Treading well-worn queer cinema ground, Petersen Vargas’ Some Nights I Feel Like Walking follows a tight-knit crew of young gay male hustlers working the streets of their own private Manila after dark.
Vargas sends the handheld camera roving behind the merry band of Uno (Jomari Angeles), Bay (Argel Saycon), Rush (Tommy Alejandrino), and Ge (Gold Aceron) on their nightly rounds in the city’s margins. Peering over their shoulders as they cruise for clients in the bustling red light district, in public restrooms, inside an adult movie theater, the film smoothly maps out the guys’ treacherous territory.
Usually we’re following Uno, the level-headed linchpin of the crew, with Angeles’ calm, alert performance guiding the emotion. Uno drives the plot. He’s the first to encounter Zion (Miguel Odron), a doe-eyed runaway waif clearly new to street life.
Hired for a hot threesome together, the two spark a romantic attraction, and soon Zion’s rolling with Uno and his buds — even though handsome but brutish Bay remains skeptical of the newcomer. Trust and loyalty are precious in their world where they might get robbed and beaten up by rival hustlers, or chased and shaken down by local cops.
The movie presents their exploits and indignities with a minimum of sensationalism or melodrama. The sparse score by Alyana Cabral and Moe Cabral is used sparingly. Steeped in eroticism, the film gets by with little nudity, save for shirtless hunks and twinks, and the sex scenes stay relatively tame. So does the budding romance between Uno and Zion, considering the milieu.
Violence is an inevitable reality, but the movie doesn’t lay the pain on gratuitously. Eschewing flagrant displays of flesh and blood, Vargas instead shoots for neon-lit visual panache and a profound sense of place, diving into crowded street markets, or dropping by an outdoor drag bar late in the film.
A sudden catastrophe in the final act sends the crew on a road trip far from Manila, captured succinctly in a bus ride as the city lights fade away to rural countryside. Not a lot of plot happens on the road. Rather, Vargas pads the journey with an expressively-lit, overlong dream sequence that clumsily sums up Zion’s past before he hit the streets.
That sequence does sensationalize the intolerance and shame that lead to kids getting kicked out of their homes, or running away, or worse. Ultimately, Vargas gets his point across in a different subplot highlighting the religion-fueled homophobia that sends these kids fleeing their families, and running away to the city in the first place.
The chosen family they make along the way might be what saves them from ruin. Uno and his buds are granted the hope that they won’t be turning tricks forever. “Better to have something else to do,” Uno reasons.
But the movie doesn’t grant them much joy, even in their supposedly lighthearted moments. Festive scenes full of smiles still emanate a certain sadness — for their constant struggle, for their loss of innocence and the exploitation of their bodies and souls. As Uno puts it, “I want to feel I own my body.”
Like the Portland boys of My Own Private Idaho, or the lost Mexico City street kids of Buñuel’s Los Olvidados, this Manila crew roam a hidden city they’ve made their home. They don’t have a pot to piss in, or a caring grown-up to lead them, but they have their wits, their bodies, and each other to brave the cruel world together.
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (★★☆☆☆) is available to rent or purchase via digital and VOD on Apple, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Vudu, and other platforms. Visit filmmovement.com.
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