Sublime

This is a fairly subtle gay coming-of-age tale that should more accurately have been titled "Sublimated." It skillfully integrates Manu and Felipe's progress in developing a rock band with the warming of their personal relationship.

Periodic vignettes of Manu and Felipe remind of what is operating behind the straight façade, but there is no outright sexual activity. The furnished van in the woods that is set up for illicit encounters could have served that purpose. It is actually a vehicle to give the plot a secondary line.

Child actors seldom move on to adult success because their charm at 16 does not carry over to a serious acting career. They are not professionally trained although these youngsters deserve the benefit of the doubt.

The story of "Sublime" is quite simple and one-sided, yet well told. Eventhough the theme of exploring one's sexuality in their teenage years has already been filmed many times in recent years, "Sublime" offers a very unfussy and intimate insight into the life and mind of Manuel without much drama or a big unexpected twist - which I would say is a good quality in this case. Because it concentrates around the character of Manuel, a 16 year old boy who started having feelings for his male best friend, this film could be attractive for younger generation of viewers, who could easily see themselves being the main character in this film.

Despite some glowing reviews here, I simply cannot agree that this is a good film. A lot of screen time is spent on showing a band that has hopes for success. Perhaps they will, perhaps they won't. This sums up too the off and on platonic closeness between two teenage youths and despite yearning gay glances they pay rather lack lustre ' love ' attention to teenage girls. Like the music it is annoyingly repetitive and must have been annoying for at least one of the girls (if this was real life, as this film seems to aspire to that debatable state of reality.) I know that teenagers go through questioning agonies over their sexual orientation, but then a lot of so-called adults have the same problem. It comes with a lot of gay film territory, and as long as homophobia within and without continues it will continue to do so. There is one kiss (gay or perhaps platonic love ? Hard to tell as it had absolutely no give away signs as to feelings.) Not much more to say than this is an Argentinian film and the acting was adequate.

It's not that bothered me somehow, it was just so empty and wordless that gets tired. This movie doesn't communicate nothing interesting during its entire history.

I have to admit that it does have sensibility scenes and a little bit of reflection, but it's still not enough to cover a repetitive and slow emotional pallets.

Instead of dreams demonstrating how Manu felt about Felipe, why not develop their relationship during the years and then how they should deal with challenges? It's just how I see a handful of ideas thrown into a melancholic and spiritless disappointing teenage drama.

However, it does have a right direction carried in long plans, with insufficient emotional charge.

Sublime is one of my favourite independent films of 2022. All the elements of great movie making, magically come together in this very realistic coming of age film from Argentina.

The first thing I appreciated about this film (compared to similar North American films), is that the actors look like the age they are playing. All the young actors that make up the majority of the cast, were extremely believable and relatable. The lead actor Martin Miller who plays "Manu", was completely in the moment from beginning to end. He is a likeable character, that held the story together.

The script was perfect and the use of dreams to communicate the subconscious, was very well down.

I liked everything about this movie, but my absolute favourite part was the music. Most of the main characters were playing live music throughout the entire film. Whoever did the Audio for this film, did a masterful job.

The final thing I will say, is that this is a movie that anyone can watch. The lead character maybe gay, but it is not what I would call a typical "Gay" movie. I would say it is actually a film about discovering real love for another person, who you have been close to for a long time.

I hope this film gets released on Blu-ray disc and not only DVD. Such a high quality film deserves to get a Blu-ray disc release!!!