This movie of blossoming revenge is interesting with some mystery and suspense but it has its flaws including some story gaps and direction. Some good direction gets marred by overuse especially some long scenes with no dialogue.
The acting was decent for amateurs but fortunately with no sign of cue cards.
always looked believable but it was without passion and emotionless except for two rape scenes, one of which lasted only a few seconds.
It is worth a look but no award nominations are expected.
7 Reviews
LOTS of graphic but dead-looking sex. BAD acting. Dumb, plodding story. Interesting score. That's about it.
jm1070128 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The only thing remarkable about this movie is the rampant, relentless nudity and VERY graphic, largely un-simulated sex, which makes up well over 60% of the movie. It misses being pornography only in that -- though graphic -- none of it looks like it's really happening. I mean, one guy's thing is moving in and out of the other guy's mouth, but it looks like the guy's lips somehow are not really touching it. Weird ... very graphic, but not AT ALL erotic. The opposite, in fact ... pretty creepy.
So ... Why so much sex? Beats me! I guess the director was just pushing the envelope, seeing how far he could get his actors to go on camera, for some reason of his own. It certainly does not advance the story even a little bit. It's just THERE. Everywhere.
The only part of any length that does NOT include sex (and does include a LOT of talking -- 95% of the movie is soundless except for the very effective electronic score) is a bizarre scene in which Mike goes to see a very old, very queeny, sort of Mexican-Godfather "lawyer" with shoe-polish-black hair and eyebrows and lots of makeup and jewelry, who rants on and on for about ten minutes about Mexico's existential socioeconomic ills or something equally incomprehensible -- an amazingly incongruous soliloquy, read almost entirely off cue cards. I guess the actor was too old to memorize lines.
So you get lots of graphic but dead-looking "sex", and an ancient, painted queen reading a long, droning speech to the camera, and a "mystery" about what happened to young guy "X" (later identified as Fernando) one night that caused him to forget EVERYTHING -- even his own name -- and wake up in Mike's bed the next morning.
Almost everything about this movie is bad. Dumb, endlessly plodding story, stilted, pretentious screenplay, bad direction, bad BAD acting -- by everybody, not only the old queen -- and nearly indecipherable English subtitles ("Vanish you." for example), so it's good that there is almost no dialog. The old queen got 90% of the lines in this movie in his ten minutes of screen time. But a very interesting music score. Weird!
So ... Why so much sex? Beats me! I guess the director was just pushing the envelope, seeing how far he could get his actors to go on camera, for some reason of his own. It certainly does not advance the story even a little bit. It's just THERE. Everywhere.
The only part of any length that does NOT include sex (and does include a LOT of talking -- 95% of the movie is soundless except for the very effective electronic score) is a bizarre scene in which Mike goes to see a very old, very queeny, sort of Mexican-Godfather "lawyer" with shoe-polish-black hair and eyebrows and lots of makeup and jewelry, who rants on and on for about ten minutes about Mexico's existential socioeconomic ills or something equally incomprehensible -- an amazingly incongruous soliloquy, read almost entirely off cue cards. I guess the actor was too old to memorize lines.
So you get lots of graphic but dead-looking "sex", and an ancient, painted queen reading a long, droning speech to the camera, and a "mystery" about what happened to young guy "X" (later identified as Fernando) one night that caused him to forget EVERYTHING -- even his own name -- and wake up in Mike's bed the next morning.
Almost everything about this movie is bad. Dumb, endlessly plodding story, stilted, pretentious screenplay, bad direction, bad BAD acting -- by everybody, not only the old queen -- and nearly indecipherable English subtitles ("Vanish you." for example), so it's good that there is almost no dialog. The old queen got 90% of the lines in this movie in his ten minutes of screen time. But a very interesting music score. Weird!
Porn, covered up as a wannabe art movie.
johannes2000-17 August 2021
Being gay, I am always open to gay-themed movies, especially when the story promises something original. In this case the synopsis hinted at some sort of exciting homoerotic psychological thriller, which sounded at least interesting.
Well, it was not. First of all, the pace of this movie is extremely slow. Dialogues are scarce, there's lots of silence and speechless staring at each other. The thriller element is thin: after a wild party a boy wakes up at another boys house with a total memory loss, apparently due to some traumatic experience at or around that party. The rest of the movie we witness his frustration, the helpful approach of hist host, and the gradual recurrence of his memory.
This is not much to fill almost two hours of film, so apparently director and writer Leopoldo Laborde thought of filling the time with an abundance of graphic sex-scenes, and with that I mean: all the way, unveiled, full frontal everything. Now I'm no prude and I have nothing against nudity and sex, but at least it should be in some way functional for the narrative. Here however I failed to see the need for it: apart from one scene with a flash back to the traumatic experience (a rape) it for the rest never adds anything to the (meagre) story. To be honest, after the third or fourth of these sex-scenes it all became pretty wearisome and the opposite of sensuous or titillating.
It didn't help that the photography was annoyingly bad, many scenes are underexposed or backlighted. It didn't help either that the main character (the one with the memory-loss) was pictured as an unattractive and hysterical nerd with the permanent gaze of a scared rabbit; it absolutely failed me what the other, much more attractive one ever saw in him. Both young actors play all sex-scenes for real, I cannot help wondering about the intentions of this director, to me it seemed to come close to exploitation.
