L'empreinte de tes lèvres

I wasn't that thrilled. It's the rather depressing story of two gay men, who accidentally meet and (after we've seen how wild and unhindered their original sex lives were) are caught up by a terrible pandemic and all the severe restrictions that come with it. Living (conveniently) right across the street of each other, they have to play out their sexual longings on the phone, while watching each other from their windows. The scenes we see are a mixture of how they suffer under their dreary confinement, and their erotic phantasies. Just when their virtual relationship seems to go to an emotional deeper level, Fate comes relentlessly knocking.

For me, the most fascinating side of this movie was seeing how draconic all the governmental restrictions apparently were in Mexico, assuming that they were pictured as they in fact were during the Covid time. But neither the story itself, nor the two main characters could really touch me. They weren't very sympathetic to begin with, and both actors aren't really convincing either. There's some serious graphic sex involved, I confess it's titillating, but for that alone there are a zillion sites on internet to see.

The latest film from Julian Hernandez shows a world as it was before a plague afflicted it and then life under an extreme lockdown. Hugo Catalán as Roman, a gay B movie actor, crosses paths with Aldo played by Mauricio Rico, a first nations recent arrival in the capital.

We see their promiscuous lives before lockdown and then the claustrophobic existence they lead during confinement. Both men are bored and frustrated but Aldo finds he's earning more online than he did at the grocer's shop he was working at before the plague.

The director shows the two men's lives as they might have been were it not for the restrictions that take place in their imaginations via their online meetings.

The shocking ending shows just how profound their long-distance relationship has become with a last look at what could have been.

Definitely worth an hour and twenty minutes of anyone's time.