Julia Martinez as Yaiza and Freddie Dennis as Harry Harper in a scene from "An Island Away from You." (Photo courtesy of Film Factory Entertainment)
I hope you're not afraid of a little rain. The organizers of the spring edition of this year's OUTshine Film Festival are saying “change is good” by hosting Thursday's opening gala outdoors, at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.
A bold decision, certainly bolder than “The Dinner,” the middling period dramedy they selected to kick off the 11-day event that, like several other films showing this year at venues in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, overlap with the recently wrapped up 43rd Miami Film Festival. Here's hoping those forecast showers didn't rain on their parade.
“Change is good” also applies to the protagonists of the four films from this spring's lineup reviewed below. The stories they tell hail from Spain and Mexico. Two are on the lighter side, while the other two pretty heavy. One of them is predominantly filmed in Basque, not Spanish, and another centers around an English lad who speaks the language of Cervantes rather well. Three of them don't hold back from depicting sexual activity in frank, unvarnished terms. And yes, it must be said, two of them screened earlier this month as part of the Miami Film Festival.
Freddie Dennis as Harry Harper and Jaime Zatarain as Ivan in a scene from "An Island Away from You." (Photo courtesy of Film Factory Entertainment)
Though these films vary in terms of tone and approach, their differences only serve to highlight the traits they share: resiliency in the face of dicey odds, an ability to grapple with the aftermath of tough decisions, and certain foods' capacity to build bridges. Tenacity, resolve and a refusal to give up. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours in a darkened auditorium. Or under a cloudy night sky. Let's dive in.
“An Island Away from You”: In this frothy but disposable rom-com, the Canary Islands feel like a supporting character, so much so that it often plays like a glossy ad for the tourist destination. The preordained plot comes across as so much window dressing in this picturesque, vacuous romp.
At its center is not a Spaniard but the veddy British Harry Harper (Freddie Dennis), renowned London chef, who arrives in Gran Canaria with his bestie and former co-worker Yaiza (Julia Martínez). Yaiza is there to visit her divorced parents, Famara (Toni Acosta), who runs a bed and breakfast with heavy “Mamma Mia!” vibes, and Iván (Jaime Zatarain), a fisherman with hidden talents in the kitchen. She is also helping her buddies Pichi (Carlos González) and Guiomar (Alba Goya) organize a lesbian wedding.
For Harry, Gran Canaria is a refuge where he can lick his wounds after having been left at the altar by his fiancé. Borrowing a plot point from Disney's “The Little Mermaid,” the jilted visitor is saved from drowning by a good Samaritan he nicknames “the merman.” But when he discovers his rescuer is none other than Iván, Harry slams the brakes on his infatuation.
Freddie Dennis as Harry Harper and Toni Acosta as Famara in a scene from "An Island Away from You." (Photo courtesy of Film Factory Entertainment)
Or does he? Harry is the (pasty) chef next door, and Iván, oozing sex appeal, has Mediterranean looks that scream “sexy ugly,” to quote “Kissing Jessica Stein.” The two of them flirt, bicker, have a falling out, reconcile and then repeat the vicious cycle. They're stranded in a wan rivals-to-lovers storyline that moves in fits and starts, making viewers feel like a ping-pong ball.
More embarrassing is the way “An Island Away from You” reduces Yaiza to a plot device whose behavior hinges on the stale story beats. An ill-conceived subplot concerning Pichi and Guiomar's unrequited longing for Yaiza should have been nixed; it doesn't help matters. Don't get me started on the petulant bridezillas with unrealistic demands.
Director Alexis Morante adds dashes of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Mambo Italiano” to the film's pronounced “Mamma Mia!” parallels, but working from a screenplay he co-wrote with Paola López Cuervo and Fernando Pérez, he's not up to matching a modicum of those other films' charm, try as he might. It's refreshing that the movie doesn't bat an eye about the age gap between his leads (Harry is in his 20s, Iván in his 40s), but Morante and his creative team are too busy spinning their wheels for the central relationship to catch fire. Call your travel agent and cancel this reservation.
“An Island Away from You” screens Saturday, April 25, at 7 p.m. at Silverspot Cinema in downtown Miami.
Osvaldo Sanchez as Muñeco in a scene from "On the Road." (Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing)
“On the Road”: Writer-director David Pablos weaves together a much different kind of travelogue in this atmospheric and stylish road movie that, unlike “An Island Away from You,” allows its protagonists to generate sexual heat. He has crafted a muscular, erotic odyssey that brings to mind the work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the early films of Gus Van Sant. The masculinity wafts off the screen like musk.
