I can't say the idea of men falling in love with one another has occupied much of my mind until now, but
Plan B has changed all that forever! This playful, smart, sexy film from Argentinian director Marco Berger is like a hormone injection for languishing humans everywhere, but perhaps especially for uninitiated straight folks who might not know that young men in love are
a force of nature! I am not talking about tolerance, which is boring despite its being essential to the project of civilization and modern identity blah blah blah. I'm talking about mirror-neuron activation, physical,
sexual (if vicarious) delight! The plot involves two straight men who fall in love despite themselves. If you are a conscious human being you will recognize these people, you will identify with them and wish them well, and in the context of this story, that means you will hope and then actively want them to get over themselves and get it on. This is a testament to the film's sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of desire, gay, straight, or otherwise. It patiently explores the erotic charge that accumulates around obstruction, the way in which unattainability translates to sensation, and what is more unattainable for a young straight man than another young straight man? He must overcome, quite literally, himself. That takes some doing - and
Plan B shows how. Actors Manuel Vignau and Lucas Ferraro are luminou
s, brilliant; pacing is unhurried, confident, masterly even; soundscape is by turns haunting, permissive, intriguing; cinematography seductive, gorgeous, with painterly flourishes reminiscent of Dutch masters, and sudden urban still-lives like modern photographs that connect obscurely to the action - cracks in stucco, holes in buildings, giftwrapped boxes; script as consistently real, up-to-date, and provocative as anything out there, anchored in the culture of contemporary Buenos Aires; plot funny and sweet and satisfying ... there really is nothing wrong with this picture. See it and know; you have nothing to lose but your habits and assumptions!
As fate would have it, I watched
Plan B in double bill with Brazilian director Aluizo Abranches' utterly abysmal
From Beginning to End, so the whole experience was one of total antithesis.
From Beginning to End might actually be the worst film I've ever seen. It matches its wretchedness point for point with
Plan B's delights; both films feature beautiful young men, and
From Beginning to End actually takes its protaganists for a quick romp in Argentina; both plots hinge on a twist in the ordinary configuration of male desire, but where
Plan B gives us something rapturously fresh,
From Beginning to End serves up the most unlikely coagulated nonsense it has ever been my misfortune to see. Francisco and Thomas are not just lovers, but half-brothers whose relationship has developed since infancy; their saccharine-sweet love, like a thick layer of frosting over a cardboard cake, consists entirely in appearance; never once confronting the least opposition from reality, it is on the contrary nourished by the wealth and generosity of family and friends alike, all of whom seem to move in the viscous medium of some other idealized world parallel to ours, an atmosphere reminiscent of glossy magazines, where Calvin Klein models who double as doctors and Olympic swimmers read passages of Hilda Hilst to one another in faux defiance of a script. It is so ludicrously inert and contrived it could be a delirious farce given different treatment, but as it stands, solemn and romantic and ridiculous, it is beyond a joke.
I can't say the idea of men falling in love with one another has occupied much of my mind until now, but Plan B has changed all that forever! This playful, smart, sexy film from Argentinian director Marco Berger is like a hormone injection for languishing humans everywhere, but perhaps especially for uninitiated straight folks who might not know that young men in love are a force of nature! I am not talking about tolerance, which is boring despite its being essential to the project of civilization and modern identity blah blah blah. I'm talking about mirror-neuron activation, physical, sexual (if vicarious) delight! The plot involves two straight men who fall in love despite themselves. If you are a conscious human being you will recognize these people, you will identify with them and wish them well, and in the context of this story, that means you will hope and then actively want them to get over themselves and get it on. This is a testament to the film's sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of desire, gay, straight, or otherwise. It patiently explores the erotic charge that accumulates around obstruction, the way in which unattainability translates to sensation, and what is more unattainable for a young straight man than another young straight man? He must overcome, quite literally, himself. That takes some doing - and Plan B shows how. Actors Manuel Vignau and Lucas Ferraro are luminous, brilliant; pacing is unhurried, confident, masterly even; soundscape is by turns haunting, permissive, intriguing; cinematography seductive, gorgeous, with painterly flourishes reminiscent of Dutch masters, and sudden urban still-lives like modern photographs that connect obscurely to the action - cracks in stucco, holes in buildings, giftwrapped boxes; script as consistently real, up-to-date, and provocative as anything out there, anchored in the culture of contemporary Buenos Aires; plot funny and sweet and satisfying ... there really is nothing wrong with this picture. See it and know; you have nothing to lose but your habits and assumptions!
As fate would have it, I watched Plan B in double bill with Brazilian director Aluizo Abranches' utterly abysmal From Beginning to End, so the whole experience was one of total antithesis. From Beginning to End might actually be the worst film I've ever seen. It matches its wretchedness point for point with Plan B's delights; both films feature beautiful young men, and From Beginning to End actually takes its protaganists for a quick romp in Argentina; both plots hinge on a twist in the ordinary configuration of male desire, but where Plan B gives us something rapturously fresh, From Beginning to End serves up the most unlikely coagulated nonsense it has ever been my misfortune to see. Francisco and Thomas are not just lovers, but half-brothers whose relationship has developed since infancy; their saccharine-sweet love, like a thick layer of frosting over a cardboard cake, consists entirely in appearance; never once confronting the least opposition from reality, it is on the contrary nourished by the wealth and generosity of family and friends alike, all of whom seem to move in the viscous medium of some other idealized world parallel to ours, an atmosphere reminiscent of glossy magazines, where Calvin Klein models who double as doctors and Olympic swimmers read passages of Hilda Hilst to one another in faux defiance of a script. It is so ludicrously inert and contrived it could be a delirious farce given different treatment, but as it stands, solemn and romantic and ridiculous, it is beyond a joke.
No comments:
Post a Comment