MACHO

Mexico, 2017, 102 minutes, Colour.

Miguel Rodarte, Renato Lopez, Mario Ivan Martinez, Aislinn Derbez, Cecilia Suarez, Maria Elena Aguilar, Manolo Cardona.

Directed by Antonio Serrano.

Everybody concerned with this project must’ve had tongues firmly in cheek throughout the writing and through the production. It is high farce.

But, as the title indicates, there are attitudes, depictions and expectations of masculinity, men and the relationship with women, and the introduction of gay themes. This is a Mexican film, Mexican and Hispanic humour, exaggerating characters and issues for all they are worth – and sometimes beyond!

And, the film is set in the world of fashion, many sequences of sketches and designs, of making and fixing costumes, of models, of the catwalk, of critical reaction? For audiences who enjoyed fashion films, they will be highly entertained.

The basic premise is that the star designer, Evaristo (Evo) has achieved fame in Mexico and beyond, the film opening with a fashion exhibition in New York. Later, Evo and the troupe will travel to Columbia. Evo is the gayest of gay fashion designers, all the mannerisms and more, extreme camp. However, it is revealed that he has not homosexual at all, in fact is rather homophobic, and has continuous affairs with his models, waitresses, women that he encounters in his travels.

Throughout the film, there are two young documentary makers are filming everything in Evo’s life. (One of them, female, tries to pass as male.) The couple go to all lengths to film Evo, including some of his heterosexual encounters. They are then prepared to sell their documentary footage to the highest bidder.

A jealous critic indicates that Evo is not gay so Evo’s chief adviser, shrewd and businesslike, suggest that he cultivate a gay relationship and chooses young man was come to work in the office.

A lot of the comedy is Evo’s attempts, often skew if, is often being outraged by being kissed by the young man, to cultivate the gay image, assisted by the documentary makers. The young man, on the contrary, is grieving the death of his husband and goes to work to survive. The husband has left him a lavish country house. And this is the occasion for Evo’s visits, the photography, and, finally, an attempt by a jealous husband of a model to kidnap Evo.

In the meantime, for promotion, Evo agrees to go to Columbia to raise money by an exhibition for orphans in an orphanage run by nuns. There is a lot of photography, the two men posing as parents with the orphans as family.

Complication after complication, of course. Evo, continually frantic, trying new designs, but withdrawing after the kidnap attempt and the kidnapper trying to force Evo to a high building. In the meantime, his manager and the young man design the next exhibition, Evo, still frantic, attending and being forced onto the catwalk. And the solution – a wedding between Evo, the young man, and the star model!

More than enough for a gay and camp audience. Silly and exaggerated enough for a wider audience.