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Cosas De Amigos (Spanish)

This Peruvian film is the remake of Mexican film "Hazlo Como Hombre" which I have already reviewed earlier here. I guess one advantage of watching so much content os that you tend to forget a lot of what you have seen, so in that sense, at least I didn't feel like I was seeing something I have already seen. Also given that the actors here were new in a new location helped, but the humor of the original is definitely intact here. Peru doesn't come up with a lot of LGBTQ+ context, so this is another welcome change.

Raul, Eduardo and Santiago have been friends since childhood and have had a happy and “masculine” life. Raul is expecting a bay with his wife and Santi is dating Raul's sister, who complains to Raul's wife that they are not having enough sex. In a surprise, one day Santi confesses to his two friends that he is gay and decides to separate from his girlfriend. The sister tries her best to win Santi back, leading to a few hilarious scenes, but to no impact. Homophobic Raul also tries to convince his friend hard that maybe he is wrong. While Santi expects emotional support from his friends, what Raul gives is opposite and even attempts to reversing his sexual orientation through unconventional means. Quite a few hilarious sequences follow with his therapist to this regard. Santi meanwhile is seeing Julio, and is happy but he has had enough of Raul belting him and so he decides to move to US with his boyfriend. But the night before hectic changes his min, when he realizes that Julio believes in polyamorous relationship. In the meantime Raul's wife leaves him having learned of his philandering ways and suddenly Raul finds himself all alone realizing all his mistakes. Apologies are made and the friends reunite.

The film version that I saw did not have good English subtitles, but it was still quite funny and a lot of credit goes to the lead actor here, who plays this role of homophobic guy and it creates a lot of funny situations. Some of my favorites were sessions with therapist and some scenes in locker room after football games. Some of the scenes of Raul's sister trying to win Santi back were also good. I guess most societies including Peru as well has certain expectations and assumptions of masculinity and this is exactly what the film tries to show. You have to try to enjoy the film for what it is and not try to look at whats politically right or ambiguous or judge characters on moral grounds. Films like this are supposed to entertain while also maybe changing perspective of a few viewers who maybe are like Raul in real life. I feel like even if some people can change their perspective about gays after watching this film and become more respectful to the community, the job is done. What this film misses is story building about Santi and Julio, how they met, what happened and how their love grew. It all seemed to convenient. But I do understand that the film was not about their love story but more about friendship and acceptance in general. (6/10)

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