A Metros De Distancia (Spanish) [A Few Feet Away]

This movie is basically a mirror for what gay dating looks like right now, and it even takes its title from the apps everyone is using. The story is about Santi, a 20-year-old guy who’s pretty much addicted to Grindr. He’s getting fed up with the app because he isn't finding anything that actually clicks, so the film follows him over one long night in Buenos Aires. He’s basically hitting the streets to see if he can find a real-life connection instead of just scrolling through profiles.

It starts with Santi heading over to a guy's place for a hookup, but the trust isn't there, so it falls apart. He ends up going back to work and venting to his best friend, Karen, about the whole thing. The rest of the time, he’s just glued to his phone—fixing his photos, swiping, and waiting for that next notification. He’s clearly lonely and looking for something, even if he’s not 100% sure what that is yet. Later on, he meets a guy at a bar, but the dude tries to move things to the bathroom way too fast, which freaks Santi out and makes him run. Part of the problem is that he’s pretty inexperienced, and he’s using these apps just to get some "practice." He also gets weirdly obsessed with a guy he saw on the app who never messaged him back, even following him when he sees him in person. After a failed attempt to get into a club because he’s underage, he meets up with Karen again and starts making up fake stories about his sex life to impress people. At the bar, a stranger sends him an explicit photo and says they’re "only a few feet away," which sends Santi on a mission to find out who it is since the place is full of people he knows. Eventually, he makes it into a club and ends up in an orgy. He’s into it at first, but all those nameless bodies eventually make him nervous, so he just bails and goes home. The movie ends with him staring at his ceiling while his phone just keeps buzzing with notifications.

The idea behind the movie is actually really solid. It shows how someone can get totally isolated and keep blowing off social stuff just to check their phone. It’s a good look at how the gay community used to meet up in bars to socialize, but now everyone just stays home and uses apps. The problem is that not much actually happens. Santi spends so much time silently staring at the app that the pace of the movie just dies. There are some interesting scenes, but they drag on for way too long. He’s clearly searching for a connection, but it’s just not working—you can really feel that during the orgy scene. I also didn't quite get why he felt the need to lie to Karen and everyone else about his hookups. I think the director had good intentions, trying to show how gay men connect through sex and dealing with things like self-love and self-destruction, but the execution is just a bit boring. You’re waiting for some big drama to hit, and it never does. It’s sweet but honestly pretty sad to see how obsessed we’ve all become with these apps.

It’s a really relatable look at how lonely hookup culture can be, but the slow pace and lack of any real action make it a bit of a tough watch. (4.5/10)