Two days ago, when I was surfing the Internet in an Internet cafe, I saw a buddy next to me watching the movie "True Love, Not Friends", so I wanted to rewatch the movie, so I watched it on the buddy's computer. I've wanted to write a movie review for a long time, but I didn't remember it until today.
Of all the national LGBT movies, I love Argentina the most. It does not have the obvious old-fashioned political leanings of American gay films, nor does it want to be overly delicate and sentimental like South Korea and Japan, and it is not as timid and conscientious as the mainland films. Argentine gay films are always bold, sexy, nude and unabashed. For example, Mark Berg's "Hawaii" and "Taekwondo" are full of ambiguous eroticism and fresh flesh, but they never backfire.
"True Love, Not Friends" is much smaller in scale than the previous two films, but it is still in the same line, continuing the consistent style of Argentina's ambiguous, bold, and irresistible.
The whole script is actually very simple. It tells the story of childhood friends Matias and Jeronimo who are separated due to their parents' work and relocation, and meet again by chance ten years later, and finally fall in love.
From the script alone, it is very old-fashioned, but the director has taken a different approach, focusing on the language of the lens and editing. For example, in this stop-motion shot, Matias and Jeronimo are always fixed from walking to running. From the narrow context of the juvenile brothers, we can accurately cut into the hazy and delicate emotional latitude between the two.
There are also many stop-motion shots in the movie, similar to some wonderful transition shots in "call me by your name", but Xia Yanzhi was imagining it.
Furthermore, the director's portrayal of Matias and Jeronimo meeting as children and ten years later is surprisingly consistent. From ten years later, the two enjoyed a scuffle in the water again, and then the two floated quietly on the water. This all means that Matias and Jeronimo's relationship has reached its peak. I still remember when Matias' girlfriend told Jeronimo that he never mentioned you, Jeronimo's eyes flashed slightly, but he said three words I understand. Perhaps the most unspeakable things are hidden in the heart.
In terms of casting, Matias is full of abstinence, serious and restrained, Jeronimo is generous and sexy, but also has a delicate and sensitive side.
But "It's Love, Not Friends" is not without flaws. In general, after watching it, I feel that the film is a little impatient, and the lack of foreplay has caused the audience to have no sense of substitution. The point is that the ten years of separation between the two are completely blank. The director can use flashbacks to tell the story of the ten years. Just firewood and fire.
The vacancy of ten years is that the film lacks a thickness of life, but it may also be that we are too demanding of LGBT films. After all, with the gradual enlightenment of people's views on homosexuality, we gradually no longer need gay movies with political leanings like "Love You, Simon". On the contrary, we need a film like "call me by your name" that simply tells about love between the same sex, because homosexuality is no longer an anomaly in this era of increasingly diverse values, and we no longer have to make films about promoting gays. Simple love is good, nothing to do with gender.
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