Les agitateurs

A new Marco Berger film is always an occasion so I sat down yesterday evening to treat myself to what I hoped would be an event. I needn't have bothered with the little saucissons, cherry tomatoes and box of chocolates beside me - what was presented on screen was crass and uninteresting.

We were regaled to a veritable eyefest of horny, attractive, semi-naked or naked hunks on screen for 100 minutes. Yes, for those who find lads like this attractive, this was eye candy to the extreme. But what they were doing was neither credible nor interesting. The whole time, apart from when some girlfriends turned up, was spent getting into homosexual positions, pretend humping of each other, dares that random guys would snog each other with tongues, taking photos of each others willies. Yes, yes, straight guys muck around but this was relentless. It's not crédible at all.

A previous reviewer has alleged that this particular film at least has a plot, unlike previous films from this director. My assessment is that the film is virtually plotless unlike several of the more recent films he made. There were little things happening but never followed through on, such as the probable rape of one of the girls. And there was the theme of the two closeted guys (one of whom rejects reality) amongst the multitude of alleged straights which was so barely touched upon that the first time we see them making out, it's impossible to discern who one of them is. This plot line is the one that leads to an act of violence that is not explored further in the film and to whose build-up is not plausible.

OK, I watched it all. Apart from drinking in the bodies on display, I was waiting for something consequential to come about. It didn't, not even at the end.

I'd marked this as a four. Reading back on my review, I've reduced it to a three. Watch if you like, but with very low expectations.

Horseplay is just a remake of Taekwondo, but with more nudity and homoerotic moments. There are identifiable themes emerging from the horsing around, but none of these were explored. Therefore, it leaves the film lacking in substance. I believe the person who made Taekwondo is responsible for Horseply, so I am at a loss as to why they would make a similar film without building the characters or explore the hinted themes to build a narrative that is relateable and teachabe! To be honest, I have seen adult films with better plots. So watch for the eye-candies and not for the storyline because one doesn't exist.

How is this not "Taekwondo" all over again? Marco Berger's gay male gaze is still here, not as facefront as it is in "Taekwondo", but there's still plenty of that in here. Something that's not very prominent in here is his usual slow-burn sense of longing. There are some characters that struggle throughout the movie but their struggles are various, not only same-sex attraction. Or are they? I enjoyed watching this, I love everything Berger does, he owns me, but for me it's one of his weaker films. "Horseplay" is what straight dudes do to fool around and it's not that exciting of a movie. Marco Berger still needs to make more movies.

The first temptation is to see it as a kind of Taekwondo II. And to appreciate more the first part.

Many guys, nude , talking, wasting time, gay, hetero, looking for love or define their sexual identity, girls, a lot of photos and a beautiful house.

Some homoerotism.

Real good looking guys.

And a very - very-very gentle suggested story if you have not impression of self illusion.

I can not be very critic about this film but its basic virtue is to send the thoughts to Taekwondo , working just as precious kick to see that , again.

Is it enough ?

I suppose so. I appreciate Marco Berger job and I respect his perspective about a theme who seems very closed by him. Cinema represents experiments and Los agitatores is one of them.

Usually I like Marco Berger's films, especially the ones where there are just a few characters, and the story is about the subtle, sexual tension between two guys (like "Hawaii" or "The Blond One"); these are often extremely slow-paced, with sparse dialogue and an almost dreamy atmosphere. In this "Horseplay" however the atmosphere is everything but dreamy: a large group of loud, basically heterosexual guys gathers in a sun drenched villa for the holidays, doing nothing but yelling and boozing and bickering and fooling around; the latter for some reason constantly in the vein of imitating gay situations (riding each others back, touching and fondling, walking around naked) and then roaring with laughter about it. Hence probably the English title "Horseplay".

The original Spanish title "Agitadores" means by the way something slightly different: "troublemakers", so apparently Berger intended not so much to picture careless playfulness, but a deliberate stirring of the emotions. Such an intention could have resulted in an interesting movie, maybe if there had been fewer characters and longer, more serious dialogues and interchanges. But now the whole movie is made up by very short bits of conversations, with only vague hints of interesting topics, all ending as blank as they are started and leading nowhere. Sure, there are some innuendo's of greater issues: homophobia, machismo, promiscuity, fear of coming out as gay, but they never come to anything conclusive and stay dangling in mid-air, overblown by all the juvenile pranks and tiresome fooling around. There is, as usual in a Berger movie, lots of naked male skin to enjoy (if you're into that, and I humbly plead guilty), but that doesn't help making it a good movie. In fact it impressed me at many times as redundant and just added to titillate or provoke the viewers.

So summing up all the above: a disappointing experiece.