There are some good Brazilian movies but this isn't one of them. The story itself is just lousely written, with long repetitive passages. I don't care about nudity but nobody likes soft porn, if you want to be interesting than just show some hardcore shots and not that overly boring soft stuff that goes on and on forever in this movie, repetitive non-interesting scenes. Then you have the drugs scenes that are also boring to watch after awhile. Nathalia Dill is candy for the eye so that's a positive thing in this movie, but the intrigue or supposed mystery of the movie is something you can figure out after half an hour and then the rest just becomes boring to watch.

It's very uncommon for me to see a Brazilian film, since they're always poorly executed, produced and acted-- and I'm Brazilian. "Paraísos Artificiais" is no exception; bad acting from most actors-- only a few did their job with quality. Directing is just poor and lifeless. Producing is lame, you can easily notice the parties aren't real since the ravers all do the same thing at the same time, which reminds us they rehearsed to do that. Story is vague and shallow. Rave is a good subject and with a professional production team it could have been a thousand times better! However, comparing "Paraísos Artificiais" to other Brazilian movies, it is not THAT bad. Just simply bad. Avoid it.

To preface - I originally had no intention of watching this film due to the relatively poor reviews found on this site, as well as what I thought would be a shallow story about sex, drugs, and raves. It was pretty random that I ended up seeing this, and when I started the movie I wasn't expecting to watch much more than 5 minutes of it.

Fortunately, I sat through to the end and am very glad I did. The artfully told story and solid acting kept me hooked, though some of the scenes were admittedly a little stretched out. The story is split into three time periods of the character's lives, switching back and forth throughout the movie. As the viewer, you begin to piece together the story and relationships, and make sense of earlier scenes until you have a full picture at the end, which will stick with you for days.

This is not at all the shallow movie I was expecting. Instead, it was a gripping story about love and drugs - how they shape relationships - and a deeper look into artificial paradises. Solid acting, multi-dimensional characters and great cinematography all add to the viewing experience. This is a great addition to Brazilian Cinema which I will add to my favorites along with Tropa de Elite I&II, Cidade de Deus, and Central do Brasil. I strongly recommend it.