Another film that surprised me quite a bit. The film explores race, age, love, and friendship in a way that is informative but not overcrowded, and absurd but real.
Let's start with the word that runs throughout the film: race. The beginning of the film explains to the audience that this is a story that takes place on the American border, where we can see the wall between the United States and Mexico. White people's disdain for Mexicans is seen everywhere in the film, whether it's a verbal altercation between a police officer and a brown-skinned person on the street for no apparent reason, or a conversation between a white person and a Mexican person, you can see that white people discriminate from the bottom of their hearts. The director uses very much line-by-line detail to highlight this, and the character of Greg is set up in a very interesting way. Greg is a American born Latino, but he never speaks Spanish, and his girlfriend has asked him, 'Do you think you're white yet? What do white people think of you?' Until the end of the film, when Greg sees the world clearly and sobs out in Spanish, 'They have famlies, they have names, they wanted to live'. This is the character's highest moment in the entire film. The struggle for skin colour is as much of a headache as the class struggle. The gulf between people's hearts is really hard to cross, and the colour of your skin can change the way a person treats you. There is also a scene in the film where George and his sister have a conversation, and we learn that the gap between brother and sister is due to the difference in skin colour. George asks his sister if she can accept that she is gay, and the sister responds by giving her brother a calm hug and that very 'precious' boat toy. All conflicts are due to differences, and I hope that one day, people will be able to face their differences openly. What is needed between people is not high walls, but bridges that bring us together.
The most interesting relationship in the film is between David and George, who have been friends since childhood, but at the time of the reunion, friends become lovers. The director has laid out a lot of groundwork for their relationship, from the sewing, to the medication, to George's desire, and my heart was pounding hard when I was watching it, especially when George said 'Turn over', it made me feel all tingly. At the same time, the director's portrayal of David's character is also a key point of the film, why would David want to destroy his own future? Why does he use tools to hurt himself? Why does he have both sharp look and a melancholic look in his eyes? The scene where David comes out to his father also brings the complexity of the father-son relationship to a climax, with all the contradictions coming from the line, 'I've always loved you just as you are, and you only loved me for h'. I've always loved you just as you are, and you only loved me for how you wanted me to be', after this scene, the conflict between father and son completely escalated, until finally everyone learnt the truth. In fact, if you re-watch the scenes between David and his father, I personally think that David is actually a bit of an oedipal. Clue 1: The scene where David and his father are messing around echoes the scene where he is messing around with George at the pool. Clue 2: David stares at his father singing alone by the window, and that look is the same look he gets when he's with George later on. Clue 3:The tragedy at the end, David is devastated because of what his father has kept from him. Dad's mistrust signals an insurmountable gap between them, and is very despairing, but George catches him and heals him, and the film ends there.
The most critical aspect of the film is 'boundaries,' and it explores the relationship between people and boundaries: David and George break gender boundaries, Greg breaks age boundaries with the donut shop owner, and George breaks racial boundaries when he reconciles with his sister. The maid burning down her employer's house breaks class boundaries. In the end the moral boundaries broken by the war boys are exchanged for a lifetime of tragedy.
