This is your typical indie coming-of-age tale about a teenager, though it’s clearly working with a very tiny budget. Set within a migrant family living in Southern California’s Coachella Valley, the movie digs into how fragile old-school traditions and expectations can be. We follow a teenage son as he goes through the process of coming out and struggles to find acceptance while dealing with homophobia, domestic abuse, and a messy love triangle that involves his own sister. Goyo is seventeen and just about to graduate from high school. Since he’s been a bit more feminine since he was a little kid, he’s always had to deal with emotional and physical transition from his dad, Ramon, who is obsessed with him being "a man." The only real love he gets is from a lady next door who actually respects him for who he is. The family lives in a Mexican community where everyone works on a grape farm, but things get shaken up when a new guy named Lucio arrives. Lucio basically seduces Goyo ...
Muscle bear Roger and his twink-ish boyfriend Tyler are living a happy life. When Roger proposes to Tyler after NYC passed the gay marriage act, Tyler is initially surprised but later gives in and accepts. Since their vacation for the bear week in PTown was already planned, they decide to get married that week. They all decide to stay at a house owned by Rose, mother of their close friend Brent, whose partner is hell bent on making a documentary on bears. We have a third couple, a theatre producer bear whom Tyler works for and his boyfriend who is in the process of opening his bar. The movie then focuses a lot on what happens in those couple of days in PTown with tons and tons of bears all around. How love is tested, friends made and lost and everyone figures out what they wanna do in life. Tyler meets another bear who he seems to get attracted to and Roger spends time with his ex-boyfriend, unable to forget his first love. When the time comes for the wedding, Roger realizes that the ha no right to drag himself or Tyler into doing something that neither is absolutely sure of, just because they can do it. They call off the wedding but a surprise comes when Brent's boyfriend, who always had commitment issues, proposes him and they get married instead.
The production quality of the film was very high and surprisingly all the actors did their part very very well. The brightest character was that of Brent, or maybe it was the way he acted. Every time he was on the screen, he was most natural and would bring a email on my face. Roger goes at number 2 spot in terms of acting department. There were a lot of laughter moments in the film, which I think were needed. The film tried to give equal focus on each coupe and show us what different people go through and what insecurities we all have. The ending of the film was not all that great but was ok, I guess. Some scenes were really not necessary for the film and were just added for humor quotient. The whole episode for the trio of bears was just not needed. This could also have helped to keep the film crispier and more entertaining. Oh ! and I wonder, were the film-makers getting any money from PTown for all the free promotion they did through their film.
The film is definitely fun to watch and I would definitely recommend it. That said, it does have its share of flaws. (7/10)
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