Rating: 3/5
Sebastián Silva sits in the park reading passages from E.M. Cioran’s The Trouble with Being Born.
He then googles how to commit suicide in Mexico, reading about Pentobarbital.
Snort some K, and go into a K-hole.
A photographer comes over to take pictures of Sebastián’s art. Vero, Sebastián’s housekeeper, stacked the wet paintings on each other.
He tells his landlord, Mateo, about wanting to commit suicide. The photographer tells him to go to Zicatela.
Cut to scrolling Instagram on the nude beach. Dicks are everywhere, but he’s thinking about Pentobarbital.
A guy is drowning, and Sebastián tries to help but ends up nearly drowning himself. Someone comes out and saves both of them.
The other drowning guy is a social media influencer named Jordan Firstman.
Jordan freaks out about Sebastián, saying he’s seen Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus.
Jordan pitches a show to him — “It’s like Curb Your Enthusiasm, but positive” — when a guy comes up and propositions Jordan, and they go behind a rock and fuck.
Jordan posts Sebastian doing K on Instagram, and Sebastián blows up on him.
Sebastian meets with HBO to pitch some shows, but all his pitches fall through. So he gives them Jordan’s show pitch, and they love it.
Sebastian reluctantly agrees to let Jordan stay with him for a week to flesh out the project.
That’s when things go nuts.
This movie takes forever to get started. After some convoluted plotting, we get to the real meat of the movie.
It explores Sebastián’s suicidal ideation versus Jordan’s vacuous social media presence and the influence those energies have on the world.
Perhaps authentic darkness is more meaningful than vapid brightness. It’s not groundbreaking, but it works.
The performances are good, especially Jordan Firstman as a frenetic gay nightmare whose persistence keeps the movie progressing.
I like the movie. I’m glad the movie pushed for a more honest “horny gays with K and poppers” vibe because that kept the movie weirdly grounded.
I would love to hear the kids who hate sex scenes think of this movie.