Guess what - a film needs a plot - neighboring sounds

I cheated and looked at some of the review capsules on metacritic and have to say that AO Scott hit it on the nose in observing that the Brazilian movie Neighboring Sounds (2012) is a thriller without a plot. How you feel about thrillers and plots will determine how you feel about this film. I personally don't care for thrillers and do like plots so for me this moderately ambitious film was a washout. In essence it's a film about a high rise neighborhood in a brazil city more or less controlled by a mobbed up patriarch, a place with bored and disaffected haves and their servants and nearby neighbors the havenots most of the black or native. The film raises many potential plot elements - a woman poisons a neighbor's barking dog, a woman commit suicide by jumping off railing (unseen), a car thief hits the vehicle of his cousin's girlfriend, a housewife buys marijauana from water-delivery service, guy keys the car of woman who won't tip him - and more - none of which develops into anything. The one plot element that does move forward is the three thugs who set up a security operation - at first it seems like a shakedown but then like a legit biz until at the end - 2 hous 10 minutes mind you - we see their real motive - revenge - a v weak and strained payoff after so long a journey. The director , Mendonca?, has obvious skill and ambition - some of the scenes play v well on their own - so I suspect he could do well w better material a ruthless editor, and a little less pretension - e.g., just because you open film w montage of exploited peasants does not make your film Wild Rice or Hallelujah.