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 ...
Franky and Ballas have been best friends forever and are also a part of the swim team. Ballas is older of the two and has a steady girlfriend and enough sexual experience. ON Frankie's birthday night, the boys ending up "experimenting". They both are slightly discomforted by the whole thing but Ballas completely freaks out. He spreads the news in school that Franky initiated the encounter and that he is gay. News spread and suddenly the school is against him. Its also important to know that Franky lives with his mother and sister and his father left them when he is realized he was gay; which is something that Franky doesn't want to accept. Shunned by everyone, Franky finds a companion in Ballas's sister Tasha, who is herself a victim of bullies and has a backstory. Also she is well too aware of her brother’s tendency to deny having any part in occurrences he himself instigated. Franky is not sure about his sexuality and both his mother and dad try to tell him that its ok to experiment. You shouldn't have to label anything. It should just be about sexual encounter with a person. Why does the gender have to matter! Tables soon turn when Ballas encounters Franky in an empty parking lot of beats the crap out of him. This gives Franky time to gauge things. He decides to make amends with his father and visit him and thats one of the most brilliant scenes of the film.
Some scenes in the film stand out. When Ballas and Franky have the encounter, we are not clearly shown what exactly happened and like the characters in the film, we don't actually know the truth for quite a while. And everyone , including audience is just assuming because no one is coming out in open and I thought that was wonderful. Also when Ballas beats up Franky, it speaks volumes about the self-loathing and his inability to accept. True friendship is tested and honored by Franky, when he does not tell anyone what really happened. Because that would put Ballas and his career in swimming team at risk. I love that at the end Franky learns to own it. We are still not 100% sure about his sexuality and neither is he but thats not important and this is exactly what the film is trying to educate to today's teenage youth. The end of the film is also very poignant. Franky recognizes that Ballas has had extreme difficulty owning his own sexuality. Franky can finally see that Ballas is suffering, and he lets Ballas know that he is aware of it and that he will always love him.
I am so thankful that this film did not follow any cliches and seemed very natural. Even parents judgement and their interactions were more practical than over dramatic. I would highly recommend this film. I am shocked that this film is not being talked about on a larger scale. (8/10)
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