Justin Vega works as an assistant to photographer Monica, who is working on a series in which she tries to evaluate male Latino culture in a highly erotic way. Justin's life of leisure, which is still deeply rooted in his childhood, is derailed by the unwanted arrival of his cousin Angel. Justin promptly falls in love with Angel, who is, however, more interested in Andrea, who, for his sake, neglects her platonic, but nevertheless jealous, friend Braulio. When his lover Carlos also gets into bed with Justin, Braulio sees red and the life expectancy of many characters rapidly decreases...

Audiences who at first are still expecting a serious coming-of-age drama will soon realise that Latin Boys Go to Hell is a piece of cinematic fun which bases its structure on that of out-of-touch soap operas – to be precise, Mexican soaps, which are all a touch more melodramatic. The film tries to play around with both cultural clichés and sex – and fails to deliver on either. The clichés are not treated in any special way, and some creep in unintentionally. The Latino mom is always at the stove (yummy, good Mexican food), although the director's mother, of Cuban origin, never cooked; and the bartender in the real life night-club wears a sombrero as a gag for a special "Mexican Night". The developing soap-opera plot is not laid on thickly enough for an audience to find it funny, whilst Justin's finding himself is taken too seriously. Latin Boys Go to Hell works neither as a drama, nor as a spoof.

More problematic for Queer View than these shortcomings are the general context and message of the film, which we discuss in our article Kiss Me or Go to Hell!

Deutsche Version

Kiss Me or Go to Hell!
The latest gay films rediscover ethnic minorities as sex objects

Love! Valour! Compassion!

Kiss Me, Guido

Filmdata

copyright: Queer View, 17. Mai 1997