La Huella de Unos Labios (Spanish) [The Trace of Your Lips]

A sensual story about sexuality, isolation, loneliness, survival and unexpected connections; these are the broad themes that the film maker is trying to tackle in this film set during pandemic times. The summary of the film sounded interesting and the two actors look good too, but this one and a half hour film is more artsy than I would have liked it to be . There are a lot of moments of nothingness and I feel this could have been a much more impactful film as a short story.

The film starts with us seeing Ramon, an actor in B-grade movies. We also meet Also, an extra on the set who finds Ramon attractive. He is new to the city and unsure of he wants to stay. A few months pass, were we see how Also meets a few guys here and there, has hook ups with them and slowly get used to the gay world of Mexico City. Then Covid traps them all alone in their flats; Roman can't work and Aldo loses his job. A year later, with the Mexican military still patrolling the streets, Roman is bored alone while Aldo survives by posting erotic videos to make money. Also has always fantasized about Roman. They meet online and begin talking and also try to do virtual sex, dreaming about one another. Tired of using their imaginations, they're tempted to break lockdown rules and meet up, but they also know that cannot happen. A tragic ending awaits when Aldo gets the virus. 

As you can see from the summary, the film moves at a slow pace, but I guess the idea was to keep it as realistic as possible. We spent a good 20 minutes in the beginning, seeing Aldo get familiar with hooking up with guys, sometimes even with a jolt of fear, but those are just the people who are part of Aldo's journey of discovering his sexual freedom. We see quite a few scenes of those two having individual hookups and also Aldo doing his online video erotica. When they start talking online, initially they talk about being safe and testing etc but soon the horniness takes over and all the talk is sex. Neither of them is able to overcome the boredom and sexual frustration. Both Roman and Aldo had become used to mindless encounters before lockdown, and being unable to meet in person forces them to connect mentally and emotionally and this is shown with ample good nudity done tastefully. A sudden plot point in the final act feels a bit contrived and undercooked, and I really wish the makers had thought of a better ending. Anyway, overall the film was fine but how I wish it wasn't as slow. We have two gorgeous men who are ready to bare it all, they just deserved a slightly better story treatment. (5/10)