Jezabel (Spanish)

This movie is such a sharp look at the way we mess with other people’s heads and even our own. It really digs into how unreliable and messy our memories get as we grow up, showing how we can basically rewrite our own history and lie to ourselves without even knowing it. While it misses the mark a few times in how it’s put together, the whole idea is super gripping, and there are some genuinely tragic moments that really stick with you. It’s not strictly a "gay movie" in the usual sense—the main guy is bisexual and has a boyfriend in the present day—but the plot is about so much more than just sexuality. By following four rich kids in Venezuela, it explores things like class tension, masculinity, and how fragile our past really is.

The story jumps back and forth constantly between the past and the present. We meet Alain, a young guy who’s pretty troubled and seems totally bored with life. His boyfriend, Salvador, is a journalist, and their conversations end up triggering all these memories of Alain’s teenage years and his old friend group. Back then, Alain and his wealthy friends—Lolo, Cacá, and Eli—dealt with their boring lives and the political mess in Venezuela by diving into a hedonistic world of drugs, sex, and some really messed-up games. We see a ton of scenes of them partying and pushing boundaries until their world falls apart when Eli is mysteriously murdered. Their teacher ends up being the one accused and arrested, and he eventually meets a brutal end in prison. In the present, Salvador gets interested in the case and wants to figure out what actually happened. Alain has his own version of the events, but as the audience, we start to see the truth of what really went down. I won't spoil the ending, but the big reveal at the climax is something you definitely won't see coming.

This is a really layered, complicated story that goes to some dark places and leaves you feeling pretty rattled by the time the credits roll. I’m honestly glad I didn't know much about it going in, because I think that’s the best way to experience it. It starts off looking like a typical story about wild parties and youth, but it turns into something way more intense. The best part was how the movie slowly feeds you information, adding layer after layer as it goes. I was just casually watching at first, but once it picked up, I was totally sucked into the mystery of these four kids and their constant hookups. The focus is mostly on Alain’s perspective and how he cherry-picks what he wants to remember, which makes him a total unreliable narrator. The writing is fantastic, though it does take a little while to really get into the flow and start making sense of the timeline. The camera work makes Caracas look beautiful but also really lonely, and the editing does a great job of making the jump between past and future feel like actual memories. The gay romance gets some spotlight early on, but it quickly takes a backseat to the murder mystery and that explosive finale.

It's a dark and haunting mystery that brilliantly captures how we manipulate our own pasts, even if the pacing is a little slow to start. (7/10)