjoyed the first act as the young man becomes obsessed and I hoped the film would go further and to more mature places. The film just feels like a very long excuse to watch the gorgeous young man who plays the lead with no clothes on - and he's nude constantly for those who are interested in that.There's nothing wrong with making a hot film but honestly, this goes nowhere and manages only to raise a few interesting questions and then do zero with them.I can't help but feel it's a protracted excuse to see this 18 year old beauty in his all his narcissistic glory. The filmmakers seem confused in their own descriptions of the action on the commentary track and seem to think that "Shocking Images" equals a strong film. Nah, not by a long shot. It's hardly the hard-hitting exploration of intense obsession it tries to be and succeeds only in being a pictorial of a this guy.One need only to see the "special features menu" where it lists "eye candy" and each scene of the young man in his glory is featured for added pleasure. Come on now gentlemen... who are the filmmakers and anyone who seriously watched this film kidding? I'm all for a serious, dark explorations of taboo but this is not it.
nycritic
I will give director Joao Pedro Rodrigues this: he has his own vision about what eroticism is supposed to be like among the disenfranchised and the forgotten and is willing to stick to his own convictions with the release of his movie O FANTASMA. He's found an impromptu performer in Ricardo Meneses who looks like a more masculine Farley Granger and moves on screen like the embodiment of carnality looking for its complement. Now, if only his movie fared better.For its first two thirds, the movie concerns in how one young man's obsession starts to creep out of its known boundaries. Sergio is the sanitation department worker who seems to have a fascination with communicating only through grunts. His closest attachment is a dog that he's made his. He even imitates the mannerisms of the dog, and when a female co-worker clumsily flirts with him, he retreats into this "canine" behavior in a sequence that goes on for too long and brings practically zilch into the story, but makes its point: our Sergio cannot communicate well. He's the taciturn type.Not that there's anything wrong with that. But even in the laziest of erotic stories there is a vague internal life within the main character. There's some description as to who this person is, what he wants, where he comes from. Sergio is given none. Nothing except his overpowering desires, although this isn't such a bad thing if the story had something plausible to say. I've read volumes of gay erotica in my time and even the raunchiest had something to hold onto, however vague, to sustain my interest in the story being told, even if it dealt with themes of debasement like this story does.Why we're made to believe that he has some interest in his female co-worker I don't know. It looks like filler and would have fared better if the character had been male, and someone real as opposed to idealized. His encounters, while believable on paper, seem ridiculous on screen: his dog leads him to a car where he finds a man in handcuffs. He makes no attempt to help the man but decides he might as well "give him a hand." Nice citizen! But there's no mention, no explanation as to why this man is even there, who he may be, or even if this is just Sergio's imagination gone wild since later a cop finds him curled up against the object of his lust's motorcycle.As a matter of fact, another person's objects become Sergio's focus. Since he can't have the guy he's pining for (and he knows it), he decides to start collecting the guy's properties. Someone call for a restraining order, especially since he "marks his spot" by peeing on the guy's bed, but apparently this may not work out in Portugal. Anyway... the more Sergio delves in his desire, the more brutal his sexual "encounters" become. The problem is, none of them have any relation to the real world and happen for the sake of happening. Or at least, to bring forth the erroneous idea that BDSM is a lifestyle for the sick and twisted.Which is exactly what this movie becomes once it hits its last 30 minutes. If at least it had managed to sustain my interest through its disjointed sexual encounters, out of the blue, with no warning, I was hit with one of the worst transitions I've seen on film. Whether the director has a fetishism with the superhero of which this story is named after I cannot say but it made my skin crawl. I just can't believe I sat through this protracted end, but there it is, I did it, and I took a shower right after seeing this. Because for a film that looks and feels like an open toilet in a dingy bathroom, this is all I could do.
