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Julián Hernández’s film explores the nature of memory, leaving the viewer scrambling to create connections within the haze of black-and-white snapshots. These are the memories of Gerardo, a gay teen prostituting himself on the streets of Mexico City while coping with solitude and an unrequited love. Initially poetic, the frames grow tiresome as the film progresses and Hernández drowns scene after scene in faded, out-of-focus images that grow duller with repetition. Likewise, nothing changes for Gerardo: at the end of the film, he’s just as lonely and hopeless as he was at the beginning. The only respite comes when Hernández takes a break to focus on four similarly isolated and loveless tangential characters. Given these parallels, Gerardo becomes an everyman of sorts, and his personal obsessions and memories gain a little universal resonance. That’s not much compensation, though, for the film’s lack of narrative and its banal protagonist. In Spanish with English subtitles. (80 minutes)
BY JESSICA WEISBERG
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