Lower City(Cidade Baixa)

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

Despite the lurid content, this is a beautifully made film that reaches for moral seriousness and resists facile judgments.

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

In the end, Lower City is never quite as energetic as it wants to be, touched by the strange, milky lethargy that steeps every waterfront film.

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

The movie turns out to be a predictable and somewhat sentimental lower-depths love triangle, but Ms. Braga almost makes it work.

Variety by Deborah Young

Though the storyline is dirt simple and not particularly meaningful or involving, the action in this character-driven film is scintillatingly sexy.

New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman

Machado establishes a realistically seamy environment for his erotic triangle, and there are some surprisingly tender moments amid the squalor.

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

This frenetic potboiler about a love triangle on the Salvador waterfront smacks of liberal slumming and bristles with faux authenticity.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Director Sérgio Machado, who worked as an assistant to Central Station's Walter Salles, lingers sensually over every wrong move his attractive tragic trio make.

TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh

The story wears thin long before it's over, but Machado draws strong performances from his leads and makes excellent use of its rundown locations.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

A bone-tired tale underneath.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

The impressive first feature by Sergio Machado, a one-time assistant to Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries"), is a trip through a grungy world of crime, sex and cockfights.