Best movie of this year hands down!

This is How Movies Should Be Made

one of my absolute favorites!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Do not waste 80 minutes plus of your life watching this dog of a self indulgent, narcissistic movie. The marvel of this film is NOT just that it is excessively overdone , self indulgent, narcissistic, boring ( you will NOT get that lost time back, folks) it is that this amateurish, selfish, docu-flick actually got funding from the several sources it managed to get funding from, that it was allowed to have a "space" in theaters to show such drivel. Look, if you had a nickel- spoiler alert- for every person who wanted to be a dancer/ film star/ film maker/ director/ entertainer/singer , etc. who ended up not making it and then either felt like dying, giving up or committing suicide you would..literally ..be a billionaire! Not only is this a story of someone without talent who couldn't cut it in the "biz" , above, who then throws in towel and offs herself, its about her kid sister the actual director and yup true narcissism here playing as "actor" in the movie as both her sis and herself. "Look at Me" I'm a movie director folks who suckered people into funding this crappy, boring, selfish narcissist no doubt because she had an over rated, over priced corrupt "Ivy league cartel" moxie. Basta! Enough already. There are thousands of movies on that subject- defeated dreams , suicide, quitters- that are far better that have NEVER SEEN the light of day and by people who are less about "craving the wrong kind of attention" like this..ahem 'director" and(alleged) "actor" So many people with SAG cards do not selfishly kill themselves or whine about someone who they know & love who was depressed, sad, or suicidal who we know tried to kill themselves, decided not to , or who did it . This movie is nothing new but it is LOUSY. A waste of one's precious time regardless of your age because...no pun intended ..Life is just too short to waste your afternoon watching a story that has zippo(nada) to do with a more compelling story..those who carry on once their dreams die as is , face it, so often the case in this most superficial, materialistic, priorities askew, plasti9c, shallow US culture/ society. Incredible as in "not credible" that it actually got funding from some top arts corps. Let's hope this selfish narcissistic lacking in talent Director does not, sadly, follow in her defeated big sister's footsteps and upon rejection, kill herself, too. You don't make it? Wait Tables, wash dishes at 2 in the morning at the Clock restaurant to put bread on the table for your 3 kids. Now THAT is a story, THAT is a Documentary with some potential; THAT takes courage and yup, THAT is life. There is literally nothing redeeming about this sub par waste of time & film.

It's a beautiful documentary that shows how are extremely strong the connection between women in the same family. It is sad at the same time, impossible not to shed tears. It has absolutely nothing to do with the review above, that says that it is an ode to narcissism. Petra managed to merge the three (mother, daughter and sister) in an incredible and poetic way. The art direction is also beautiful. The way the mother describes her despair feelings just using words is also perfect. The soundtrack is one of the most beautiful I've heard in any documentary. The documentary is worth n many ways, as we can see ourselves in several situations.

The movie/documentary should not be named Elena, but Petra. Elena is, as we can see along the movie, a mere "ghost" to the writer's own psychological questions. A very unoriginal interpretation of teenage doubts, spiced with a nauseating narcissism and a pretension of "artistry" stolen from Elena's profession. As I was discussing with friends, we were in doubt if it was a better movie because it was based on a real story. We decided it was ONLY a movie because it was based on real facts, otherwise it would be the most boring, pointless story ever written. In general, aside of some clichés, the direction was OK. I can see some of the scenes making a beautiful movie, if inserted in a relevant story (and not in a pseudo-poetry of disconnected floating women for how long? really?).P.s.: And if you watched the trailer made by some Brazilian actors: the movie has absolutely NOTHING to do with that. It will NOT talk about Elena. Nor her life. Nor her relationships. She will remain as a metaphoric idea, not a role.

I've lost track of the number of times I've been asked what documentaries are good for. Usually, it goes like this: "What were you trying to say in your film? Or: "What's the goal of your film?" There is also the popular iteration I call the Post Office version: "What's your film's message?" And, of course, in its most utilitarian form: "Why did you make this film?"There's no good answer to these things for the simple reason that the question, in all its configurations, is a bad one. In these types of situations, we try to be polite and end up saying things that later become the source of eternal embarrassment and regret. The truth is that the reasons a film is made are either banal (because we were paid to, because it's what we do) or very mysterious (the impulse to give form to something that, being inchoate, cannot be explained in advance). To me, the true test of a documentary is found not in the reasons it came into being, but in the force with which it affirms its own existence. What I mean is this: more often than not, filmmakers don't manage to convince viewers that their films are necessary. Had they not existed, it wouldn't make much difference, either for the viewer (which is important) or for the person who made it (which is vital). These are the expendable films. The others – which are much rarer –, leave no doubt that, because of them, something changed. It might be our perception of things, or our empathy for the world, or film itself. The viewer knows. Something came into focus, became sharper. Elena is that kind of film. At its core is the tragic event of a life interrupted too early. The survivors are shattered. The film puts the pieces back together, to the extent that that's possible, which is to say, imperfectly. There's no naive belief in closure, in the ability of art to restore the wholeness that existed before the drama. Rather, it's just the opposite. Through the film, one seeks to find a way of coming to terms with the irreversibility of death, learning to live with what will always be missing. If there's no neat conclusion, tied with a bow, neither is there prostration, since one needs to keep living – and if possible, once in a while, just dance a little, as in the last scene. That cheerful realism, that desire to find joy in spite of everything, is what lingers and makes a film about death succeed in affirming life so strongly. The final impression is that Petra, the director and sister, made and was made by the film, a bit like that image in which a hand draws another hand and in turn is drawn by it. Without the director, Elena wouldn't exist; without Elena, my impression is that the director would be sadder, her life trapped in unresolved mourning. She would also have been spiritually poorer, since lacking the experience of having made one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a long time. (Written by João Moreira Salles, director of "Santiago")