Review: Gabriel Mascaro’s Auspicious, Original, And Absorbing 'Neon Bull'

Iremar (Juliano Cazarré) is a roughneck. He’s a cowboy, a bull handler really, wrangling bulls into and out of a shoddy rural Brazilian rodeo. It’s dusty, difficult work, and the shows themselves are brutal, the bulls entering into a ring where two riders attempt to bring them down. The arena is spattered with the lost tail tassels of the bulls, ripped off by the riders. Iremar dutifully collects these tails, for use in his fantastical costume designs. So yes, Iremar might be a roughneck, but he’s a roughneck with dreams of designing delicate women’s bikinis and clothing. Don’t judge a book by its cover. 

The question of appearances and their complicated meanings is at the heart of Gabriel Mascaro’s remarkable and arresting “Neon Bull.” The film centers on Iremar and the nomadic group with whom he lives and works. Galega (Maeve Jinkings) drives the truck that serves as their sleeping quarters, and performs eerie burlesque numbers for rowdy rodeo fans in wild, sexy horse...