Brazilian Title: Modo Avião

Directed by: César Rodrigues

Starring: Larissa Manoela, Erasmo Carlos, Katiuscia Canoro, André Frambach and Dani Ornellas

Genre: Comedy, Coming-of-Age

I seem to be watching a lot of coming-of-age or, at least, coming-of-character films formed around the grandparent as an archetypal mentor lately. I wonder what that means?

This film was your typical coming-of-age story. We have a bratty protagonist who gets removed from her toxic environment and thrown into a location linked to her heritage or something of the like. Completely out of their comfort zone, they become victims of circumstance, that quickly become changed-for-the-better holistic individuals. Think Emma Roberts in Wild Child. Exactly the same character arc.

As for Ana, her character arc was on-the-nose and predictable, not at all assisted by the reinforcement from obvious dialogue.

To be honest, you’ll get the feeling that you’ve seen this film before when you watch it.

It’s sweet and novel, but nothing overly original. Particularly when it comes to movies that surround the theme of fashion, social media and youth pressure.

The one thing that I’d say is different (I’m not sure if this is a case of under-developed character or just a fresh twist) is the role of the archetypal mentor. Her grandfather.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I felt that instead of a powerful mentor figure, he just served as a vehicle or provider of an environment that would drive her change.

This is good in the sense that it means she transforms herself more as a character, rather than being transformed by everyone around her excluding herself.

Overall, it’s a cute movie and I’m not mad at the protagonist, but also not impressed enough to watch it ever again.

What did you think of Airplane Mode?