Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Sebastián Silva, Jordan Firstman
Intro:
... its perverse and oddly intriguing twists on more recognisable genre trappings make for a fascinating and delightfully unhinged viewing experience.
After a chance meeting in Mexico, writer-director Sebastián Silva and Instagram comedian Jordan Firstman decided to work on a film together. Rotting in the Sun is about Sebastián Silva having a chance meeting with Jordan Firstman in Mexico and deciding to work on a film together. Oh, and male nudity. A lot of male nudity.
Silva and Pedro Peirano’s scripting takes great relish in thoroughly taking the piss out of both main stars, with Silva shown as a depressive ketamine junkie who has gone to Mexico expressly to end his own life, and Firstman as a vapid social media influencer who, after saving Silva from drowning at a nude beach, starts making Silva wish that he hadn’t.
A lot of it builds on Silva’s past filmography to layer on the surreal nature of the narrative, from Firstman fanboying out over Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus (whose star, Michael Cera, was initially tapped to star in this before concerns about dominant displays of penis got in the way), the lifesaving sequence echoing Silva’s first feature Life Kills Me, and Catalina Saavedra, star of The Maid, appearing as Silva’s live-in housekeeper Vero.
It starts out as a bleak look at the depressed Gay in his natural environment, drifting through a cock cornucopia but finding little joy in it, or indeed anything else in life. But then things take a sharp turn for the howcatchem when Silva suddenly disappears, and it’s up to Firstman to find out what happened to him. Further escalating the jabs at the distraction industry that is social media and its propagators, Firstman takes the place of a gay Columbo as he tries to figure out the highly surreal circumstances of Silva’s ghosting, trying in vain to get his Instagram following to help solve the case.
Through its weaving-together of language barriers, the facades put up by creatives in the public spotlight, and the unfortunate misinterpretations of others’ mental health statuses, the film morphs from its singular character portrait of Silva into an even deeper look into not just Firstman and his approaching ego death, but also Vero, whose personal arc shares thematic DNA with the likes of Cuarón’s Roma (right down to being filmed in the same titular neighbourhood), showing her quietly and devastatingly dealing with the gross disregard and privilege of her employers.
The intense melancholy brought on by her increased presence, right down to the absurdly tragic conclusion, works surprisingly well as a counterpoint to what Firstman is involved in: an embodiment of the stereotypical White tourist in Mexico, a hilariously ridiculous piss-take of Gay nightlife, and a viscerally chaotic atmosphere that’s like a Safdie brothers production without a safety railing.
Rotting in the Sun is a daring and original take on the social media phenomenon of living life only through the perceptions of others. Its prominent portrayal of protruding penii at play could be a potential preventative for folks who are faint of phallus (it easily could’ve been renamed ‘Rigid in the Sun’), but its perverse and oddly intriguing twists on more recognisable genre trappings make for a fascinating and delightfully unhinged viewing experience.
