I’m Still Here – REVIEW

Fernanda Torres in I’m Still Here


I’m almost done with getting through the Best Picture nominees this year, and there’s gonna be a post about ranking all ten of those movies very soon. I do have to give some background with this, though, mainly because it did have to do with my experience while watching I’m Still Here, the latest film from legendary Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles. My first exposure to the movie was lead actress Fernanda Torres’s surprise win in Best Actress in a Drama at the Golden Globes over big names like Nicole Kidman and Pamela Anderson. I can’t have been the only one to decide to go “okay, I’ll watch this now” once it would hit a theater that was closer to me. Admittedly, I was still worried that this wouldn’t get to theaters. Sony Pictures Classic unfortunately don’t release their movies in my area theatrically too often, but I’m glad they aren’t dropping the ball with I’m Still Here. I went into this completely blind, other than Fernanda Torres leading the movie. No trailer, no synopsis, nothing. I don’t do that too often, so letting Salles slowly reveal what this movie is about and letting it wash over me was a very immersive feeling. If you don’t know, I’m Still Here is about the true story of the “disappearance” of Congressman Rubens Paiva, and how his wife, Eunice, copes with their family in the middle of the military dictatorship in Brazil that lasted for just over two decades. That’s a point in history that I don’t know anything about, so while I was watching, it was interesting to weigh if this was a true story or not. It was like watching Tár for the first time, except I watched Tár thinking that Lydia Tár was a real person. It’s tough for me to put into words just how great Fernanda Torres is as Eunice, who’s essentially being put through the emotional wringer, but it’s a very quiet performance. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing (it’s 100% not), but if you’re looking for a scene where Torres is yelling and/or crying, you’re not going to get that here. If I did have any problems, so much of the story beats just fell sort of flat for me. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t familiar with the story, learning it as I went on, but the last 20-30 minutes of the movie ended up being the stuff that almost brought me to tears. Stripping away all of the plot, I’m Still Here is a movie about how your life can change at any moment, at any time. It just matters how you can react and pick up the pieces. Will you hold on to what you still have? Even as someone who didn’t know this story, it was very easy to connect on a human level with this.


Ryan’s Grade: B+