Before it veers into a gay cautionary tale, Tadeo Pestaña Caro’s stylishly low-key A Few Feet Away maintains an effortless neutrality about the sex and dating exploits of its soft-spoken hero Santiago.
Just twenty years old, Santiago is an architecture student fairly new to Buenos Aires, a fresh, cute twink from the province still gaining his footing in the city. That telling detail, revealed during Santi’s first hookup in the film, partly explains why he relies on the dating app Grindr for making new friends.
That does not explain why Santiago simply can’t stay off Grindr. He becomes practically consumed with scrolling through faceless, nameless profiles, in desperate search of who knows what exactly. Hiding behind his profile name “Seth,” he’s not just after sex, it seems, and he’s not looking for love, as far as we’re led to believe.
Neither does the film tilt towards romance. The movie, a solid debut feature from writer-director Caro, winks at gay hookup culture through dryly comic sex scenes (more explicit in the unrated director’s cut), while earnestly profiling a young man losing himself to the heady buzz of the online hunt.
The constant DMs and notifications, and suddenly appearing dick pics, along with the city’s endless menu of sex-seeking strangers, has Santiago transfixed. Grindr could be the tool for his sexual liberation, or a foul instrument of his self-degradation.
He tiptoes a fine line that, soon, he can’t resist leaping over. In one montage, set to Baltazar Oliver’s moody, ’80s-style synth score, Santiago prowls the neon-lit nighttime streets while ceaselessly browsing profiles. Also, hence the movie’s title, he’ll start using the app to track down guys he likes while he’s out at bars and clubs with his fun-loving co-worker Karen (Jazmín Carballo).
His tactics border on stalking, and his use of the app approaches dependency, yet Santiago, as portrayed by poker-faced newcomer Max Suen, remains deceptively calm on the surface. He doesn’t let desperation show in his demeanor.
Suen isn’t the liveliest leading man, but his subtly sardonic delivery aptly serves the movie’s knowing sense of humor, reflected in its astute touches of young metropolitan life — like that guy at the club who you’re not into but he keeps popping up in your face, or a horny couple trying to slip discreetly into a bar restroom stall just as a dozen people come crowding into the room.
Inspired by quirky cult flicks After Hours and Totally Fucked Up, according to Caro, A Few Feet Away adroitly rides its idiosyncratic tone, and vivid depiction of gay Buenos Aires, towards the obvious, unfortunate escalation of Santiago’s worst tendencies. Taking place over one eventful night, the final act finds him intently trying to chase down the identity behind an anonymous Grindr dick pic he receives at a party.
Several suspects present themselves, from laidback Lucas (Felipe Romeo, in a brief but appealing turn) to the office “errand boy” Simón (Manuel Figuerero). Again, Santiago is consumed with the hunt, which, ultimately, could take him far beyond his limits.
Suen’s performance doesn’t entirely sell the story’s dramatic conclusion, and the final lesson lands too heavy-handedly, but it lands, thanks to strong visual storytelling and the compelling authenticity of this world where an emotionally unmoored kid might easily drown in his own obsession if he isn’t careful.
A Few Feet Away (★★★☆☆) is available on Tuesday, Dec. 9, to rent or purchase on Apple, Prime Video, Google, YouTube, and other digital platforms, with an Unrated Director’s Cut DVD available for purchase on Amazon. Visit cinephobiareleasing.com.
I remember doing the time warp in a living room. As a gay kid in the suburbs of Seattle who loved black-and-white monster movies like Bride of Frankenstein, I was drawn to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in late-night viewings on cable. Overloaded in image and sound, Rocky Horror had everything: a spooky old mansion, creepy caretakers, a young couple in danger, rock and roll.
And still more: Patricia Quinn's blood red, disembodied lips. Barry Bostwick's buttoned-up Brad Majors dressed down to his high-waisted tighty-whities. Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist in fishnets and heels. And, of course, that writhing bundle of muscles, bulging in gold booties and briefs, the credit to Frank's Frankensteinian genius, Peter Hinwood's Rocky Horror, the film's titular Adonis.
“I hope to one day make a movie musical,” says Tina Romero. “I would love to do a fantasy piece. I am trying to put all the pots on the burner and see which one I can get to boil. Because it's a miracle to make a movie, and it's a miracle to get all the pieces in place. But I am salivating to make another one.”
For now, the LGBTQ world — and beyond — is salivating to see Romero’s debut effort, Queens of the Dead, a vibrant, unapologetically queer take on the zombie genre her late father turned into a horror institution.
Made in 1968, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead remains a truly terrifying game-changer in horror. It’s the film all others bow down to, replete with classic lines (“They’re coming to get you, Barbara”) and gruesome depictions of zombies feeding on human viscera. Both Night and its 1978 follow-up, Dawn of the Dead, formed the first two parts of a trilogy that spawned dozens of imitators, remakes, and even a second trilogy from George himself.
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.
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