This hot number from Mexico kicks into gear when a young drifter who calls himself Veneno (Victor Prieto Simental) crosses paths with a trucker who calls himself Muñeco (the immensely charismatic Osvaldo Sanchez). Veneno (Spanish for poison) is running away from a dark past. Also, he has a weakness for truck drivers. Muñeco (Spanish for “doll”) has been lugging freight across northern Mexico for so long, he hardly gets to speak with his kids or his estranged wife.
Victor Prieto Simental as Veneno in a scene from "On the Road." (Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing)
Muñeco reluctantly lets Veneno ride along with him, thus giving Pablos an opportunity to immerse viewers in this community of truckers who brave sleep deprivation and road dangers to haul their cargo to its destination. They're also quite horny, and despite very much identifying as a hetero dude, Muñeco can't deny there's something about Veneno that awakens his libido.
And that should have been enough for “On the Road,” which is at its best when simply allowing these men from differing backgrounds to get to know each other. But Veneno carries with him some heavy baggage, in the form of stolen illicit substances that lead Muñeco to go into business with his younger passenger. Nothing good can come from this partnership, for the characters or the movie. It opens the door for Pablos to add a layer of underworld menace that makes the film feel like a contemporary noir, with Veneno playing the femme fatale to Muñeco's hard-boiled loner, Bacall to Muñeco's Bogart.
Victor Prieto Simental as Veneno and Osvaldo Sanchez as Muñeco in a scene from "On the Road." (Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing)
All well and good, but “On the Road” doesn't really need to lean on its crime-yarn trappings, and the tighter Pablos turns his screws on this duo, the less interesting the movie becomes. But to the filmmaker's credit, he never loses sight of the growing bond between the men, and he doesn't look away when it evolves into something far more intimate than Muñeco could have imagined. It's safe to say Pablos, who also made Netflix's absorbing period drama “Dance of the 41,” is good at creating indelible homoerotic imagery. His latest creation is somewhat compromised by its genre affectations, but it still marks him as a director to watch.
“On the Road” screens Friday, April 24, at 9:30 p.m. at Silverspot Cinema in downtown Miami. It will be available to stream from May 4 to May 10.
Helena Puig as Rosita, Artur Chavez as Cristian and Eduardo España as Jacobito in a scene from "The Divine Tragedy." (Photo courtesy of Cinephobia Releasing)
“The Divine Tragedy”: The more formally daring film in this quartet is a raunchy ensemble piece, set in Mexico City's Zona Rosa, that's bound to alienate some viewers with its provocative, button-pushing mise en scene. Me? I rather enjoyed this loopy portrait of two half-brothers, both of them gay, who unexpectedly end up back in each other's lives. Their testy relationship anchors director Sergio Tovar Velarde's visual curlicues and outré story elements.
What kicks this eccentric movie into gear is a breakup. Clingy homebody Cristian (Artús Chávez) goes into denial mode when Carlos (Rosendo Gazpel), his life partner of more than two decades, serves him divorce papers. So Cristian moves into an apartment he pays for, which is where Roy (Pablo Gómez) carries on a life of chronic promiscuity and allows a couple of friends to stay rent free.
Roy, a commitment-phobe who calls himself the best barber in Zona Rosa, is convinced his older half-brother, a square and a bit of a prude, is going to cramp his style. His style involves a revolving door of hookups that Tovar Velarde depicts with eye-popping abandon. I'm not exaggerating when I say this movie has more Dutch tilts than a Vermeer exhibit. Some may find director of photography Alex Z. Reynaud's agile camerawork distracting, but from my vantage point, it's compatible with the film's eccentricities.
Speaking of compatibility, Roy's neighbor, the hunky Esteban (Christian Ramos), becomes the hookup who keeps coming back, leading this poppers-obsessed libertine to wonder whether he's capable of becoming a one-man man. As for Cristian, the former telenovela actor who put showbiz behind to become a househusband finds a new chapter opening up before him, one that involves starting a business revolving around cannabis-infused edibles. Will he be able to thrive?
Pablo Gomez as Roy and Artur Chavez as Cristian in a scene from "The Divine Tragedy." (Photo courtesy of Cinephobia Releasing)
Saturated colors, witty repartee and pop culture references. Yup, “The Divine Tragedy” plays like a Latin American spin on a Gregg Araki movie. (Araki's latest, the more hetero-centric “I Want Your Sex,” is also part of OUTshine's spring lineup.) As long as Tovar Velarde focuses on juggling Cristian and Roy's parallel journeys of self-discovery, this is engaging midnight-movie fare with cult status well within its reach.
