Post by Eλευθερί on May 6, 2021 23:53:05 GMT
Men of Hard Skin (or Men with Tough Skin) is a low-budget independent film by little-known Argentine auteur Jose Celestino Campusano. It's a melodrama set in rural southern Argentina about the relationship between a Catholic priest and a gay teen in his parish. Actually, it's two different stories: one about the priest's life, especially how the church (mis)handles his "problem"; and the other about the teen's, especially his difficult relationship with his intolerant father and sympathetic sister, and his search for another relationship after the priest dumps him.
This would be a challenging project under the best of circumstances, but Campusano chooses to cast nonprofessionals with essentially no previous acting experience, based on their physical appearance and enthusiasm rather than training, and their inexperience too often shows. Also, some of the plot seems wildly unrealistic, leaving me to wonder whether they ran out of money and/or time and just decided to move on rather than film a more believable story. And squeamish viewers will be turned off by the explicit (brief) nudity, although others may find this a plus.
This would be a challenging project under the best of circumstances, but Campusano chooses to cast nonprofessionals with essentially no previous acting experience, based on their physical appearance and enthusiasm rather than training, and their inexperience too often shows. Also, some of the plot seems wildly unrealistic, leaving me to wonder whether they ran out of money and/or time and just decided to move on rather than film a more believable story. And squeamish viewers will be turned off by the explicit (brief) nudity, although others may find this a plus.