Man of the Year: An Interesting Story About a Renegade Who Comes of Age
He struggles with the existential dilemma between being a made man or a regular husband to his hairdresser turned girlfriend Cledir (Claudia Abreu). The only problem is Ã?Â?rica (NatÃ?¡lia Lage), the deceased’s girlfriend, who shows up at his door unannounced, and refuses to leave.
He agrees to take care of her, but it comes at a heavy cost as she gives her two cents and attempts to micromanage his life. At the same time, Cledir suggests that he visits the dentist (Jorge D�³ria), who agrees to fix his teeth, if he kills a young black that took the life of his daughter years ago.
The dentist and his organization have a serious problem with blacks and mulattos, and continue to send Maiquel on these assignments to take out different thugs in the area.
Dirty cops praise his work and agree to look the other way, yet only in the individual district they have jurisdiction in. Maiquel digresses towards an affair with Ã?Â?rica, of which Cledir has simply refused to deal with until Ã?Â?rica confronts Maiquel one fine afternoon at Maiquel’s mother and laws house.
Maiquel would rather continue to take care of Ã?Â?rica, than have her serve God through servitude in the church. In an argument he kills Cledir, whose body he attempts to hide at one of his friend’s house. He could get away with the crime, except that a police detective from another jurisdiction is on the case.
The dentist suggests that Maiquel turn himself in and let some time pass by and resurface, but Maiquel is not willing to go that route. Ã?Â?rica leaves him yet again, this time going back into hiding and having taken 20 grand and his daughter from his marriage.
Maiquel then goes around and kills the dentist and his other associates, yet by now the same blacks and mulattos he was assigned to kill have taken out his entire crew. This is not merely a story about a crazed man who dies his hair blonde and kills a thug for calling him a homosexual.
This is not even a story about an outcast who domesticates a pig and takes a transient into his home; only to allow her to ruin everything he has worked for. This is a coming age story about a man who gets swept up into a life of crime, not so much for the money, but because he hasn’t any other idea about what to do with his life.
Every time he attempts to live a normal life, and walk away from it all, his peers continue to reinforce the negativity that found him in his abysmal state to begin with. This is a must see for anyone who is into crime movies, although keep in mind that the language is Portuguese, and you have to read the subtitles on this independent release.
