Summoning nature’s earth-shaking forces — first volcanic eruptions, now earthquakes — to serve as resounding signifiers of instability, Guatemalan auteur Jayro Bustamante’s two features to date roar as sobering assessments of systematic marginalization in a society unwilling to broaden its viciously narrow status quo. First, “Ixcanul” objected to corrosive misogyny and racism; now homophobia is the target in his sophomore social drama “Tremors,” which had its North American premiere last March at the Miami Film Festival and opens theatrically Friday.
Bustamante’s social pariah, a white man from the upper crust of society, is far removed, at least in obvious parallels, from the teenage indigenous woman chastised by her community for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the director’s debut. Their personal hells, however, emanate from the same phallocentric well of hatred. In both instances, Bustamante lets his embattled protagonists unravel without the empty promise of a fortunate resolution.
A masculine fellow by all traditional parameters,...
Bustamante’s social pariah, a white man from the upper crust of society, is far removed, at least in obvious parallels, from the teenage indigenous woman chastised by her community for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the director’s debut. Their personal hells, however, emanate from the same phallocentric well of hatred. In both instances, Bustamante lets his embattled protagonists unravel without the empty promise of a fortunate resolution.
A masculine fellow by all traditional parameters,...
- 11/29/2019
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
"Do you believe that we have the right to be happy if it hurts other people?" Film Movement has debuted an official Us trailer for the acclaimed Guatemalan drama Tremors, not to be confused with the monster movie cult classic of the same name. Originally titled Temblores in Spanish, the film is about the coming out of an evangelical patriarch, which shatters his family, his community and uncovers a profoundly repressive society. This first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and has stopped by numerous other major festivals including Seattle, Outfest, San Sebastián, Athens, Vancouver, London, and Chicago. Starring Juan Pablo Olyslager, Mauricio Armas, Diane Bathen, María Telón, and Sergio Luna. This has been receiving rave reviews from critics, who say it has "extraordinary nuance [and] compassion." Definitely worth a look. Here's the official Us trailer (+ intl. trailers & posters) for Jayro Bustamante's Tremors, from YouTube: When the handsome and...
- 10/21/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“Love knows nothing improper,” chides a zealous preacher in “Tremors.” Ostensibly, she says it to an entire rapt church; more pointedly, she’s addressing mild-mannered family man Pablo, as he’s dragged through a terrestrial hell for the cardinal sin of falling in love with another man. What’s the greater impropriety, then: same-sex love or the victimization of its practitioners, to the point of denying them jobs or access to their children? As the latest in a long line of films to examine the hypocrisy-laden clash between gay rights and evangelical Christian ethos — including the recent U.S. double bill of “Boy Erased” and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” — this strong second feature from Guatemalan talent Jayro Bustamante doesn’t ask new questions, but its sensuous, reverberating atmospherics find fresh, angry ways to answer them.
Premiering in Berlin’s Panorama strand, “Tremors” is a weighty, promise-fulfilling follow-up to a dream debut.
Premiering in Berlin’s Panorama strand, “Tremors” is a weighty, promise-fulfilling follow-up to a dream debut.
- 2/15/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
There are any number of movies about gay men trying to liberate themselves from the long shadow of heteronormative oppression — a regrettably, enduringly relevant premise — but few have been told with the extraordinary nuance or compassion of Jayro Bustamante’s “Tremors.”
The Guatemalan drama begins where a previous iteration of this drama might have left off. Rather than argue for the hero’s basic humanity, Bustamante moves the goalposts forward by reframing the stakes. There’s never any doubt that Pablo has the right to be with the man he loves, the question is whether the happiness that would bring is worth the hurt that would come with it. And it’s a question that only Pablo can answer for himself.
From its rain-drenched prologue to its pensive final shot, “Tremors” explores whether self-identity is more legibly defined by what people are, or what they are not. Must we shed...
The Guatemalan drama begins where a previous iteration of this drama might have left off. Rather than argue for the hero’s basic humanity, Bustamante moves the goalposts forward by reframing the stakes. There’s never any doubt that Pablo has the right to be with the man he loves, the question is whether the happiness that would bring is worth the hurt that would come with it. And it’s a question that only Pablo can answer for himself.
From its rain-drenched prologue to its pensive final shot, “Tremors” explores whether self-identity is more legibly defined by what people are, or what they are not. Must we shed...
- 2/12/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
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