Young Hunter

It's too long. That has to be the first thing to say about the film, it's self indulgent. There are too many scenes where nothing or little happens. This would have been so much better as a film one hour and twenty minutes long. However, I watched right to the end which was inconclusive.

Ezekiel is on a mission to get laid. He gazes longingly at straight boys in the loo, at school, at sporting venues. When he finally meets Mano at a skate park it seems that his dream is realised. However, upon the arrival of Mano's relative onto the scene, we know that things are going to go awry.

I didn't find the grooming aspects of the film convincing. Grooming takes experience and sophistication that a young lad wouldn't have. There was a patience shown that was beyond the years of these protagonists.

For those expecting lads and rumpy-pumpy, there isn't any. The age of the actors and the characters they're playing precludes this. For me, the suggestions of illicit liaisons were delicately and appropriately done.

I'm fine with inconclusive endings as I use my imagination to guess what might have happened after. There were several scenarios in my head of what might have come afterwards. I know why it happened like this. Any follow up to the last scene would have been at odds with the subject matter and themes of the film as well as its languid storytelling. The film is about longing, desire and danger, it's not a detective story.

I don't regret having watched this by any means. But it shouldn't have been so long.

A subject well managed of something society don't want to see.

The subject make us sick but the movie presents it with all the due respect.

Great photography and environment.

Berger usually gets away with hiring so-so actors by engaging with his camera work and its eroticism...which would have been extremely uncomfortable in a movie like this. For that reason, it makes no sense for him to try to tackle this subject with the same resources. Long shots, lifeless actors and open endings do not mix well. He does not get away with artsy shots and beautiful cinematography. Kudos to the editor for managing to tell a story with limited resources.

I have watched all but one of Berger's films (2015's 'Mariposa'). I really liked 'Plan B' and 'Hawaii' both which count on very good perfomances of their lead actors, specially Manuel Vignau. 'Absent' and 'Taekwondo' are not as good as these I first mentioned, but are okay. 'The Blond One', however, is just a bad one. After watching 'Young Hunter' I now just think that Berger might be becoming self indulgent. His formulas are just becoming too repetitive whereas his actors are becoming less and less charimastic. If you're gonna play a 'thriller-like' take like this one you simply need good acting or else your movie is just gonna feel souless. The writing here is just not very good either. It feems like he had a bunch of shots in his mind but didn't know how to connect them or where to take the history afterwards. Juan Pablo Cestaro looks like he doesn't know what to do with his character. The tension the film tried to build up is artificial.

Marco Berger is an excellent filmmaker, but this one is a miss for me. His better work "The Blonde One" is more of my speed. The kid in this film, his unibrow, as someone said before was way too distracting. Also, the pace was so incredibly slow, it took me out of the story at times. And so it goes. The beat goes on.