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 ...
The story is about 2 guys; Vincent and Thane. Thane is a successful model and extremely hot twinky guy, who can probably get anyone he wants. Vincent on the other hand is smart, intelligent, very good with words and can charm anyone with is wit an humour but uncomfortable in his own skin and doesn't think very highly of himself or his self-esteem. Thane knows that he can get any guy but since he can't carry on a conversation on chat, guys eventually lose interest. One day at a bar, Thane asks Vincent to chat for him. The combination of Thane's sexy pics and Vincent's flirty witty chat, could be a deadly combination which can help Thane attract all those clever guys who don't take him seriously. Thane is introduced to a new class of serious good looking men, but this soon becomes obsession and addiction for Vincent who chats for Thane. In the process, the 2 men begin questing their life purpose. Thane misses a genuine connection where Vincent unleashes a monster within.
Apparently based on true incidents, the idea and plot of the film is very novel and something that needs to be shared within the gay community. When their friend Autumn asks them on are they never scared if something goes wrong and all; they both shake their heads and completely disagree. The debate on how gay men think its easier and never worry for their own safety needs to be talked about and discussed. And I commend the film makers for taking up such an important topic. Put in a musical feature with quite decent music, the film manages to effectively tell us what they really wanna say without making things too heavy. The guys are gorgeous and actually act and sing really well. They are right choices for their part. Although Vincent is still so attractive, I wonder why he would get rejected!!! You can see that some hard work has gone into the creation of the music and picturisation and it really comes off well on the screen. The opening song with the guy in the bus is my personal fav in the whole film. The NYC scenery has been captured really well. Is this a perfect short? Probably not. The relationship between the 2 guys (friends, co-workers, room-mates) was not very clear. Did Thane really start missing connection and was Vincent eventually that person that he had been thinking of? A few rejections by a superficial gay society and the monster within Vincent gets unleashed, realistic or not!! But despite these questions, one thing is for sure that this film needs to be seen and lessons learned.
“Do you REALLY know who you’re talking to?”. Ask yourself this question that the film asks, the next time you decide to meet a stranger. (7/10)
Comments
Both are tragic consequences of not tobe confortable with yourself.