a film by José Campusano 2008 | 103 mins | Argentina ›› Twisted Romance - Vil Romance the darker side of blind devotion. Synopsis:- Bored with his life in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, brooding teenager Roberto begins a volatile relationship with man of mystery Raúl, although just what Roberto sees in Raúl is something of a mystery in itself, given anyone in their right mind would have slammed the door in his direction, within minutes of having been subjected to the most callous of sexual encounters. Yet rather than walk away from a relationship that clearly is going to go from bad to worse, Roberto moves in with his fifty-year-old lover, along the way introducing him to both his mother and sister as boyfriend material. Only when César; a young Spaniard travelling through Argentina becomes captivated with Roberto following a one-night stand, can there be any chance of a happy ending when the man that Roberto is besotted with, is into gun trafficking, violence and perhaps, even murder? Dave Says:- Rebelling against the gay cinematic norm, here writer and director José Campusano has gone out of his way to detail "the darker side of relationships rarely seen in contemporary gay cinema." The result is a feature that is as brutal and uncompromising, as it is frank in its depiction of an act of blind devotion, pushed to breaking point. For here Oscar Génova as Raúl excels as the most unsympathetic of characters, that of a loathsome individual whose wife has already left him, taking their daughter with her in the process. That Nehuén Zapata as Roberto fails to realize the gravity of his situation until the end reel, is all but obvious, resulting in a bloody closing scene that whilst somewhat telegraphed from the onset, does I dare say, arrive as something of a relief. Yet in a film whose incessant handheld camera work gives way to scenes of outright poverty, forcing a mother and daughter to prostitute themselves, house party style, Campusano had added the sweet seeds of a potential romance between his two young lovers, even if the sexually explicit, think erection, nature of their one night spent in a hotel room together, confirms Argentina’s position as the most liberated LGBT country in Latin America. All of which equates to bold filmmaking from a director who in having laid bare the acute feelings of love, jealousy and fear, here rejoices in the story of a relationship that not only should not have been, but frankly, makes for uncomfortable viewing. Gay Visibility - overt.  Nudity - the full monty.  Overall - file under ... 2+ stars.  principal players: Nehuén Zapata / Roberto, Oscar Génova, / Raúl, with Marisa Pájaro, Javier De La Vega and Olga Perezgel. Copyright 2012 David Hall - www.gaycelluloid.com. archive reference #320 ›› previous page | back to top | print me ‹‹