Gay Celluloid on The Good Friend

›› The Good Friend - El Amigo ‹‹

a short film by Erick Salas Kirchhausen.

2017 | 19 mins | Peru.

a captivating exploration of male friendship.

Dave says:

Have you ever fallen in love with your best friend? Well, in this engaging short film thirty-something closeted Esteban (Óscar Meza) cannot believe his luck when his straight best friend Marcos (Sebastián Rubio) opts to stay over for the night, rather than spend the evening with his girlfriend and her group of friends. Eating a takeaway pizza whilst watching the latest porno, along the way discussing their sex lives, it isn't long before and by way of drink and a bit of weed, things become passionate between them in the middle of the night. Only when morning dawns, are the man-on-man acts of the night before ones they wish to forget, or to repeat?

Played with a lush realistic edge to it by the Meza / Rubio boys, this vibrant short wonderfully captures the camaraderie between friends eager to take their friendship to another level and yet playing it decidedly restrained in the early stages, preferring to let their fingers do the walking, before their bodies do the talking. For that's the beauty of this work, given its laidback delivery perfectly reflects the closeness of two men who clearly enjoy being in each other's company, only for telling looks and body language to signal their pent-up feelings for each other, emotions that are all but ready to explode when the opportunity comes a-calling. And here writer and director Erick Salas Kirchhausen doesn't hold back in depicting acts of man-sex that lie at the heart of the story, ones that whilst far from explicit, are undeniably sexually to the core in any country and certainly for Peru. Then again, this is the country that in the hands of Javier Fuentes-León gave the world the compelling supernatural romance that is Undertow.

Indeed, this captivating exploration of male friendship almost feels like a teaser for the feature it could be, given you want to know more of the backstory to the deep friendship between the two men and in particular if there could be a future for them, beyond a one-night stand that all but leaves one yearning for more than being just a good friend. Simply wondrous.

›› available as part of THE LATIN BOYS - VOLUME 1 shorts compilation.

›› posted: Tuesday, 26th January, 2021.

Gay Visibility - overt.
Nudity - bare-arsed cheek.
Overall - file under ... 3+ stars.

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archive reference #2021016

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