To sum it up: an uninteresting movie with a shallow story, only memorable for its very graphic sex. Some movies play with balancing on the thin line between erotic and pornographic, but here this line is definitely crossed. There's nothing wrong with porn, there are a zillion sites available on internet to provide it, so to watch porn no-one needs the excuse of a wannabe arthouse film.
Well, it was not. First of all, the pace of this movie is extremely slow. Dialogues are scarce, there's lots of silence and speechless staring at each other. The thriller element is thin: after a wild party a boy wakes up at another boys house with a total memory loss, apparently due to some traumatic experience at or around that party. The rest of the movie we witness his frustration, the helpful approach of hist host, and the gradual recurrence of his memory.
This is not much to fill almost two hours of film, so apparently director and writer Leopoldo Laborde thought of filling the time with an abundance of graphic sex-scenes, and with that I mean: all the way, unveiled, full frontal everything. Now I'm no prude and I have nothing against nudity and sex, but at least it should be in some way functional for the narrative. Here however I failed to see the need for it: apart from one scene with a flash back to the traumatic experience (a rape) it for the rest never adds anything to the (meagre) story. To be honest, after the third or fourth of these sex-scenes it all became pretty wearisome and the opposite of sensuous or titillating.
It didn't help that the photography was annoyingly bad, many scenes are underexposed or backlighted. It didn't help either that the main character (the one with the memory-loss) was pictured as an unattractive and hysterical nerd with the permanent gaze of a scared rabbit; it absolutely failed me what the other, much more attractive one ever saw in him. Both young actors play all sex-scenes for real, I cannot help wondering about the intentions of this director, to me it seemed to come close to exploitation.
To sum it up: an uninteresting movie with a shallow story, only memorable for its very graphic sex. Some movies play with balancing on the thin line between erotic and pornographic, but here this line is definitely crossed. There's nothing wrong with porn, there are a zillion sites available on internet to provide it, so to watch porn no-one needs the excuse of a wannabe arthouse film.
It held me to the end
laduqesa20 May 2021
I must have seen the "Mary Whitehouse" version! No unsimulated sex in the film that I saw. Lots of nudity yes, but no actual hanky panky that could be considered porny.
The film recounts the gradual recovery of Fernando's memory after he woke up in a strange flat not knowing how he got there or anything of his life before that. He can't even remember his name. He and Miguel carry 90% of the film between them and it'a only in the last 10% of the film that other characters speak and have some input. It's not boring at all; I watched the lot without wanting things to hurry up.
The languid pace of the first part of the film is swapped for a shockingly graphic revenge set of scenes when the lads discover why and how Fernando lost his memory. The ending is left open as to whether further action will be taken.
This looked like a pretty amateur production in many ways. Some of the shots were not lighted properly and some patches of dialogue were not particularly audible. The subtitles were inaccurate on occasion, laughably so in some lines. Nonetheless, I watched right through, even ignoring a bunch of WhatsApp messages that were coming through to my phone.
During this review I put the mark down to a six and then put it up to a seven again. I'd thought that it could have been better with more money thrown at the production. But then I reflected and I was wrong. It's the very lack of polish that made this an enjoyable experience.
The film recounts the gradual recovery of Fernando's memory after he woke up in a strange flat not knowing how he got there or anything of his life before that. He can't even remember his name. He and Miguel carry 90% of the film between them and it'a only in the last 10% of the film that other characters speak and have some input. It's not boring at all; I watched the lot without wanting things to hurry up.
The languid pace of the first part of the film is swapped for a shockingly graphic revenge set of scenes when the lads discover why and how Fernando lost his memory. The ending is left open as to whether further action will be taken.
This looked like a pretty amateur production in many ways. Some of the shots were not lighted properly and some patches of dialogue were not particularly audible. The subtitles were inaccurate on occasion, laughably so in some lines. Nonetheless, I watched right through, even ignoring a bunch of WhatsApp messages that were coming through to my phone.
During this review I put the mark down to a six and then put it up to a seven again. I'd thought that it could have been better with more money thrown at the production. But then I reflected and I was wrong. It's the very lack of polish that made this an enjoyable experience.
Redone
earl-rose1 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This is a tight little gay thriller. Unusual to see this genre in gay films. Very well done. I have watched it twice. A young man is slipped a "mickey" at a gay club and has a blackout in which he does not know who he is or where he belongs. He is taken in tow by another guy who protects and helps the first recover. There is a lot of handheld and "guerilla" type filming which I suppose annoys some people...but it is part of the immediacy of the action. Not much to say without spoiling except just desserts are served. Love triumphs.
Awesome movie!
jtconno24 January 2019
Brilliant, raw, real, and challenging. If this movie doesn't affect your soul then may I suggest you do some soul searching and watch it again and again until you get it! This movie will become a sociological cult classic for sure.
Boy undone
d3afb0y9 May 2020
I like this story but it can be confused at first till end. Yes it has sex scenes a lot but still the kid trying to figure who he is and how did he end up in the club with no memory till later you will find out for reason what he was not expecting to. Interesting story but I don't judge actors they just do their best for characters. Good job guys
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