Larissa: The Other Side of Anitta

6/8/2026

Larissa: The Other Side of Anitta (2025) does one of the worst things a documentary can do. It purports to be about the person whose name is on the title but it’s really about the filmmaker. It’s not even a gradual shift; director Pedro Cantelmo wastes little time shoehorning himself into the narrative and taking control of it. The ideal documentarian is invisible, noiseless, and inconspicuous; a detached, impartial observer like Frederick Wiseman — who taught me, among other things, that documentaries do not need narration. In addition to narrating, Cantelmo talks too much about his favorite subject; namely, his long-standing crush on Anitta, with whom he goes way back. He’s the Duckie to her Molly Ringwald. I had never heard of Anitta (real name Larissa de Macedo Machado) befor