We're So Young

Renato Manfredini Júnior moves from Rio to Brasília in 1973. Soon after, he develops a rare bone condition called epiphysiolysis; after surgery he is confined to a wheelchair and treated with morphine. Shut in at home, all he does is listen to music and make plans. In 1979 he forms a punk band called Aborto Elétrico, then leaves it to perform alone, and Legião Urbana comes out of that. Antonio Carlos da Fontoura directs from a screenplay by Marcos Bernstein. Thiago Mendonça plays Renato. The film does not cover the period in which Renato Russo was famous; it stays deliberately in his youth and ends before Legião Urbana's first album. Brasília is used almost as a separate character. The city is new, empty and planned, and that a punk scene came out of it is the oddity the film keeps returning to. It opened in Brazil on 3 May 2013. It was made for 6.4 million reais and took over 18 million at the box office. Its weakness is the biopic template. Scenes are joined by lines that announce what is coming, and the character sometimes looks like the sketch of a legend. Who it is for: listeners of Legião Urbana and anyone curious about the history of Brazilian rock. Who it is not for: the context is missing for a viewer who does not know the music, and the narrative never quite escapes the tone of admiration.