A out-of-work single mom (Samantha Castillo) goes into homophobic panic when she begins to notice her 9-year-old son, Junior (Samuel Lange Zambrano), picking up certain gender-bending habits: sitting down to pee, fixating on televised beauty contests, and entertaining a fetishitic obsession with making straight the mangled curls he inherited from his father. Not bad for a message picture that plays heavily on the emotions. The political agenda is dealt with in an honest, shrewdly efficient manner — the “g” word isn’t mentioned until almost an hour into the picture. It’s when writer, director Mariana Rondón veers from her well-intentioned agenda, using their cramped Venezuelan tenement and overall squalid living conditions as a running visual commentary track, that the film comes to life. The sex scenes — particularly when mom leaves the bedroom door cracked so Junior may watch as she sleeps her way to the top — are frank, sensual, and, for the first time in ages, integral to the plot. (2014) — Scott Marks
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