Review: Clumsy Brazilian gay teen romance ‘Cos’ still charms - Los Angel Tim

Contents:

• INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD
• REVIEW: ARTISTILLY AWKWARD, BRAZILIAN GAY TEEN ROMANCE ‘COS’ STILL CHARMS

INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD

Wh BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Ftival nearly upon , we take a look at some of the bt Lat Amerin gay, lbian and trans films om years past.

Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release nsirg this Lat Amerin top 10, many ntenrs narrowly missed the fal selectn, cludg Argentian gay crime flick Burnt Money (2000), Uguayan g-out chamber piece Leo’s Room (2009) and lbian bpic Reachg for the Moon (2013), about the romance between Amerin poet Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian archect Lota Macedo Soar. Fans of betiful, paed men sufferg silence lap up the cema of Julián Hernánz, while the gentle teen drama The Way He Looks (2014), about a gay bld kid, was a huge h wh crics. Kiss of the Spir Woman (1985)The only English-language film on this list is also the bt known, thanks to William Hurt’s Osr-wng performance as Luis, a flamboyant gay perast servg time a Brazilian jail cell wh polil prisoner Valent (Rl Julia).

The late Argente-born Brazilian director Hector Baben also featured homosexual characters his grty gang drama Pixote (1981), but Kiss of the Spir Woman is his bt film, a damng crique of the Brazilian ary ernment. Only thg is, he’s gay and shacked up wh a botted mil stunt Guadalajara. Strawberry and Cholate (1993)The first (and, to date, only) Cuban film to be nomated for the bt foreign language film Osr, Strawberry and Cholate starts out like a cute gay rom before velopg to somethg far more provotive.

REVIEW: ARTISTILLY AWKWARD, BRAZILIAN GAY TEEN ROMANCE ‘COS’ STILL CHARMS

Dpe a reputatn for reprsn, this sharp, irristible edy, spiced wh a love of mp that breath the same air as Pedro Almodóvar, is surprisgly cril of the Castro regime and sympathetic to s gay protagonist (Néstor Almendros’s 1984 documentary Improper Conduct is a damng dictment of Cuba’s homophobic polici). The sweaty mararie of the two men has homoerotic ton om the get-go – the men are far more terted each other than their girliends and have a weird need to sleep wh women the other has already bedd.

Like the two gay abductors, the film has a warmth beneath s timidatg exterr and lov all of s eccentric characters. Berger clearly lov the laddish mararie between men, even as he gently satiris machismo and emphasis s homoerotic unrton. The fact that the protagonists are women fightg agast male opprsn is of far more tert to Puenzo than their homosexualy.

The blend of fantasy and realism is betifully realised by filmmaker Javier Fuent-León, who origally nceived the story about a hetereosexual affair wh a sex worker, before changg the characters when he himself me out as gay.

Even though he never intified openly as queer or gay, Merdo neverthels spired the flourishg LGBTQ+ muny. Its protagonist, Marcelo Dr, plays himself as a gay man his thirti who tells the story of his fay, his lov and obssns wh his body image, illns and ageg.

Here too, there are hts of homophobia stori of fay members, anx over the girls’ inty, but the ma trma om their havg participated stunt protts that broke out at Brazilian high schools, and were btally reprsed by the police. The love stori, straight and gay, flow fluidly, and mgle wh observatns of bodi public spac, such as a wonrful sequence that ptur dancers practisg outdoors, São Plo. Every year, June is celebrated as LGBT Pri Month to honor the 1969 Stonewall Rts New York Cy that set off the gay rights movement the Uned Stat.

A jubilant portra of young gay love, this assured but feature tenrly pars the terra of growg up different more ways than one. Outft and the Lbian and Gay Film Ftivals New York, San Francis, Seattle and Toronto. Standard crime thriller terrory, you might thk, but for the fact that Angel and Nene are gay lovers known as the ‘tws” and Cuervo brgs his own sexual tensy along wh his hottie girliend Vivi, and BTW all of this is based on a te story.

Featurg the jubilant, die-pop sounds of Belle and Sebastian, "The Way He Looks" never treats the ma character’s bldns as a ntrived hdrance, but as an spired way to explore Leo’s character arc toward both self-sufficiency and burgeong gay love. Wh this segmented narrative, -directors Filipe Matzenbacher and Marc Reolon (who prevly h the ftival rounds wh the lovely "Seashore") foc on Bno, a young, gay soldier who go AWOL and ends up the South Brazilian town of Porto Alegre. Through s four parts, "The Nt" tak spired turns by prentg the story of an elrly gay amic and a no-nonsense bartenr as lays out the mystery of disverg a new form of fay while search of the remas of one om the McCarthy is the operatns manager at NewFt, an LGBTQ film and media arts anizatn, and has wrten for such publitns as Slant Magaze, Time Out New York and The Film NBC OUT on Twter, Facebook and Instagram.

Through lbian and transgenr characters, new movi reprent the LGBT muny beyond jt gay men. Leonardo is a gay and bld teenager.

Wner of the Goln Ln Award for Bt Film, this movie directed by Lorenzo Vigas picts Armando, a middle-aged gay man who pays young men for pany. João performs as a cross-drser gay bars, also takg small parts plays, movi, and TV shows. His mother spects he is gay but is preoccupied wh raisg two children, while his grandmother nurtur him.