Neurotic Quest for Serenity | SXSW 2018 Film Review

As Neurotic Quest for Serenity begins, Kika (Tatá Werneck) is tearing her way through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Savages and damsels surround her, and in her hands they each meet their fate. Her money shot is floating an arrow between a man’s legs, carrying his testicles away with it. She’s confident, brutal, and unapologetic. These opening minutes are among the film’s best, as it paints the picture of a movie we would love to sit through…before it is ripped away from our senses to reveal this is nothing more than an actress dreaming of a prized role in the latest soap, “Amorgeddon”.

Kika is a Brazilian actress famous for her work in soap operas. She is also all over the map with insecurity and anxiety. Beloved by millions, she still demands more, though never quite sure as to why. Her love life is a sham, hooking up with a douchey artist who groans on and on about sexual gratification and masturbation (i.e., classy). She even releases a self-help book – one she did not actually write – which offers over a 1,000 ways to be happy, while Kika can never seem to find a single one.

After her ghost writer leaves her a clue that will supposedly lead her to happiness, Kika hooks up with Vladimir. A hipster bookstore clerk, Vladimir reveals himself to be the polar opposite of everything else in Kika’s life, while simultaneously negging her like hipster douche bags do. Kika is obviously not known for solid life choices. As she wrestles with this newfound quest for the meaning of joy, we are treated to random gross-out humor, weirdly cryptic daydreams, bouts of tripping, and tacky asides to bide the time.

Werneck carries the film with ease, she’s a quick-witted actress as skilled with verbal barbs as she is with physical humor. Unfortunately, the script from co-directors Paulinho Caruso and Teodoro Poppovic is so focused on inconsequential details and random nonsense, that by the end her performance feels completely wasted. As she dances in and out of every scene, wrestling with whatever anxiety the script requires her to tackle at that moment, the sheer lack of coherence refuses to ever allow Kika as a character to break free. Even the men in her life – ranging from possible life-mates to sadistic stalkers that Kika somehow never fears as much as she should – are tossed aside for head-scratching dream sequences or yet another poorly executed sex gag.

As much potential as Neurotic Quest for Serenity had initially, all hope is lost as the film hits the end credits. All I was left with was my own personal quest to recover my squandered time and dreams of “Amorgeddon: The Movie”.