‘Neighboring Sounds,” the feature debut of Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho — a former movie critic — is a welcome departure from the ultra-violent druggie films we’ve grown accustomed to from his country.
It takes place in a middle-class enclave of Recife, Brazil’s fifth-largest city and Filho’s hometown, and revolves around a well-to-do family ruled over by a white-bearded autocrat, Francisco (novelist-actor W.J. Solha). It interweaves the lives of a dozen or so characters, including servants and the security guards hired after a series of low-level crimes transpire in the neighborhood.
The film leisurely unfolds as a series of vignettes about class distinctions and crime, with an unexpected ending. It is beautifully filmed in CinemaScope and strongly acted (especially by Solha), and makes for mesmerizing viewing. The most outlandish scene involves a pothead housewife who uses her washing machine to provide sexual pleasure. We never learn how clean her clothes get.