A complex film dealing with an even more complex subject matter, Tu Me Manque (I Miss You) (★★★★☆) can vary wildly between outstanding drama and preachy afternoon special, often with little grey area in between. But when writer-director Rodrigo Bellott’s script is firing on all cylinders, delivered by two incredible performances from stars Oscar Martínez and Fernando Barbosa, it is frequently breathtaking in its depth, eloquence, and emotional resonance.
Based on Bellott’s award-winning Bolivian play of the same name, it deals with Bellott’s real-life experience of losing a closeted boyfriend to suicide, after he struggled to deal with the prospect of his parents learning his true identity. Here, Bellott’s film centers on a fictional version of the play, as well as delving into the relationships behind its creation. Told in flashback and constantly shifting between present and past, the end result is frequently messy, particularly when scenes move between timelines without any real indication of what’s going on or where we are in the story.
While it can be confusing, stripping Bellott’s narrative flourishes back reveals a solid core built on the performances of Barbosa as Sebastian, the playwright, and Martinez as Jorge, father of Gabriel, Sebastian’s ex. After accidentally talking to Sebastian on Facebook, Jorge travels to New York City to find out the truth about his son’s life — and what exactly led to his death.
The scenes between Sebastian and Jorge are where Tu Me Manques shines brightest, particularly when emotions boil over and Bellott’s bilingual script allows both actors to let loose in their native Spanish. Barbosa and Martinez deliver astonishingly nuanced portrayals of grief, both in a partner still struggling to process the loss of a great love, and a father figuring out that he didn’t really know his son at all.
Bellott can sometimes stray into contrived, preachy, or overwrought territory — including a couple of scenes where Sebastian and his friends “teach” Jorge (or, rather, the audience) about LGBTQ people — but he is also capable of some truly beautiful writing, such as a powerful scene between Jorge and a local priest, as they discuss the possibility that Paul the Apostle was gay, or a later scene between Jorge and Rosaura (Rossy de Palma), who took Sebastian and Gabriel under her wing in New York and has her own experience with devastating loss.
While the confines of Tu Me Manques‘ stage origins can often be felt — literally so, in the scenes where Sebastian prepares his cast for opening night — it also led to some interesting creative choices. Gabriel, for instance, is played in the film’s flashback scenes by three different actors — a nod to Bellott casting 30 men in his original play so as not to allow one actor to become the memory of his ex-partner.
Bellott also makes the decision to portray Gabriel’s death through Sebastian’s version of the play, in a scene that is as devastating and affecting on screen as one imagines it was on opening night in Bolivia in 2015. Tu Me Manques may not be easy watching, both for its subject matter and its structure, but you’ll be hard pressed not to find yourself emotionally drained and reaching for the tissues when the curtain closes and the credits roll.
Tu Me Manques screens as part of this year’s Reel Affirmations Film Festival. For more information about the festival or to purchase tickets or festival screening passes, visit https://reelaffirmations.eventive.org.
The Desperado LGBTQ+ Film Festival, a 16-year-old annual event hosted at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, has been canceled in "direct response" to President Donald Trump's executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at federally funded schools.
The festival, held each January at the college's Center for the Performing Arts, showcased films reflecting LGBTQ experiences and most recently featured seven feature films and seven shorts.
Trump's order requires colleges to end all DEI programs or risk losing federal funding. Organizers said Paradise Valley Community College could not afford to jeopardize its funding.
On July 21, Wilmer Chavarria, superintendent of Vermont's Winooski School District, was detained for hours by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport after returning from a family visit to Nicaragua with his husband, Essex High School teacher Cyrus Dudgeon.
Officers seized Chavarria's phone and computer, separated him from Dudgeon, and interrogated him for at least five hours about his marriage and his job, according to Vermont's alternative weekly Seven Days.
During the interrogation, agents questioned whether Chavarria and Dudgeon were really married and repeatedly asked if Chavarria was actually a school superintendent. In an email to school board members, Chavarria described the experience as "abusive interrogation" and said he was "treated in a manner that is deeply disturbing and unacceptable."
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