About:
4 Moons tells four stories about love and self-acceptance. An eleven-year-old boy struggles to keep secret the attraction he feels towards his male cousin. Two former childhood friends reunite and start a relationship that gets complicated due the fear one of them has of getting caught. A long lasting gay relationship is in jeopardy when a third man comes along. An old family man is obsessed with a young male prostitute and tries to raise the money to afford the experience.
In Spanish, with English subtitles
Review:
So… About a week ago someone tweeted a link to the trailer of this movie. I rarely ever click on movie trailers, but for some reason I did click on this one.. My first thought was: Lord, please, help us.
Why, you say? Here’s why.
The first thing I noticed about this movie was that because of the accent of the guys and and the images I saw in it, this was very clearly, a Mexican Movie. I love Mexican films, but I was scared shittless that this movie would portray all the horrible stereotypes that my county (remember that I’m Mexican) is known for. I was also afraid that it would show the homophobic side of it, which, yeah, it still exist. And no, it’s not a general view. There are many people who support LGBTQ causes, but because we are the country of machos, it rarely ever gets seen or regognized. I was afraid that this was the side that would be shown in the movie. I was surprised that it wasn’t. Yes, there were a few things that were there, but the producers found a way to break the stereotype.
So, what’s the story here? Cuatro Lunas tells us four different stories.
There’s the story of an 11 year old boy that is just realizing that he likes boys, and not girls. He knows he’s different and he knows that it could cause him trouble. This story was the one that worried me the most. It presents the curiosity and the need to know that kids that age have. Now, because I work with kids precisely that age, I know this happens. I know they are curious, and I know that that feeling and questioning is common (I, myself was a very curious 11-12 year old girl), so even though I felt some discomfort while seeing some of these things, I know that it was a realistic portrayal.
Then, there’s the story of two childhood friends that lost contact and reunite in college. Theirs is a lovely story, albeit frustrating at times. But it seemed to me that it reflected a reality for some men. One of them knows who he is and embraces it. The other one is just discovering his attraction to men and it causes him conflict, and yet he can’t stop but show his friend that he cares. His actions are contradicting, but felt genuine.
Then there’s the story of a couple who’ve been together for ten years. I think this was the one that caused me more conflict – emotional conflict, that is. There is a painful realism to it, and how sometimes for long term relationships is so difficult to keep things togehter and hold them in place. It reflected perfectly well that horrible feeling of wanting to stop the inevitable for one more second because you know you can do this, you know you can save this, and yet you find yourself seeing it all crumble around you unable to stop it. It was a sad story, but it was a story about finding yourself, and forgiving yourself (and the other) and loving yourself more than you could love anyone else.
Finally, there’s the story of an old man who got married, had kids and grandkids and has to look for someone who can fullfill those needs. In this story, the one who becomes the object of his affection (or obsession) his a hustler. I was angry with this story. On one side I felt terribly bad for the old man because it can’t be easy at all to live a life hiding. On the other side, I felt also terrible for the wife who had zero clue of what was happening. And then somewhere in the middle I felt a terrible anger towards the hustler sometimes. I was surprised that he won me in the end.. Kind of.
If you’re worried that this movie will end the same way LGBTQ films end, which is.. sad, and sad and sad, don’t worry. All four stories show hope, lots of hope. And I think that in a way, they all have a happy ending – ones more solid than the others, but all (well, most) of the characters are happy, and trying to find their way, fighthing for who they are and what they want.
On a nice side note, the moms in this movie are awesome moms. It was great to see this. I buddy watched this with my friend Allan, and the guy kept saying “I love the mom” so yea, I loved the mom too.
As for the acting.. I think some actors pulled it better than others, but that’s for you to judge. In general it was pretty good. Oh, beware of all the bad words! HA!
Where To Watch:
Now, this is a tricky one. Netflix has this movie in Netflix USA and it’s also in Netflix Mexico. I suppose that for most countries in Latin America this won’t be difficult to get. Unfortunately, it’s not in other Netflix sites. I’m still trying to find other links or possibilites to get this. If anyone has options, let me know. I’d be glad to add them here… I mean, of course you can buy the DVD (I’m doing that) but.. yeah.
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