Friday, September 18, 2015
Roughing it
Cuban cinema tends toward the verité.
And this film is no exception. The effect is to underline the class war and to show the corruption of the moneyed who prey on the less fortunate.
That said, today's film is also a pretty good melodramatic romance. While it is stoking the party line it is keeping us purring with some good emotional story line.
La Partida / The Last Match (2014)
The story is familiar. Two hustlers meet along the sea wall that serves as a hustler pickup point. One manages to score a good position as a kept boy. A rent boy is on a one time basis. An escort. The full time live in is much better. This leads him to get a chance to try out for a professional soccer (football) team. The other boy, his friend and sometime lover, is also on the wall waiting to be picked up but he is less able to get a foothold on the opportunities that come by.
There is chemistry and a love affair begins between the two hustlers. As so often happens, one is in love while the other is more in lust or, to be charitable, lets say "in like".
There aren't too many surprises here except that it is Cuban. So much for commie prudery. This is as sexy a film as you would want to see if you are into young men getting it on. Straights might have a less interesting time waiting through the screen kisses and romance.
Tough for the hets who have always had films made about their sexcapades while we sit out the sticky, sloppy, romantic parts of their romantic lives. Turn about is fair play.
I would rate this a 3 out of Netflix5. It was certainly worth seeing again and I did not remember how it turned out which is a good thing.
I suppose I should add that at least one hankie will be needed at the end. Perhaps two.
And another thing. Look at this frame. Going to Spain to get married is now for men too!
