Seguindo Todos Os Protocolos (Portuguese) [Follow The Protocol]

Its been a while since I saw a film set during Pandemic days, and this one pulled me right back into that strange bubble of time that somehow already feels like it happened in another life. A Brazilian filmmaker who also wrote the script and plays the lead character Chico puts you straight back into that headspace, the endless indoor days, the isolation, the Zoom calls, the social distancing that started to feel like the new normal. The problem is the film itself is genuinely dull. Whatever point the director was trying to make could have landed perfectly in a short film, but instead everything gets pulled and stretched into long scenes of pretty much nothing happening.

Chico is a bear living alone through lockdown, watering his plants, following along to workout videos, and treating covid protocols like they are basically sacred law. His friends have actually started calling him the protocol police, and that rigidity has slowly pushed them all away from him. A Zoom call brings more bad news when his long-distance boyfriend ends things, telling him he is no longer bisexual and has been sleeping with women throughout the pandemic. Being lonely and filling his days with routines does not change the fact that Chico is horny, and watching porn is not cutting it anymore. He reaches out to an old flame and sets up a hookup in possibly the least seductive way imaginable, asking the guy if he would like to have sex following all the protocols. The guy shows up and what follows is this charged scene of sexual simulation happening behind plastic curtains, which eventually leads to them fully naked and having sex with their masks still on. The moment the guy pulls his mask off, Chico panics and asks him to leave. He eventually connects with another guy he feels slightly more at ease with, but that fizzles out too. The film wraps up in what I can only describe as a bizarre dreamlike sequence where Chico lets himself imagine what it all would have felt like if he had just let go of the fear.

This had all the ingredients to be a funny, genuinely affecting short film about that very real tension so many people felt between wanting human connection and being terrified of what getting it might cost them during the pandemic. Instead it just drags. The stretching kills whatever impact it was building toward, and by the time things get interesting the film has already worn out its welcome. Yes there are explicit scenes, two very attractive men having actual sex, but even that cannot save it from feeling like a slog. It could have hit differently for people who took real risks during those times and know exactly what that conflict felt like. The acting from the director is fine, and you can tell he was working with very limited resources during an incredibly difficult time to be making anything at all. But at the end of the day this felt more like a personal indulgence than a film made with the audience in mind. Not unwatchable, but absolutely not worth the runtime it asks of you. (2.5/10)