{"id":8163,"date":"2020-02-17T20:31:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T19:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/?p=8163"},"modified":"2020-02-19T20:38:54","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T19:38:54","slug":"usa-variety-jose-film-review-by-lisa-kennedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/en\/usa-variety-jose-film-review-by-lisa-kennedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Usa, Variety: Jos\u00e9 Film Review by Lisa Kennedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 19-year-old comes of age and a newcomer shimmers in this LGBTQ drama set in Guatemala<\/em><\/p>\n

Director: Li Cheng
\nWith: Enrique Salanic, Manolo Herrera, Ana Cecilia MotaRelease
\nDate: Jan 31, 2020
\nRunning time: 87 MIN.
\nOfficial Site: http:\/\/www.outsiderpictures.us\/movie\/jose\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been a year and a half since director Li Cheng\u2019s \u201cJos\u00e9\u201d won the Venice Film Festival\u2019s Queer Lion<\/strong>. It would be a shame to let the lag time diminish expectations. After a LGBTQ fest run, the Spanish-language drama \u2014 about a young gay man in Guatemala \u2014 has opened theatrically and continues to expand. That it does so steadily, quietly, seems perfectly apt for a drama rife with quotidian grace.<\/p>\n

Portrayed with unerring soulfulness by newcomer Enrique Salanic, 19-year-old Jos\u00e9 lives with his mother in a cramped Guatemala City apartment. Theirs is a hardscrabble life. She\u2019s increasingly shooed away by police from a spot on the city sidewalks where she sells meat pies. He hustles a bustling street corner near the restaurant where he works, waving cars toward the curb so that he can carhop food to them. Some afternoons, he slips away for trysts with men he arranges via a cruising app.<\/p>\n

His cell provides a lifeline. It\u2019s Grindr but also tender, a device for low-commitment coupling that dangles the possibility of more-at-stake connection. A hookup with a construction worker named Luis (Manolo Herrera in a gentle turn) becomes something more. Both the possibility and constraint of their relationship weigh on Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Ana Cecilia Mota convinces as the mother who leans heavily on her youngest. She is loving and pious, suspicious of his sexuality and gently manipulative.<\/p>\n

Cheng visited 12 Spanish-speaking countries, conducting countless interviews, before hunkering down in Guatemala for two years. The director and his co-writer George F. Roberson exhibit a generous understanding of what personal but fragile liberation looks like for young men in Jos\u00e9\u2019s situation. It\u2019s captured in Jos\u00e9\u2019s smile \u2014 illuminated by a cell phone\u2019s bluish aura in the dark of his shared apartment \u2014 followed by a dash through night-time streets. Or expressed in an afternoon motorcycle ride, in which Jos\u00e9 hugs the curved road as Luis holds a cigarette to his lips. The space of their new love is irrepressible and hermetically sealed off.<\/p>\n

Throughout the film, Cheng touches on the omnipresence of the church: a haunting Catholic procession snakes through dark streets; congregants of an evangelical Sunday service lift their hands in praise. Whispered as she labors over household chores, Jos\u00e9\u2019s mother\u2019s prayers are desperate \u2014 and sincere. Hers is a recognizable love, complicated by an unquestioning religiosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cJos\u00e9\u201d pays heed to Guatemala\u2019s braiding of the religious and the cultural, eliciting protective feelings for Jos\u00e9 and Luis without condemning faith. From time to time, another story of young love (between Jos\u00e9\u2019s co-workers) burbles enough to hint as the challenges of young women in the socially conservative country.<\/p>\n

The filmmaking reminds us that the life of a place is often carried on its sounds. Guatemala City is noisy with the honks and exhaust-clearing coughs of traffic, of voices selling food and wares, of street corner preachers hawking gospel certitudes. You can almost smell the food cooking at the restaurant, born on a hiss of heat and smoke.<\/p>\n

These palpable gestures \u2014 as well as other atmospheric glimpses captured by cinematographer Paolo Giron \u2014 are likely the reason some reviewers label the film \u201cneo-realist.\u201d Searching for the movie\u2019s cinematic kin, Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s wondrous \u201cThe Rider\u201d comes to mind. It too was predicated on the carefully nurtured relationship of the filmmaker to the story\u2019s location and its denizens.<\/p>\n

The movie constantly adjusts our hopes for Jos\u00e9\u2019s future. As Jos\u00e9 navigate slivers of hope and slabs of disappointment, the story feels singular. Its implications are broader. Making us aware of the overlap and the distance between the two is a fine feat in itself. Cheng delivers a mood that is unquestionably human and, at times, unexpectedly hallowed (as when Jose stares down the worn face in a Mayan ruin). \u201cJos\u00e9\u201d brings to light the promise of a director as compassionate as he is observant.<\/p>\n

‘Jos\u00e9’: Film Review<\/p>\n

Reviewed online, Denver, Feb. 14, 2020. (In Venice Film Festival.) Running time: 87 MIN.<\/p>\n

PRODUCTION: (Guatemala-U.S.) An Outsider release and presentation of a YQ Studio production. Producers: Li Cheng, George F. Roberson.<\/p>\n

CREW: Director: Li Cheng. Screenplay: Li Cheng, George F. Roberson. Camera: Paolo Giron. Editor: Lenz Claure. Music: Yao Chen<\/p>\n

WITH: Enrique Salanic, Manolo Herrera, Ana Cecilia Mota. (Spanish dialogue)<\/p>\n

Variety<\/a> by Lisa Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 19-year-old comes of age and a newcomer shimmers in this LGBTQ drama set in Guatemala Director: Li Cheng With: Enrique Salanic, Manolo Herrera,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[421],"tags":[1014,1006,529,704,516],"class_list":["post-8163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-review","tag-jose-en","tag-queer-lion-2018-en","tag-review","tag-usa","tag-variety","post-item","post-even"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t