‘The Awakener’
The Brazilian federal agent Miguel Montessant (Kiko Pissolato) has just arrested a corrupt governor, Sandro Corrêa (Eduardo Moscovis), on charges of embezzling public funds from hospitals. But Montessant knows that regardless of the mountain of evidence facing Corrêa, he will go free, aided by a corrupt government. Worst yet, an errant bullet strikes Montessant’s young daughter while she is on the way to a Brazilian soccer match. Although the slug injures her, what kills her is the inadequate care provided by an underfunded hospital. Now the once straightedge agent wants revenge.
Based on the Brazilian graphic novel “O Doutrinador,” the directors Gustavo Bonafé and Fábio Mendonça’s vigilante superhero film features bloody and brutal murders set to a raucous punk score. During a protest, Montessant dons a gas mask with red-lighted vision and beats the governor with his bare hands to a bloody pulp. He later teams with a hacker (Tainá Medina) to hunt down the other dishonorable governmental string pullers. The glut of American superhero films can obscure the richness of the genre, especially its potential for political statements. But “The Awakener,” even in its depravity, refreshingly restores that power of meaning.
‘Pushpa: The Rise’
In the director Sukumar’s epic action flick, a low-wage laborer named Pushpa (Allu Arjun) is forced to illegally harvest a rare wood that only grows in the Seshachalam Hills of southeastern India. Despite his unkempt appearance, Pushpa is the prototypical action hero: stoic, egotistic and defiant of authority figures, particularly the local capitalistic businessmen and corrupt cops. He’s the kind of Joe cool, who, when offered water after a merciless beating, extends the refreshment to his huffing torturer.
“Pushpa: The Rise” is an origin story. The single-named hero advances through the ranks of the smuggling operation, wrestling…