Warm, smart, fluid, innovative, nearly chaotic, beautiful. A quite potent film in the border between documentary and fiction. With a ridiculously low budget, as it is an unintended trademark of most of Domingos de Oliveira's cinema. As usual, this has not been a constraint for good text, clever ideas, funny or moving moments. However, it was even more anarchical and looser than his films use to be. I confess that I was very skeptical, not really waiting for an interesting outcome. But this is Domingos de Oliveira, the brave director who always follows his ideas, is never afraid of consequences or even of changing his very ideas, does never follow formulae or market requirements or fancy tastes. What is fiction and what is real life is always blurred on his screen. His actors are his friends, because it is simply hard not to admire his heart. Not everything works in the best way throughout Domingos's filmography, but I always give it a chance, and there is no regret. Magnificent 8 has certainly a 9th not mentioned cowboy, a Man with no Name, who is Domingos himself, almost as a mystic ghost, although appearing and talking sometimes. Indeed, the movie worked because, despite being made in a single day with a very loose script, it did begin much time before: along Domingo's career and his personal and professional relationships. Great actors were there to expose themselves, think and talk about acting, life and everything else. It was so deep and honest that it did work, spontaneously as those things that have no explanation and the eight actors talked about at some point. I laughed a lot and also almost cried. It has been a nice tribute to actors' craft, and also to Domingos himself, as it was his second-to-last movie and a collective impressionist portrait of his own contribution to Brazilian arts.
