67
Ribeiro captures the experiential awkwardness of young love pitch-perfectly.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
The New York Times by Andy Webster
This winning movie — directed by Daniel Ribeiro, making his feature debut — dexterously weaves the social challenges of adolescence into a story of broader self-discovery.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
Ribeiro’s screenplay, which is marbled with moments of humor as well as emotion, feels extremely well-tuned into the conflicted emotional lives of his adolescent characters, who often retreat into the safety of their childhood comfort zone after every exciting, but also scary, excursion into the adult unknown.
75
Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard
What progressively mounts tension is the film's understanding of a boy's gradually realized homosexuality as being inextricable from the central metaphor of compromised vision.
60
Time Out London by Dave Calhoun
There are no great upsets or fireworks here, just a tender sketch of what it means to (probably) be gay as a school kid. The storytelling style is as inoffensive as the music (Arvo Pärt, Belle and Sebastian), and the performances are amiable and relaxed.
75
Admirable throughout is the balance that Ribeiro strikes between dewy eroticism and the contextualization of sexuality as just a single aspect of one's identity, albeit an essential one.
60
The pic has genuine appeal, though in truth the script and direction are little more than average.
100
Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan
The tale, from Brazilian writer-director Daniel Ribeiro, is told with such tenderness, such intelligence and such aching honesty that it takes on the weight of something far more significant than puppy love. Like its subject, first kisses and best friends, it’s hard to forget.
50
The shuffling of who's an important/close friend transcends the specificity of being gay and disabled, and that experience is rarely depicted as realistically as this. But the film crosses into self-parody.
Written with the heavy-handed metaphor of Leonardo's blindness, Ribeiro's coming-of-age love story is refreshing and light-hearted. Tackling the subjects of disabilities and coming out with grace, the young actors transport viewers into their world, a world where being who you are isn't as easy as many think.