BOYSTOWN (CHUECATOWN)
Directed by Juan Flahn
Produced by Mariví De Villanueva, Julio Fernández, & Fernando Monje
Written by Félix Sabroso, Dunia Ayaso, & Flahn
Released by TLA Releasing
Spanish with English subtitles
Spain. 100 min. Not Rated
With Pepón Nieto, Pablo Puyol, Concha Velasco, Rosa Maria Sardà, Carlos Fuentes, & Eduard Soto 
 

Gays are in, little old ladies are out. Unfortunately for them, said little old ladies are not so willing to be “out.” In fact, they refuse to leave altogether. Frustrated real estate agent Victor (Pablo Puyol), who has dreams of turning Madrid’s Chueca neighborhood into a trendy, high-end oasis for homosexuals, takes matters into his own hands (to an extreme degree). Most, if not all, of these ladies make it clear to him that, regardless of his generous offers and passionate, borderline manic, descriptions of Chueca’s potential, they will not sell their apartments. His solution: to strangle them in their own homes and make it look like suicide.

His plan hits a snag when one deceased secretly willed her apartment to her gay, uncouth neighbors Rey (Carlos Fuentes) and Leo (Pepón Nieto)—not exactly the kind of homosexuals Vincent had in mind to populate his gayborhood. They fart and burp with a mischievous grin, and laugh loudly at their own uncivilized behavior. To make matters ironically worse, Rey offers the apartment to his overbearing, chain-smoking mother, Antonia (Concha Velasco), and poor Victor must correct the situation once again. By this time, however, paranoid police inspector Mila (the comical Rosa Maria Sardà of All About My Mother), who fears everything from spiders to guns, and her sexually confused son, Luis (Eduard Soto), are on his tail. (Sardà is a major standout with her odd sensitivity to smell and endless array of gloves)

The plot is predictable, but that hardly detracts from the film’s wacky and completely entertaining environment. It’s interesting to note the prominent mother-son relationships in a film whose victims are older women. Both Antonia and Inspector Mila are terrible mothers to rather submissive sons. Where one is overbearingly intrusive and controlling, a constant thorn in Leo’s side, the latter fears touch and emotion to such a degree that her son seeks comfort elsewhere—namely, in Chueca’s hot and steamy bathhouses (an appropriate location for the climactic ending). If you’re a fan of black humor zaniness (Arsenic and Old Lace, Manhattan Murder Mystery) and/or early Pedro Almodóvar comedies you’ll enjoy Flahn’s stab at the genre. Full of vibrant colors and eccentric characters, Chuecatown (Boystown) is a dark screwball that fuses the hip world of homosexuals, the persistence of real estate agents, and the murder of little old ladies into a manic mass of mayhem. B. Bastron
October 31, 2008