Deeply flawed yet encouraging, this sophomore outing evinces that hefty finessing could launch Cazado as a defter, much needed, pro-LGBTQ artistic voice at home. Thank you, Kevin, for this wonderful work you are doing to celebrate gay men.
And it all makes up this wonderful multi-faceted diamond of which I am a part. Such beautiful, wonderful diversity to be celebrated in the variety of gay. As a package, “Cousins” induces you to both swoon and roll your eyes.ĭonning multiple creative caps as co-director, costar and sole screenwriter, Cazado, playing a character half his real age, at least aces the in-front-of-the-camera portion with a heart-melting turn excelling in a production cluttered with mawkish theatrics. Loved watching the videos, just as I love reading all the testimonies. To conceal the flat pedestrian lighting and bargain-software score, though, would call for a major aesthetic refurbishing. If nothing else, their attraction sizzles with credibility. Sao Paulo Pride is the biggest gay Pride parade on the planet, and The Week is the world’s largest gay club. It also boasts one of the world’s largest gay scenes. No explicit sexual acts contaminate the purity maintained by the filmmakers, but there’s no shortage of full-frontal male nudity.Įffervescent chemistry between the secret lovers, who exude winsome soft-heartedness, as opposed to ravenous desire, lifts the liaison above the forced levity that plagues the writing. Sao Paulo is one of the world’s largest and most densely populated cities. However, a few hormone-filled days with distant cousin Mario (Cazado), fresh-out-of-prison gallant with little modesty, yank the musically inclined Lucas out into the open fields of homoerotic exploration.
Corny to its core but with enough charisma to avert total insufferableness, it’s a bubbly counteraction of a movie boasting a progressive conclusion.Ĭloseted young man Lucas (Paulo Sousa) abides by his devout Aunt Lourdes’ (Juliana Zancanaro) moral parameters while fencing off a persistent girl’s advances. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s homophobic conceptualization of his country has no place in Mauro Carvalho and Thiago Cazado’s “Cousins,” a gay teen romance that blossoms within the walls of a hyper-religious household.