Alice's House

Alice (Ribas), a fortyish manicurist stuck in a stale marriage and a stifling family, finds respite in an affair with a high-school sweetheart. Meanwhile, her husband and three sons are left to their own devices, which include thieving and scoring with teenage girls—and stealing the home of Alice’s lonely mother. The capable cast, director’s documentarian past and ambient soundtrack heighten the film’s real-life sensibility, perfectly capturing the working-class life of a São Paulo family. With no favelas or guns in sight, it’s a welcome, atypical contribution to the recent crop of Brazilian cinematic exports.