Hombres Íntegros (Spanish) [Fine Young Men]

Alf’s story leaves an uneasy question behind: is he a victim of the world around him, or does he share responsibility for what it does? He is a teenager trying to understand his sexuality and his attraction to Oliver, yet he is also a wealthy boy whose role in a terrible crime may remain with him for the rest of his life. The actor playing Alf holds those contradictions together with remarkable skill, and the rest of the cast is equally strong.

The film’s shift into tragedy is startling. At first, it resembles a queer coming-of-age romance, following Alf as he returns to his Catholic all-boys school in Mexico after a year at a religious boarding school in the United States. His old friends have changed: the precocious boys he remembers now pursue girls and drunken parties. Alf is drawn instead to Oliver, a new student who plays the ukulele and feels out of place among them. Oliver’s cousin Diana joins the two of them one day, while Alf finds himself caught between his wealthy, party-loving friends and the connection growing between him and Oliver. His friends hurl slurs at Oliver and urge Alf to keep his distance, even though the attraction between the two boys is clear and, so far, unacted upon.

Then one night changes everything. Drunk, the boys encounter Diana outside another party and take her back to the house. They assault her. The following morning, panicking, they accidentally kill her and dispose of her body. Alf’s high-ranking, ambitious politician father uses his money and connections in the aftermath, but his priority is protecting his own career, not helping those harmed. The film offers no happy resolution; instead, it shows how privilege and power can keep people from facing consequences.

Set among Mexico’s elite, the film explores a world reminiscent of the wealthy milieu in Spain’s Elite, but through a Mexican lens the reviewer had not previously encountered. Its subjects extend beyond the crime: the culture of a Catholic boys’ school, the treatment of women, the church’s influence on the boys, Alf’s parents’ marriage slowly coming apart, and the struggle to be honest about one’s identity. On returning to Mexico, Alf is plunged into a male-dominated culture marked by sexism, racism, and homophobia. The abrupt passage from apparent gay rom-com to full tragedy makes the film especially uncomfortable, and its examination of machismo, misogyny, and homophobia lingers. (7/10)