Latin Boys Go to Hell
New York Times Film Review
By Stephen Holden
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LATIN BOYS GO TO HELL - FILM REVIEW; Of Latino Lovers Inflamed by a Torrid Soap Opera
NEW YORK TIMES
MOVIE REVIEW
Latin Boys Go to Hell
FILM REVIEW
Of Latino Lovers Inflamed by a Torrid Soap Opera
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
In the romantically overheated world of Ela Troyano's satirical sex comedy, ''Latin Boys Go to Hell,'' all emotion flows from a fiery, nostril-flaring Spanish-language soap opera called ''Dos Vidas.'' When a woman is betrayed by her macho lover on the serial, his cheating is punishable by death and her lethal revenge exacted with a triumphal fury.
To the movie's young, gay Hispanic Brooklynites, who are addicted to the program, ''Dos Vidas'' isn't just a guilty pleasure but an immersion course in romantic abjection. It teaches them to suffer majestically, to take their passions to the limit. And ''Latin Boys Go to Hell,'' which suggests a much cruder, low-rent answer to the gender-bending comic romances of Pedro Almodovar, follows at least one of its characters over the line from spurned lover into gun-toting madman.
The movie focuses on Justin Vega (Irwin Ossa), a shy, young photographer's assistant who is bitten by the love bug when his straight cousin Angel (John Bryant Davila) arrives from Chicago for an extended visit. When Justin escorts Angel to a downtown Manhattan nightclub frequented by a flamboyantly pansexual clientele, he is crestfallen as Angel makes a beeline for the imperious Andrea (Jenifer Lee Simard), the most attractive woman in the room.
Andrea's best friend, Braulio (Alexis Artiles), is the lover of Carlos (Mike Ruiz), a smoldering gay Lothario who scoffs at the idea of love and insists on having unprotected sex with his conquests. One evening while Braulio broods at home by the television, stoking himself with the passions of ''Dos Vidas,'' Carlos puts the moves on Justin, who reluctantly succumbs to his studly charms. Later, when Braulio begins suspecting his lover of cheating, he decides to put the vengeful lessons of ''Dos Vidas'' into action, and the movie becomes a parody of the soap opera that drives it.
''Latin Boys Go to Hell,'' has ingenuously amateurish performances and a wobbly screenplay whose dialogue is often as blunt and purple as the scrawl inside a cartoon balloon. But that's partly the point. The characters live and breathe a culture that exalts erotic passion over everything else. Even the religious icons scattered among the wall-to-wall movie-star photos in Justin's room have a seductively sexy glow. In an environment so consumed with romantic obsession, the difference between heaven and hell seems only a matter of degree. Too much heaven can land you in hell.
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