Lokas

Director: Gonzalo Justiniano

Review by Robert Sabetto

I wanted to love this one.  Really.  But I didn’t, Blanche—I didn’t!  Not that it’s bad.  Lokas is a cute, upbeat comedy with a lesson for y’all and a little romance thrown in for good measure.  Charly (Rodrigo Bastidas) is quite the straight guy.  A widower, he lives in Mexico City with his pre-pube son, Pelle (Raimundo Bastidas).  After a run-in with the fuzz that lands Charly in jail—where we learn papi’s a big ol’ ‘phobe—his mother kicks them out.  Did I mention he lives at his mother’s house?  A criminal record does not amount to job security, OK?  But Charly’s daddy, whom he hasn’t seen in, oh, 30 years, can get him one…in Chile.   Well, guess what?  Charly’s father, Mario (Coco Lagrande), is a ‘mo, and he partnered up with Flavio (Rodrigo Murray).  What’s more, the job is in a gay bar.  The only way Charly can get it is to pretend he’s gay.  Gurl!

Lokas takes a look at homosexuality in Latino culture.  The film has considerable charm.  It eschews heavy-handedness, and a lot of the dialogue is funny.  The scenes and the characters are colorful.  Lagrande is grandfatherly yet unmistakably gay.  The film’s sweetest moments occur between Mario and Pelle.  What makes me like it, rather than love it, is that everything about it is simplistic.  The script is textbook, and the characters are stereotypical—even Charly.  The situations are not exactly believable.  The ending, of course, is a neat, happy one.  Plus, it reminded me too much of Bird Cage.  Lokas succeeds at making its statement, I just wish it were a little more...fabulous.