This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
Lalo Santos. A good looking man in his 30s works in a factory in Oaxaca, where to fit in he has to pretend to be a married man and a machista, but moonlights by uploading hardcore images of himself to Twitter. He finds validation by checking the comments and likes. He clearly is in need of money and that is what he is trying to balance with the two worlds. Thanks to social media Lalo learns Mecos Films offers money for doing porn, they require a photo of the face and naked body with an erection. He likes to be seen so he auditions and is hired. The film introduces us to gay porn movie-making with visual references to Colt in the 1970s and how this culture has changed due to Twitter via Only Fans.
A good chunk of the film is devoted to a shoot for a pornographic film based on the Mexican revolution, with scenes alternating from loving showcases of toned bodies, to downbeat discussions between the cast around everything from HIV status to their relative happiness with their lot, to the nuts and bolts of making a pornographic film. However, it is the way Lalo’s loneliness is juxtaposed with the spicier elements of his life that makes this world especially interesting. As we advance from one scene of the film to another, so much for the porno part of the title. But it’s in the melancholy part that the key to Pornomelancholia is found, in the between scene conversations between a gang of sombrero-wearing guys who share not only required professional qualities, but also multiple insecurities. Their chats are where the film’s themes are explored, and include AIDS, masculine insecurity, the broken backgrounds from which these men have emerged, worries about the future, and fundamentally, the lack of love to be found in a world in which bodies are commodities.
The film belongs to Lalo Santos, the camera loves him. He has a powerful presence and gives a natural performance full of nuances and mystery, and if you watch the film you will find out. But apparently the actor had some sort of falling out with the film makers where he mentioned that had he known how this film would turn out, he would have never participated. Nontheless this docufiction film is a bold statement on contemporary movie making in queer space. (6/10)
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