Taking us from Argentina to Mexico and Germany before ending in Peru, Boy Trouble explores four male encounters that shake the ground beneath another man’s feet as male love, unspoken desire, repressed sexuality and change invade a life that seemed so straight. NQV Media’s The Male Gaze: Boy Trouble is available to rent, buy or stream on Prime Video and Peccadillo Pod.
With the sad news that Peccadillo Pictures’ Boys on Film series is coming to an end with Happy Endings, NQV Media is now the sole flag bearer for LGBTQ+ short films. Over the years, NQV has brought us some truly stunning short films in its Male Gaze, Boys Feels, Boys, New Queer Visions, and Upon Her Lips collections, and The Male Gaze: Boy Trouble is another fascinating mix of global short films with a lot to say. Taking us from Argentina to Mexico and Germany before ending in Peru, Boy Trouble explores four male encounters that shake the ground beneath another man’s feet as male love, unspoken desire, repressed sexuality and change invade a life that seemed so straight.
The Male Gaze: Boy Trouble opens with BILLY BOY, directed by Sacha Amaral. Alejo is a sexual drifter who seeks connection and security through a host of sexual partners, male and female. Alejo doesn’t do labels; he does sex! And in a world of online apps, profiles that list sexual requirements like cake ingredients and anonymous hookups at the click of a button, Alejo is working his way through an entire city. But is he happy? Or is the sex filling a bigger, more tricky emotional void? Sacha Amaral’s short story beautifully explores the fluidity of sex in our modern world while asking us whether online sexual hookups really make us any happier or more content.
The second short film in the Boy Trouble collection is the bold, gritty, and complex SUMMER (“Verano”), directed by Rafael Ruiz Espejo and Luis Pacheco. Jaime and Verano sit on society’s fringes, one earning cash through his bike and the other through his body. When Jaime sees the pink-haired Verano, a fellow skatepark regular, having sex with a client, he intervenes and shows Verano a new way to make money on the streets of Guadalajara. But as he spends more time with Verano, a set of new feelings throws him off balance, and as the two become inseparable, Jaime must decide whether to act on those feelings, run or discard his new partner in crime.
Rafael Ruiz Espejo and Luis Pacheco never attempt to paint a complete portrait of Jaime and Verano’s relationship, their past, or their true feelings for each other; instead, they let the audience fill in the blanks in an adrenaline-fueled story of tentative, uncertain love.
The third film in The Male Gaze: Boy Trouble is the standout short of the entire collection. FABIU, directed by Stefan Langthaler, introduces us to eighty-year-old Arthur, who lives in a small apartment in Vienna where he lovingly cares for his ailing wife, Martha, to whom he has been married since his teens. Arthur’s closed and lonely world suddenly becomes brighter when a live-in care worker, Fabiu, arrives.
Fabiu challenges Arthur’s routines and injects youthful energy into the dusty time capsule that is Arthur’s home. Still, he also awakens feelings that Arthur has long buried, feelings he doesn’t know how to process or address, leading to a decision that will suddenly and sharply change everything.
Stefan Langthaler’s beautifully performed and directed short explores a lifetime of repressed desires screaming for release alongside the power dynamics of age and beauty. Arthur is frail and lonely, but he holds power through his wealth and security. At the same time, Fabiu holds power in youth and beauty but lacks the resources or security he and his extended family need. As Arthur takes a risk, using his power as the basis for his actions, Fabiu knows he can’t say no if he wants security, but he also knows the man before him is ultimately lonely and lost.
The Male Gaze: Boy Trouble closes with CHECOSLOVAQUIA, directed by Dennis Perinango, a film about two men who form a special bond in a rural Peruvian mechanics workshop. Diego is a mechanic who occasionally spies on the town’s community of trans women when they get together to play volleyball, but little does he know that Pedro, his workshop assistant, is doing the same. When they discover their shared secret interest, Pedro and Diego build a new bond, one that will lead both men down a new path of sexual adventures. Dennis Perinango’s short dovetails situation comedy with a far more fascinating discussion on male identity, transformation and internalised homophobia as events suddenly take a sharp turn due to a corrupt Police captain and his eighteen-year-old son.
The Male Gaze: Boy Trouble is another must-own collection of short films from NQV Media, which continues to champion short-form films and their vital role in LGBTQ+ cinema. Bold, brave, beguiling, and beautiful, Boy Trouble is nothing short of brilliant.
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