Comedy “Abestalhados 2” shows the perrengues of filmmaking in Brazil

Four men, with a small production company, want to make an action movie in Brazil, and because it’s an expensive genre, they’re up for anything. While raising funds for the production, they do late-night religious programs, butter commercials and even porn movies. And all this is captured by the intern of the team, to serve as the making off of the feature, called “Acelerados 2”.

It could be a behind-the-scenes documentary of national cinema, but it is an action comedy directed by Marcos Jorge and Marcelo Botta that, contrary to what the title suggests, does not have a predecessor.

“We wanted to make a successful comedy, so we thought: ‘let’s make a sequel to the film soon’”, says Marcos.

According to the director, “Abestalhados 2”, in the beginning, was just a title, since the rest of the script was born little by little and transformed.

“They wanted a more real, down-to-earth comedy”, says Marcelo, “when we delivered the script, there was explosion and a lot of action”.

However, even being a comedy film, the action used demanded a large budget, based on locations and special effects.

In “Abestalhados”, by the way, this is the first joke: the biggest action scene of the feature, with real explosions, computer graphics and recording at Minhocão, in São Paulo, consumed all the ‘budget’ of the production. However, even with all the difficulties that the characters face throughout the film, one of them insists on saying that “movie and money don’t mix”.

“Every time I saw this scene, this joke, I laughed,” says Marcos. “We do absolutely nothing without money, but the intelligence is not to let money kill you and not let the absence of it kill you, either”, completes the director.

Marcelo completes his colleague’s speech, saying that cinema is expensive, but it also generates money.

“We have many Brazilian comedies that yielded a lot to the market, which strengthened the sectorial fund and were fundamental. Paulo Gustavo, who left us, did a lot for cinema, for example,” says the director.

For him, it is possible to make a film without so much money, in the guerrilla cinema style, but the ideal is to have the money to hire a complete team, paying all the floors required by the categories of professionals and arriving in a fair 10-hour journey.

“As filmmakers, we spend a lot of time creating, but a lot of time solving problems, too,” he said.

The biggest of all, even, happened during the recordings. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the film set hard, making “Abestalhados 2” one of the first Brazilian films to follow the WHO recommendations regarding the virus: protective equipment, testing and reduced staff were some of the measures taken to the film to continue shooting.

“One of the actresses got covid and we had to replace her. So, we brought it to the movie! When I saw it, Marcelo and I were writing a scene in which the actress is replaced because of another problem,” she said.

Faced with difficulties, improvisations and some changes, the film came out.

“The truth is, we are the Assholes. To make movies in Brazil, even more action movies, you have to be a little stupid, really”.

mood limit

All the archetypes of national cinema are very well represented in “Abestalhados 2”.

The megalomaniac director who thinks he has the next Oscar-winning production in his hands, the defender of auteur cinema full of intellectual references, the highlighter who takes two hours to get the exact amount of shadow on the actor’s face and the cinematographer who can’t get enough to look for the perfect camera angle.

With a vast cast of comedians, Paulinho Serra, Leandro Ramos, Raul Checker and Felipe Torres bring the best of national humor, the joke made in an intelligent way.

“Saying ‘you can’t make fun of anything anymore’ is a lazy comedian thing. You can make fun of everything, but it has to be good and addressed to the oppressor, not the oppressed”, says Leandro Ramos.

For both Leandro and Paulinho Serra, “politically incorrect” was never a problem. They articulate their own humor by being on the right side of the joke.

“In the film, humor works as a criticism, there are four macho guys who will do anything to make the film successful”, says Paulinho.

With special appearances by comedians from several Brazilian programs such as “Casseta & Planeta”, “Hermes e Renato” and “Pânico na TV”, the film manages to bring different moods, from different generations, and focus them on recent political and social discussions.

“Humor has a lot to do with time. The humor of the era of the bumblers is not made today, for example, it has been transformed”, says Paulinho. “That’s why when the guy says that: ‘go make a joke and if they don’t like it, it’s mi mi mi’, he is an incapable and mediocre guy”, he adds.

Leandro completes his colleague’s speech, saying that xenophobia, machismo and racism are not comedy issues, they are crimes.

“For me, the one who fights, saying ‘I have to be able to make fun of a fat man’, is not fighting to have freedom, he is fighting to be an asshole”.