La Bola Negra (c) Netflix
Film: La Bola Negra
In Cinemas, Streaming at Netflix December 2
Ever since its triumphant premiere at the Cannes Festival, La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) has been touted as the best Oscar contender to premiere there, even though its subject matter—gay men during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s—would not seem to be in Oscar’s wheelhouse. But, La Bola Negra has incredible epic reach with a tragic love story at the center of civil unrest by the Spanish directing duo known as Los Javi (Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi), who won the Cannes Best Director prize (tied with Paweł Pawlikowski of Fatherland). The film takes place in three time frames, the majority in 1937, during the height of the war. A young trumpeter named Sebastián (played by popular Spanish singer Guitarricadelafuente), whose family home was bombed out, has joined the pro-Franco Nationalists soldiers, and one of his first tasks is to guard a captured enemy spy, Rafael (Miguel Bernardeau), who has been wounded and is convalescing in the hospital ward before being questioned. The higher-ups want Sebastián to get close to Rafael to learn any secrets, and while he takes this role seriously, Sebastián starts to fall in love with his prisoner. The second time line takes place in 1932 in Granada, and involves Carlos (Milo Quifes), whose membership to an exclusive casino/men’s club is in jeopardy because of rumors that he’s gay. The third storyline jumps to 2017 in Madrid where a young gay man, Alberto (Carlos González), is told that his grandfather, who he thought was already dead, has left him something in will, but he has to travel to the country to pick it up.
La Bola Negra (c) Netflix
All three of these stories are connected, but the most important is their connection with the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, who was murdered at the start of war, possibly for his political views, but also for being gay. Lorca’s only known work with gay characters is a play called La Bola Negra, but only four pages of that script survived. The connection to Lorca gives the movie resonance and depth with the obvious focuses on the treatment of gay people in Spain. All the lead actors are so good, but it is Guitarricadelafuente, who is the yearning heart of the film. The directors create a dreamy aura to their story that I found thrilling, especially a hypnotic dance sequence that comes out of nowhere but adds so much to one of the main characters. There are also some nice, starry supporting performances by Penelope Cruz, Glenn Close and Julio Torres. I do have some reservations with the similarities between the 1937 section and Kiss of the Spider Woman. The 2017 section also doesn’t match the intensity and poetry of the other two time periods, although it does put some context to why Spain continues to deal with a war and regime, epitomizing how the effects of a dictator may never fully be reversed. I really wish the Oscar buzz around the film stays strong —foreign film, especially one focusing on gay men, is an uphill climb. But I am heartened by the recent wins by Parasite and Moonlight because it says there’s a chance. Definitely one of the best films of the year.
We're Nothig at All (c) Blacklight Global Entertainment
Film: We’re Nothing at All
In Los Angeles Cinemas
Currently playing L.A.—hopefully expanding to other markets soon—is the powerful and emotional We’re Nothing at All by prolific Hong Kong director Herman Yau, who self-financed this film because of its edgier subject matter, based on a real-life event when a bus exploded in a busy Hong Kong neighborhood. We follow two storylines: the detectives as they try to figure out if it was an accident or a terrorist attack and two young men who are trying to survive in the big city with barely any money. The first clue that the young men might have been on the bus is that one of the body parts recovered had a unique watch intact that we see Ike (Ansonbean) receive from a gay admirer. The amiable Ike, who is an artist, starts a relationship with Fai (Anson Kong), a moodier and hot-headed blue-collar worker whose money problems seem insurmountable. As the forensic evidence start to come together, Lung (Patrick Tam), the detective, tries to figure out if the men were just tragically on the bus that day, or, like in Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, they have had enough of what society has dealt them to lead them to violence. If you haven’t seen a lot of Hong Kong drama, the acting style sometimes feels over-the-top, so it’s pretty amazing the more intimate parts to the story holds the emotional punch, especially an unexpected subplot involving Lung’s past. The reason the film became a hit in Hong Kong, getting many film award nominations, is because the two actors playing the gay lovers are pop stars in real life, like Harry Styles in Our Policeman. We’re Nothing at All is a fascinating look at the current state of gay life in Hong Kong.
Border (c) Border
Film: Border
Screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival
Working-class, poverty porn is on display in Ah Biao’s Border, a film set in a coal mining town in China, where life is monotonous and uneventful, especially for the miners. Luo Jia (Zheyan Li) is unhappily sharing a sparsely furnished apartment with another miner, an older, closeted man (Sanming Han), with whom Luo Jia has an unspoken arrangement to release sexual tension. Luo Jia soon hooks up with a sex worker named Su Qing (Feng Qi), leading to each believing the other will be their hope for salvation. With the little money they have, they marry and try to have some semblance of a normal life. Then the factory shuts down and these two lost souls have to find a way to survive under even harsher economic conditions. This is director Ah Biao’s first film, and he seems to have taken inspiration from the overly staged feel of a Wes Anderson film, minus any whimsy. He even has the actors deliver similar monochromatic line readings (when there are any, as Border might as well be a silent film). Every shot (Ah Biao is also the cinematographer) feels like a stark painting these sad people walk through, trying to find their place in the world. Although not as profound as the director thinks it is, the film is certainly an impressive calling card for an obviously talented newcomer to Asian cinema.
Will You Still Be My Friend? (c) Will You Still Be My Friend
Film: Will You Still Be My Friend?
Screened at the Sam Sebastian Film Festival
Taiwanese director Lu Po-Shun, who won acclaim for his short film Wild Tides, is making his feature film debut in a self-assured and complex film with a bland English title, Will You Still Be My Friend? Another film about the unsteady interactions between the haves and the haves-not, this one film takes place in a rural Taiwanese village where a planned construction of a solar panel farm will disrupt the fishing cycle of the town, most of the villagers’ livelihood. Although we do see the conflict between the two factions, Lu mostly views this story through the eyes of the two teenagers. Jasper (Aloysius Looi) is the son of the upper-class couple from Singapore who owns the solar panel company. He’s a shy, artistic kid who doesn’t fit in, except in a forced friendship with Jun (Jaden Wang), whose grandfather is the head of the village. Jun didn’t seem to consult with the community before agreeing to the solar farm, leading to blowback from the villagers that sometimes leads to violence. While all this is going on, the two boys start to bond, not in any overt sexual way, but with such a strong connection that Jun’s friends suspect he might be abandoning them for his bougie new friend. The film reminds me of last year’s sweet Young Hearts and the Pixar film, Luca, both of which involve a friendship between emotional close young boys, and while this film is a bit messier (including the casting of one actor who seems so much older than the other), it does have sweet moments of star-crossed buddies who are challenged to defy societal, homophobic norms.
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