Less successful is the subplot involving the DJ, Rafael. His arc—angry young man learns empathy—feels recycled from a dozen indie films before it. Deluti tries his best, but the writing lets him down with dialogue like, “My beats are the only things that understand me.”
Where Six Vidas truly excels is in its casting. Antônio Fagundes, as the bookshop owner Joaquim, delivers a masterclass in silent acting. In one extended sequence, he simply runs his fingers over the spines of books he can no longer afford to keep. It is heartbreaking without a single line of dialogue. six vidas 2018 film
Six Vidas will not change cinema. It will not win awards for innovation. But in a year crowded with cynicism, it dares to be sincere. When the final frame fades to black and the six characters—now irrevocably altered by their small, shared moments—smile not with joy but with the quiet acceptance of life’s ongoingness, you may find a lump in your throat. Less successful is the subplot involving the DJ, Rafael
The “six vidas” (six lives) of the title are not just six characters—they are six emotional states: grief, rage, courage, nostalgia, exhaustion, and hypocrisy. Over the course of 110 minutes, Gomes slowly, almost casually, reveals how these emotional states collide. A dropped wallet on a bus. A misdelivered letter. A chance encounter in a 24-hour pharmacy. These are the film’s narrative glue. Antônio Fagundes, as the bookshop owner Joaquim, delivers
Six Vidas is a gentle, over-earnest hug of a movie—flawed, a little messy, but ultimately warm and necessary.