But “The Divine Tragedy” goes astray, because it ditches its graphic, sex-positive depiction of hanky panky for something that feels downright puritanical. Tovar Velarde is able to establish the odd-couple half-brothers as flip sides of a coin who discover they complement each other. But as the movie progresses, their arcs become more rigid, contrasting the serenity and satisfaction Cristian discovers in trying to be the best version of himself with Roy's downward spiral. The filmmaker, who also directed the 2014 OUTshine selection “4 Moons,” is unable to separate Roy's self-destructive tendencies from his choice to be promiscuous, building up to an orgy sequence that comes across as patronizing and leaves a bad taste.
Christian Ramos as Esteban and Pablo Gomez as Roy in a scene from "The Divine Tragedy." (Photo courtesy of Cinephobia Releasing)
Fortunately, this eleventh-hour portrayal of sexual abandon as sinful and harmful, reeking of repressed Catholicism, is not a dealbreaker. What comes before is too darn fun to dismiss. It's safe to say “The Divine Tragedy,” high on camp and low on misfortune, is unlike any other sex comedy out there. It gives you a contact high.
“The Divine Tragedy” screens Friday, May 1, at 9:45 p.m. at Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale. It will also be available to stream from May 4 to May 10.
“Maspalomas”: What is undoubtedly among your best options out of this lineup is this centerpiece selection, which returns us to the Canary Islands, to the titular tourist resort, where Vicente (José Ramón Soroiz), 76 and newly single, is working overtime to make up for lost time. That means hitting a secluded cruising spot in the dunes, lounging on the nude beach and whiling away the daytime hours with his buddy Ramón (Zorion Eguileor) before hitting the nightclub after dark.
But Vicente's rejuvenating bacchanalia is about to come to an abrupt end, when he suffers a stroke in the middle of a three-way. The film's directors, the Basque duo of Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga, underscore the suddenness of this change by cutting to Vicente, his face haggard and part of his body immobilized, at the nursing home in his native San Sebastián where Nerea (Nagore Aranburu), his estranged daughter, has taken him.
Gone are the saturated colors of the film's opening scenes. In their place is a stark color palette that enhances Vicente's isolation, as he goes back into the closet after finally having the opportunity to live openly. Now he finds himself navigating a minefield, and that includes getting used to living with Xanti (Kandido Uranga), the gregarious roommate who lights up every room he walks in, when he's not railing against those radical liberals. A jolly conservative. Meanwhile, a disheartened Vicente has no idea whether or not he'll be able to regain full mobility of his body.
Nagore Aranburu as Nerea and Jose Ramon Soroiz as Vicente in a scene from "Maspalomas." (Photo courtesy of Film Factory Entertainment.)
It sounds like a chore, doesn't it? But “Maspalomas” sidesteps the pitfalls that would have placed it in the Eat Your Veggies aisle of your moviegoing diet, because it's smart and unsentimental about its subject matter. It's also admirably tough on its protagonist, and doesn't let him off the hook about how he chose to be an absent father. Goenaga's screenplay is spare and tight, and knows that sometimes it's best for the characters to say nothing, so the silences are just as eloquent as the dialogue. His anthropological approach to sexuality among seniors prevents the film from becoming a wallow in misery. Also, it has been shot, vividly, on Kodak film by cinematographer Javier Agirre.
Soroiz's performance, subtle and layered, is crucial to keeping viewers invested. The star, who looks like a cross between Armin Mueller-Stahl and John Mahoney, walked away with best actor honors at the Goya Awards earlier this year, and it's easy to see why. Aranburu is also quite strong in what could have been a thankless role, and Uranga injects charisma and much-needed levity.
Jose Ramon Soroiz as Vicente in a scene from "Maspalomas." (Photo courtesy of Film Factory Entertainment.)
What gives “Maspalomas” further resonance is when it takes place, at a specific time in the not-too-distant past that accentuates the fragility of life. It's a choice by Arregi and Goenaga that could have taken the film in a more issue-driven, topical direction, but they wisely keep their fine picture character-driven. They have crafted a fiercely moving portrait of loneliness and resolve in the face of adversity. It's a real beauty.
“Maspalomas” screens Thursday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Koubek Center Theater in Miami.
For tickets and more information on other films showing as part of the OUTshine Film Festival's 2026 spring edition, go to outshinefilm.com.
