GLUE (dir Alexis Dos Santos, Argentina, 2006)Sex, longing, defining boundaries and getting high: the timeless concerns of teenage life are beautifully captured in this film set in rural Argentina. Instead of a slickly-shot OC faux-reality, director Dos Santos has constructed a version of teen life that is as loose as its gangly teenage protagonist, Lucas (the magnificently-quiffed Nahuel Perez Biscayart, right) yet equally endearing.
Lucas is 16, and may or may not be in love with his best friend and band-mate, the handsome, masculine Nacho (Nahuel Viale). His life is complicated by a difficult family situation, with a temptestuous mother and philandering father caught in a yo-yoing pattern of seperation and passion. Into this picture comes Andrea (Ines Efron), a bespectacled young woman seeking her own independence from her family yet constrained by them; and both an object of desire and a facilitator of mutal exploration between Lucas and Nacho.
Certain scenes late in the picture depicting family life could be excised to speed up the running time and make for a tighter, less frustrating ride, but that concern aside, I found few flaws in Glue, and much to enjoy. The vibrant cinematography, which cuts from from the wildly-roaming objective viewpoint to subjective Super-8 footage in which the teen characters speak more directly about their concerns and feelings, plays a strong part in creating the milleu in which Dos Santos' characters live; but the actors themselves also give stirling performances. A key scene in which a drunken menage a trois plays out provided real frisson; an all-too-rare sense of the genuinely erotic which many directors could learn from.
Contemplative, raw, beautiful and sensual, Glue is one of my favourite films at the festival so far. If this brief synopsis intrigues you, tough luck; its brief screenings have already concluded. Somehow, though, I suspect we may see it again at the Queer Film Festival next year...
GLUE: Three and a half stars
4 comments:
Not really related to MIFF, but I found this in my affiliate sales report for a DVD website I link to:
Banana Queers (Hong Kong version)
http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/code-w/section-videos/pid-1002523098/
Good god! I'm a gay porn peddler! (Yes, I did get 10% from someone buying that DVD and others.)
Richard, sorry to go off topic, but -
I'm thinking of enrolling for next year in a Writing and Editing course which I believe you completed at some point in the past. I'm interested to know what you thought of it, any advice, etc. If you're happy to do so could you contact me at the email address on my profile? Thanks.
in the vein of y tu mama, tambien, i'm always slightly disturbed when women [or girls] are drafted into queer coming-of-age stories as a vehicle to "test" the homosexuality of the protagonists[s].
what do you think?
mskp - good point, it's a storytelling trope that definitely has misogynistic overtones at times. It is also, unfortunately, quite true to life - a way that homosocial men can cross over to homosexual without ever having to betray their own zealously-guarded heterosexuality.
In the case of Glue, I would say it was definitley a case of all three characters - Lucas, Nacho and Andrea - exploring their sexual identities and establishing new boundaries, rather than an exploitative situation.
Post a Comment