Stylish but barely mediocre overall

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I usually don't tend to enjoy Brazilian documentaries all that much due to their lack of appeal and a certain sense of being too didactic but "Caro Francis" ("Dear Francis") is a notable exception that comes across as being one of the greatest ever made in here. It's almost impossible to make a full impressive account on who Paulo Francis was, and to cover the whole legacy this great yet highly controversial journalist left to journalism but this documentary helps a lot those who seek to know more about him.One of the many people interviewed, the writer Daniel Piza, wrote an interesting biography of Francis, and everything he presented there is present here: from Francis background, his early critical pieces as theater critic up to his rise as one of the most ferocious, vocal, strong minded and influential people from Brazil with his reports, columns in several newspapers, and later appearing on TV with an opinative sketch bringing news direct from New York, place in which he started to live and love after his exile during the Military dictatorship. The main actractives of following his life's trajectory is to get a glimpse of many of his stories, news clips (even the goofs behind the scenes, outrageously cussing in hilarious moments) and of course the comments that led to his death in 1997 when he picked a fight with a giant oil company who sued him for saying the company was corrupt. The movie pays a good deal detailing how stressful were his last moments, suffering the impacts of such lawsuit which basically brought him a fatal heart-attack. The synonym of combative and critical journalism, but also a man of many passions, big fan of Wagner's operas and his devoted love for cats (fun surprise of the movie with plenty of good stories about his cats). I could say better late than never that this was made but in fact, it was too late to cause much effect. Surely those who knew few about him will want to watch this but too bad it won't hit much of a new audience to present a figure from the past who left an unbeatable mark in journalism. There's no one like him in the media, no one with his class and his presence. I have vague memories of his late night appearances on TV, with a distinctive and funny voice imitated by many comedians here, which I think was enough to make me interested in watching this and perhaps even try to find his books (he has a few novels published). Very well-made, never tiring and with a good pace, "Caro Francis" is an outstanding documentary, a positive look into a man's legacy. 9/10P.S. in 2017: though Paulo actually didn't have much substantial proof against Petrobrás (the oil company), in the following years after his death it was evident and proved how many corruption scandals the company was involved, which includes the buying of an American refinery that didn't had profits to present.