A One Mann’s Movies review of “I’m Still Here” (2025).
Original title: Ainda Estou Aqui.
This film was the big surprise when the Oscar nominations for Best Picture were announced last month. “I’m Still Here” is a Brazilian produced and set film about life under the tyranny of military dictatorship in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1970s. I very much doubt it is going to win that top prize since I doubt many Academy voters are going to sit through 160 minutes of Portuguese with subtitles. But it is an impressive film and I can see why it has a right to be included in the shortlist.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“I’m Still Here” Plot Summary:
Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) lives a pleasant life with her husband Rubens (Selton Mello), a construction engineer. They live a stone’s throw from the Rio beaches and their five children all enjoy the beach life. But behind the idyll, the Fifth Brazilian Republic is cracking down on ‘terrorists’ across the country and the Paiva family become sucked into the turmoil.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong threat”. )
Talent:
Starring: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro, Valentina Herszage, Maria Manoella, Bárbara Luz, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, Luiza Kosovski, Marjorie Estiano, Guilherme Silveira,
Antonio Saboia, Cora Mora, Olívia Torres, Pri Helena .
Directed by: Walter Salles.
Written by: Murilo Hauser & Heitor Lorega. (Based on the book by Marcelo Rubens Paiva).
Running Time: 2h 17m.
“I’m Still Here” Summary:
Positives:
- A stunningly good performance from Fernanda Torres.
- The film really builds up your relationship with the characters, such that you intimately care what happens to them.
- Cleverly interweaves live action with 16mm home video and archive footage.
Negatives:
- The story doesn’t have much of an arc. Very little actually happens.
Review of “I’m Still Here”:
A stunning performance.
Fernanda Torres is deservedly nominated for the Best Leading Actress Oscar. It’s a role she has to portray as Eunice Paiva for over 30 years and she is astonishingly good. (I wondered if the elderly Eunice was still Torres… with brilliant make up. But no, it is Fernanda Montenegro.) There is so much grit and determination in her performance that it really deserves recognition. Looking at the current bookies odds for this category, Torres is sitting in third place (15/2 odds) behind Mikey Madison for “Anora” (3/1 odds) and Demi Moore, far and away the bookie’s favourite, for “The Substance” (1/2 odds). I would actually rate her performance ahead of both of those ladies, so I might just have a rebellious flutter on her.
Building the family relationships.
The film takes great pains to construct the family relationships. We start the film watching the family play on the beach, finding and taking in a lost little dog that they name Pimpão (after one of the girl’s dodgy boyfriends!). There is genuine warmth in these scenes as the kids spark off each other. We are also introduced to the person holding the house together: the trusty housekeeper Maria (Pri Helena). All of this happens over the first 35 minutes of the film, where nothing of significance – aside from a few shady knocks at the front door – happens .
A threatening section.
Featuring as it does life under a right-wing dictatorship (topical!!), the film illustrates just how dangerous the period was for the middle-class literati of Rio who could be apprehended and tortured on a whim. I was lucky enough to go to Rio a couple of times on business in the 90’s and even then it was a dangerous place. There were reports of westerners being carjacked at gunpoint. You didn’t walk anywhere at night: you took a taxi for a 100 yard walk from a restaurant to your hotel. This must have been on a whole different level for residents in the 70’s.
In some ways, it feels a shame that the film didn’t get a 12A certificate in the UK. Much of the BBFC certification seems to be down to the “sustained sequence of threat” while members of the family are detained and interrogated. But very little is actually shown. As this is based on a true story, and this stuff goes on in the world even today, I wouldn’t have a problem with a 12 year old seeing this and being able to discuss it with them afterwards. I think the MPAA got this one more correct with a PG-13 (though I’m a bit surprised it got though with that given a moment of Fernanda Torres shower nudity).
This detention scene provides the basis for some of the best acting by Torres, who goes from a happy-go-lucky beach mum to a haggard shell before our eyes.
Clever direction and editing.
The film is cleverly cut using both colour, live-action footage intercut with home cine-camera footage that the eldest daughter Veroca (Valentina Herszage), a wannabe filmmaker, takes of the family. Interspersed with this is also archive footage of Rio in the 1970’s and newsreel footage of Brazilian news reports of insurgence such that sometimes you are not sure what is ‘shot footage’ and what is stock footage.
Lacking in action.
I did find the film a bit of a curious fish. Aside from the ‘detention’ section, there is not very much that goes on. The ‘story arc’, as it is, is almost the story arc of the Paiva family over 40+ years without having many ‘events’ in it. Not that I personally didn’t find it enthralling. But I fear that some may get to the end of this film and say “So what??”.
It reminded me very much of another foreign-language Oscar darling from 2018, “Roma“. That is similarly set in 1971 and has similar themes of everyday life against social unrest. And that too was described by some viewers as ‘like watching paint dry’. But it had the same love of ‘place’ and relationships as this film develops. “Roma” went on to win Best Foreign Language Film (as well as Best Director and Best Cinematography, both for for Alfonso Cuarón). Will “I’m Still Here” find the same success with the Academy?
It also reminded me of “Argentina, 1984” from 2022 which tackled (but in more of a courtroom drama way) the fate of “The Missing” in Argentina. That was also very good (and got some awards success): it is a recommended watch as a follow-up to this film if you haven’t seen it.
Summary Thoughts on “I’m Still Here”
This is a very good film and I’m glad I caught it (over and above completing my 2025 “Bingo!” card for the Best Picture nominees!). The bookies currently have Emilia Pérez as the favourite for Best International Feature, but I think I will have my money on this one to win. Fingers crossed!
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “I’m Still Here”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzqP0jmk3o.
Subscribe
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to One Mann’s Movies to receive future reviews by email right here. No salesman will call!
