GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
Console
best movie i've ever seen.
Matrixiole
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
bkoganbing
I remember on a trip to Madrid in 2001 before the World Trade Center Towers were attacked I did visit Madrid and spent a few hours in this Chueca neighborhood. I have to say it was a bit seedy, but charming in its own way. This film will have nothing to do with the classic Father Flanagan film Boystown. The boys here can very bad, but somewhat tempting.This was a strange film in its dividing the LGBT community into haves and have nots. There's a real estate salesmen in Chueca who is obsessed with not only making money, but toning up the Chueca neighborhood. I'm not sure if there's a Spanish equivalent for rent control, but I've seen many an American film with that as a basis. True in real life, many landlords will do whatever to get out old tenants of rent controlled units so they can rent them to upper middle class Yuppie types. Only in the gay world they're called Guppies. We learn right away it's this handsome charming real estate guy doing the evil deeds. When will the authorities and the community know is the crux of the plot.I'm not mentioning any of the players because I doubt most Americans will have a clue as to who they are. The real estate guy reminded me a bit of Christopher Meloni.Who does him in? Just the hardworking working class gay men and lesbians and the mother of one of them. Kind of like Columbo.We Americans might enjoy Boystown.
sergepesic
"Chuecatown" is a rare bird in the contemporary movie making. A dark, violent, almost Hitchcockian comedy. It would be unjust to label this charming, but not very memorable movie, a gay feature. Truth to be told, it has plenty of gay characters,and it is set in a gay part of Madrid, but the main characters are not just the gay clichés,they are actually people who happen to be gay. Of course, it helps the plot- after all it is a story about gentrification of a gay neighborhood. The jokes are sometimes funny, sometimes tired and repetitive. The actors have a good sense of comic timing. All and all, a light, non pretentious romp.
StrontiumAE
This is my first review, so be patient. What Boystown has in originality, it lacks in creativity. This light hearted black comedy about a psychotic real estate agent killing off the neighborhood's elderly ladies in order to sell their apartments to rich gay couples had a lot of potential, that was unfortunately lost. The movie presents itself as a light and cheerful comedy, when the subject matter is anything but. This ultimately works against it and makes the scenes which were meant to be unsettling or tense, just fall flat. A rewrite (or two) of the final draft and the hands of a more competent and creative director could have turned Boystown into a darker, horror tinged thriller, while still maintaining all of the comedy elements present in the story. Furthermore the third act was a complete mess,with a couple of small plot holes and one huge plot hole the size of a football stadium ruining any potential this film had left. However this movie still has its strengths, even though they are woefully out numbered by its weaknesses. The performances were excellent, especially by all of the leading ladies. The dialog was very sharp and witty and provided some laugh out loud moments, plus all of the main characters (bar the serial killer) actually had some development and depth...particularly the male lead and what could best be described as his 'mother in law' ;-). Also, the three different story strands did not clash with each other and gelled surprisingly well.Overall the film still only manages a 6 out of 10 from me. It could have been a lot better if its was darker and not so infantile.
nitrox11
Just went to see this at the London lesbian & gay film festival with 6 friends. We went because the preview clip we had seen at a screening a few weeks ago made us laugh. We all enjoyed the movie and found it funny, as did the rest of the sell-out crowd in the cinema, with laugh out loud moments and applause from the audience at some of the scenes throughout the film.Yes, there are some so-easy-to-spot-they-might-as-well-carry-a-red-flag set ups and some tired old clichés, but it didn't seem to be a film trying to make too much of a statement. It's just a light hearted picture poking fun at some gay nonsense - or at least that's the way it played tonight with the crowd. The lead women are fantastic, if a bit OTT, but the whole movie is so OTT any other characters would seem stupid. For my money Carlos Fuentes as Rey, was worth the price of the admission alone! If you like a fast moving story that has a few twists, plenty of bearish camp nonsense and a lot of laughs then you'll probably enjoy it. If you are looking for a film with a deep message, then avoid it. Any movie that has a pensioner mother slagging off her son's boyfriend by saying he has an arse 'like a Japanese flag' is never going to deliver much in the way of earnest discussion of the themes afterwards....