The Worst Film Ever

Good concept, poorly executed.

Admirable film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"Chuecatown" is a rare bird in the contemporary movie making. A dark, violent, almost Hitchcockian comedy. It would be unjust to label this charming, but not very memorable movie, a gay feature. Truth to be told, it has plenty of gay characters,and it is set in a gay part of Madrid, but the main characters are not just the gay clichés,they are actually people who happen to be gay. Of course, it helps the plot- after all it is a story about gentrification of a gay neighborhood. The jokes are sometimes funny, sometimes tired and repetitive. The actors have a good sense of comic timing. All and all, a light, non pretentious romp.

This is my first review, so be patient. What Boystown has in originality, it lacks in creativity. This light hearted black comedy about a psychotic real estate agent killing off the neighborhood's elderly ladies in order to sell their apartments to rich gay couples had a lot of potential, that was unfortunately lost. The movie presents itself as a light and cheerful comedy, when the subject matter is anything but. This ultimately works against it and makes the scenes which were meant to be unsettling or tense, just fall flat. A rewrite (or two) of the final draft and the hands of a more competent and creative director could have turned Boystown into a darker, horror tinged thriller, while still maintaining all of the comedy elements present in the story. Furthermore the third act was a complete mess,with a couple of small plot holes and one huge plot hole the size of a football stadium ruining any potential this film had left. However this movie still has its strengths, even though they are woefully out numbered by its weaknesses. The performances were excellent, especially by all of the leading ladies. The dialog was very sharp and witty and provided some laugh out loud moments, plus all of the main characters (bar the serial killer) actually had some development and depth...particularly the male lead and what could best be described as his 'mother in law' ;-). Also, the three different story strands did not clash with each other and gelled surprisingly well.Overall the film still only manages a 6 out of 10 from me. It could have been a lot better if its was darker and not so infantile.

When I first saw this promoted on Spanish television, I thought it looked too stupid to bother with. But then I saw that the cast included Rosa María Sardà, Concha Velasco, Joan Crosas and Edu Soto, all of whom are tremendously talented. So I decided to give it a shot.It's a broadly played comedy/suspense piece involving the hunt for a serial killer: a snobby gay real estate developer who's bumping off old ladies and working-class people so he can gentrify Chueca, Madrid's somewhat run-down gay neighborhood. The central characters are a young, working-class gay couple who don't fit his image of the new Chueca. The film is loosely adapted from a Spanish comic book of the same title.There's strong acting all around, including a charming performance by Carlos Fuentes, who had previously appeared in "Km0." Sardà and Velasco are their usual wonderful selves (the former playing a neurotic police inspector, and the latter playing the mother-in-law from hell).I was particularly curious to see Soto in a film role, since I mostly know him as his television alter-ego (the manic club kid known as "el Neng," whom he played for years on late-night television). Here he gives a wonderfully goofy performance as a police detective.Don't look for subtlety or profound meaning in this film, but it's a fun way to pass an hour or two.At the festival screening I saw in Philadelphia, the English subtitles were basically good but problematic at spots. The translator missed all the references to American pop culture, misunderstood one or two bits of the dialog, and there were typos and spelling errors. Hopefully this will be fixed before it's released on DVD here.

*** Warning it could contain some Spoilers ***I went to see this movie the release date in Madrid. From the first minute everything is predictable and the general tone of the movie is defined by the names of the old lady kittens: Aznar, Acebes... all from the members of the former right winged government of Spain (1996-2004).Ads say it's a comedy mystery movie in Chueca, the gay quarter of Madrid, more or less like Castro in San Francisco. But neither mystery, no much fun as comedy during the whole duration of the film.As a comedy it does not work, just a couple of good gags, mystery is inexistent. For a broad audience is boring, as they won't understand most of jokes. For a gay audience is only enjoyable by all those who likes listening to the same old jokes again and again. The only valuable thing is the work of Actors,. Concha Velasco is incredible in her role, even though some of her dialogs are unbelievable, also Rosa Maria Sardá does her best at a completely stupid and unbelievable role.Losers and low class people are heroes, and posh people are the evil ones. That could be funny if the final message weren't so close to the bipolarity of the Spain's politics and maybe society (influenced by mass media). What is most irritating to me is about knowledge and culture. Director shows that as if it were a sign of posh people. Knowledge has nothing to do with remembering 100 fashion designers, that's nonsense.Another problem is that all jokes are too private for gays that lives or visits Chueca frequently. Too old ones listened too many times for local gays.The jokes against PP (right winged political Popular Party) renamed as RR are too local to Spain and even, to Madrid. The parody of the visit to Chueca by the wife (as a counselor) of the former President of the government Jose Maria Aznar, is somewhat naive and inspired in the naive shows of transvestites common in some Chueca clubs. Maybe in the 80's could be modern, not now, maybe it would scandalize the Right Winged bigoted Spaniards, for the rest is somewhat pathetic.Finally I hate the twisted message about bipolarity, unluckily very common again in Spain. Good, left winged, losers, ignorant, but with good heart ones, against right winged, posh, ice-heart, fashion victims or metrosexuals, the bad guys. As if it was everything that simple. There's no room for the rest, for the majority don't identified neither with PP nor PSOE, neither with extreme masculinity nor femininity, neither being fat hairy bears nor shaved fashion and body fitness victims. Neither with ignorant only reading comics or sport press (Marca) nor the ignorant only reading fashion magazines... I expected to see more diversity but on the gay side we have also so many stereotypes as the heterosexual world to see us as a group.Just for fans of the old Chueca humor.