The film starts with 20 year old Santi meeting a guy at his apartment for hookup. The trust doesn't go how he planned to, so he goes back to work and share all details with his best friend at work Karen. Santi is constantly on Grindr looking for hookup, posing for and posting photos, as well as swiping and texting profiles and waiting for someone to message him. The film presents him as a lonely, horny, young gay man searching for someone and something. We are not sure. Santi sets up a date to met another guy at a bar but after few minutes of conversation, this guy tries to arrange some intimacy in a bar bathroom, Santi panics and flees. One of Santi’s issues is that he has not been with many guys, and his efforts to date via the app is to gain some experience. He likes one twink guy on the app who doesnt reply but when he sees him, he kind of becomes obsessed with him and follows him. When he is too young to enter the club he goes back and meets Karen at another bar. HE recounts his experience with bar guy to different people and makes up stories on how it ended. He gets a dick pic from stranger in the same bar who is "a few feet away" which makes Santo almost obsessed to find out who the person is since the bar is filled with his co-workers. Eventually he dos end up going to the club where he saw this other guy and next thing you know he is in some orgy. He enjoys initially but having so many nameless naked guys make him nervous and he just runs back home, staring at the roof while his phone continues to buzz with app notifications.
The film’s subject is solid, showing how a person can become isolated and avoid social situations by constantly sneaking away to check their phone. The gay community used to go to bars to socialize and meet other gay people, but many now stay home and meet their partners through online dating apps. This film aims to showing some of this but the problem is not much happens in the film. Santi is quiet when cruising the hookup app for long stretches but the silences go on too long, many times slowing down the film’s pace. There are many thought provoking scenes but most drag so long they almost bring the scene to a halt. He’s looking for connections but it’s not happening, which is also obvious in the last orgy scene. Why he makes up sex stories to tell his friend Karen and others is also something I did not understand. I think the director's intention was good where he is trying to show how gay men make connections through sex, however fleeting or lasting. He is also addressing issues of self-love and self-destruction. But somehow the execution is a bit bland and uninteresting. You wait for some drama or something to happen but nothing!! It's like watching a young sweet innocent boy looking for connection. It is sweet but also very sad at the same time on how we have all become so obsessed with hookup apps. (4.5/10)
Comments