Cuatro lunas (2014) Reviews

• Why can't the Gay Films in the U.S be this good?

  michaeleb10252015-04-03

  It amazes me with all the talent and money in Hollywood that Gay films are generally so lousy. Except for a couple of films like GBF and The Geography Club there have been almost no good gay films in the past year or so. There are big director pretentious movies like Philadelphia or Broke Back Mountain in the past, but we need something more real and less hysterically depressing. This film is sweetly wonderful and true to life. Watching is like hearing the stories of people I have known. The well chosen actors give beautiful performances. The story telling is almost perfect. Chemistry between the leads is excellent and believable. When someone starts talking up an American gay director who makes a lot of product that isn't very good and acts like people should settle for it, I would rather read subtitles and see a movie of this caliber instead. Some of the very best Gay films are coming from outside of our borders where gifted directors are making very good films without huge budgets or overpaid actors. I have seen some excellent Gay films this year, none of them come from Hollywood.

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• Extraordinarily ambitious and original

  jm107012014-12-22

  4 Moons is an extraordinarily ambitious and original movie that almost completely succeeds. It is not a collection of short movies, but it tells four separate stories. Each story corresponds to one of the four phases of the moon: new, half waxing, full, and half waning; and each has a gay protagonist at a roughly corresponding time of life: late childhood, late teens or very early 20s, middle 30s, and old age. Each protagonist faces challenges typically faced by gay males at those times of life, but presented in entirely original ways. As I said, this is a very ambitious movie - it attempts to give a comprehensive look at an entire lifetime of gay experiences. Not only that, but it does so with such originality that none of the four stories seemed like just a rehashing of the same old gay coming-out/mid-life-crisis/etc formulas. 4 Moons is fresh and new, not like any gay movie that came before it. The stories are not arranged sequentially but are interwoven, switching between them periodically in a way that is never distracting. Although the stories are interwoven, they do not overlap at all, and only once does a character from one story even see a character from another. All four stories take place in an affluent, very American-looking part of Mexico City, among people who seem not to have to work but aren't so rich that they're surrounded by servants. The writing and direction, and all technical aspects of the production, are uniformly excellent. I had no idea that the Mexican movie industry was as sophisticated as this movie is. The only thing that makes some stories better than others is the quality of the acting. All the actors in the two younger stories are fantastic, as good as I've ever seen anywhere. The mid-30s "full moon" story has the weakest actors and suffers for it. It's the only one of the four that plays like an overwrought telenovela and therefore is unbelievable and tedious. Actors in the old-age story are good enough to keep it from sinking but not to make it shine as the first two stories do. But those two "youth" stories (especially the one about the childhood friends who reconnect in college) - and the always excellent writing and direction - lift the whole movie far above 99% of its competition.

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• A journey for love

  dineshkapoor2015-07-12

  Gay cinema has reached an epitome, by walking hand in hand with director Sergio Tovar Velarde. Four Moons ( Cuatro Luna's ) is one the most beautiful yet perfect LGBTQ feature films I have seen in years. In comparison with films like The Normal Heart or Pride it doesn't bother to tell a story of struggle for rights. Its a nice blend of relationships and the time-line of sexuality. The movie has four different layers. Each and every layers poses a different timescale of life. In one those layers the director successfully portrait the fear and curiosity of a kid who has instinct for a same sex. The second luna tells when young individuals have dilemma between his own skin, his love and family responsibility. Its eventually the most relevant in our society and time. The pride and respect can precisely enter in this situation to make a dignified decision. The third layer is address the loyalty issue of gay relationship/ marriage. It also push gay men into an another degree to ask themselves that "what is the glue for a successful relation ?" Is this sex ?? or love can handle it perfectly. Director ends the third node in a situation where society can learn why the stigma should banished and so the judgmental mentality. The most captivating chapter of the movie deals with the gay men and aging. Aging is natural law, so the sexuality. But the stigma within the homosexual community about age is prominent. How a same sex also could be a inspiration for the poetic creation is cleverly captured in this celluloid.Gay poets like Oscar Wilde to Emily Dickinson has known about their keen towards creation, but may be the first time it has been filmed the inspiration behind those. In conclusion its a journey in a time machine in a homosexual stigmatized world in search of love. Its clearly convey its message as well as teach us about the priority and balance. I preach this movie to watch if you are homosexual. I believe you won't regret.

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• Four stories--all interesting.

  Red-1252014-10-24

  The Mexican film Cuatro Lunas was shown in the U.S. with the title Four Moons (2014). It was directed by Sergio Tovar Velarde. (I'm not sure if the title refers to the fact that the movie depicts four separate stories, or takes place over four months, or both.) Sometimes, a director will interweave the stories so that characters of one story interact with characters of the other stories. Not so here. Each story is independent, but the theme of all four stories is the same--difficulties face by gay men. The stories have an age separation: one is about a pre-adolescent, one about a college-age couple, one about a couple in midlife, and one about an elderly professor who is married, with grown children, but who still seeks love from a gay hustler. I found all four stories to be realistic and very moving. I was especially impressed by the story of Joaquin, the professor, played by Alonso Echinove. He has been awarded a literary prize by a small college. It's obviously a pretty minor event, but it's the only award he's likely to receive. He pays the young hustler to attend, and the young man keeps his promise to be there. We saw this film at The Little Theatre as part of ImageOut, the always impressive Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on DVD.

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• Interesting for sure

  ekeby2015-07-14

  And interesting that (as of this writing) the one negative review here is from a Mexican who calls it the worst gay movie ever. He couldn't be more wrong. If you're reading this, reviewer, take a look at my reviews to find a selection of truly cringe-making gay movies. Try watching Regarding Billy, for example. Betcha can't make it all the way through. Nevertheless, I think I know why someone from Mexico found this movie trite and a yawn. If you compare it to a Mexican movie like Y Tu Mama Tambien, yes, this is nowhere near that level. But it is competent, and it held my interest. Yes, it covers no new ground, but what is covered is done so in an interesting way. Another reviewer points out how American this depiction of Mexico looks. Having lived in Mexico I would agree that most if not all of these homes would have had servants. I suspect the director felt that if servants were seen, European and US audiences would not find the characters as sympathetic. And he'd be right. This is not a great film, but it is very good. I found nothing in this production to complain about. Well, all right, I didn't care much for the professor character or the actor who portrayed him. But maybe that's because (being in the same age bracket and out since Stonewall) I have little tolerance for closet cases--real or fictional--who have had their cake and now want to eat it. There is a telenovista element to the story lines, but I think that's intentional. A scene where a mother's dry recitation to her son of a telenovela plot is very funny-and revealing. Let's face it. Gay life can be a telenovela. From the Netflix description I too was expecting four short films. And I put off watching for that reason; it's not my favorite genre. But interwoven as they were worked well. I liked it. I think most American gay men will too.

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