Pretty Boys (2024)

'Pretty Boys is a romantic comedy that follows Grey, a flamboyant and charming young man, and his lifelong best friend, Jonas (Kiel Aguilar), a heartthrob with masculine appeal. While Jonas effortlessly navigates the gay dating scene, Gray struggles to find love, convinced that his effeminate style is an obstacle. But despite countless rejections, Gray remains hopeful.
Their world turns upside down when Yates (Markus Paterson), Grey's crush, returns from the United States. Grey's heart races at the chance to rekindle his old love, but his plans are derailed when Yates unexpectedly confesses his feelings for Jonas.
By enlisting Gray's help to win Jonas's heart, Yates puts Gray in a love triangle he never saw coming. As the plot unfolds, Gray is faced with a crucial decision: support Yates in her conquest of Jonas or take the opportunity to rekindle her own love story and prove that love knows no stereotypes.
This is another film about a boy (or three) facing his sexuality and searching for love and happiness. In reality, a film that dealt well with this topic would be novel, but that is not the case. And what bothers me the most is that it is directed and written by Iván Andrés Payawal and Ash Malanum, respectively, the filmmakers of 'Gameboys', 'Gameboys: The Movie', among other series and films, and the lovers of series and feature films LGBT+ Filipinos (and universals, why not?) recognize what this means.
What bothers me the most is that it stars Tommy Alejandrino, whom I loved in his role as Nikko in 'The Day I Loved You', Kiel Aguilar, who stole my heart playing Dave in 'Osmosis' and Jerome in 'Our Story', and Markus Paterson, who still steals my smiles and sighs since I discovered him in the role of Simon in 'Hello Stranger: The Movie', three actors who, with a better script and better constructed characters, would have made the film hit the mark.
'Pretty Boys' is a simple story with fairly flat characters. The girl in love with the confessed homosexual, the three declared homosexual boys who are not sure of anything or are too silent or declare their love so superficially that they do not move anyone, the members of the technical team of the play who contribute nothing to the story... All very topical and, deep down, a reflection of a reality.
The problem is that such a serious topic requires being treated in another way, at least with credible characters. Furthermore, the story seems to be in a nebula, since the protagonist's objective seems to change with each scene; and suddenly, everything happens in the last four, maybe two minutes, leaving only dissatisfaction.
The film is entertaining, but it doesn't contribute anything because not even the director knows what he wants to tell.

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