Il sesso degli angeli

A 2-guys-and-1-girl comedy (with a modicum of kitschy dramatic tone), zeroing in on the pan-sexuality relationship conundrum happened in Barcelona, a modern tale smells like teen spirit from director Xavier Villaverde (a 10-year-absence since his last feature, THIRTEEN CHIMES, 2002).

The film kick-starts with a Hip-Hop routine performance and ends up in a casual and cozy dancing moment in the room with the three protagonist, the harmonious denouement maybe ephemeral since the trilogy linkage very likely falls apart when life goes on (a feeble solidification which counters the basic triangle axiom owing to human being's innate doubt and lust), but the film graphically proffers some sincere perception into the young generation's vintage point about love-romance (in alliance with the progression against homophobia discrimination), which is a further step over the rather stale coming-out melodrama during last one or two decades.

The three main actors are cleverly selected, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (afresh from PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES 2011, 5/10) is much confident and versatile in her mother language; Álvaro Cervantes has a killing charisma which could be perceived and indulged by both genders (complies with the character's "seducer"tag and his unorthodox but quite common pan-sexuality attitude - it is the particular individual who we fall for, it is nothing about gender). Llorenç González, as the befuddled and jealousy boyfriend who has his immature trait but at least honest with his feelings. Pitifully besides that, other sidekicks are plainly foils without any distinctive antics to be remembered.

The film contains quite a few explicit sex scenes (between boy-girl, boy-boy and a three-way smooching near the end), may be a bit superfluous (beautifully shot though), and the plot has a sinuous redundancy of buzz-killing twist-and-turns, which could hinder the revelational message the film engages with. Personally I will give one thumb up to this film, simply because it is an innovative torrent of the genre and turns out be to a refreshingly uplifting adventure for the viewers (again sexuality is irrelevant here).

p.s: my Oscar race, Astrid and Álvaro both enter my top 10 of leading actress and leading actor race respectively.

just fresh. a love story with three partners, without many inhibitions, nice, seductive, collection of slices from an age and an universe. nothing special. and nothing boring. honest, touching and with few crumbs of sex. and the secret is the cast. and performance as mirror of reality. smart, interesting, far to be boring, without real ambitions, it is a good manner to be more than illustration of thesis or scene for a cause. it is not a real gay film and the cause remains the puzzle of nuances. it is not a manifesto because it reflects common facts. the joy, the ambiguous feelings makes it credible. and refreshing. the message is universal. and the performance, not bad.

About love, about a relationship in 3, two boys and a girl. The film is interesting, has constant action, unpredictable and well played. He is optimistic and shows that we set our limits in life.

I went to see this with low expectations as a filler between more apparently heavyweight films at the Glasgow Film Festival but it turned out to be the best film of the festival. A lot more than just a gay romance, it's very funny, very sexy and clever. Although not apparent from the English subtitles, the film flows between Catalan and Spanish as comfortably as it flows between sexualities and the Galician outsider, who is neither quite Castillian nor Catalan, effortlessly occupies a hitherto undreamed of aspirational space which acts with centrifugal force on the other characters. I loved the peripheral characters and their world - something rang very true about them. With the main plot there is drama, there are plot twists, and an ending which is somehow so lovely that you will leave the cinema with a smile on your face. Go see.

This film totally blew me away! Maybe it's my age (72) but this film was really a shock. I sat there with my mouth open thinking am I really seeing what I am seeing? There's nothing worse than the idea that time has passed you by and you are not plugged in to current ideas but this film really showed me how little I know about the world as it exists today and probably how it has always existed. Sure, in my youth I had fun and did things I would never do again but always under the cloud of Catholic guilt which in this film does not even remotely rear its ugly head and we're talking about Spain one of the most Catholic countries on the planet. Everything about this film is unique as far as I am concerned. It seems to me that it has established a new threshold in terms of sex, opening the door for other filmmakers to expand sexual horizons in ways never seen before.