Movie Review - Seashore

Written and directed by Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon, the film follows two young boys as they travel to an empty house and stay there for a couple of days. There is an older boy named Martin who is old enough to drive and to get into nightclubs, but still looks like he's a teenager. The other boy named Tomaz is younger who dyes his hair blue and does sketch drawings.

Martin, played by Mateus Almada, goes to this empty house in order to have easy access to his grandparents. He has to go to his grandparents' house in order to do something or get something, but he doesn't know why or what even the "something" is. He doesn't even ask or try to investigate, and that's what's most frustrating.

It becomes obvious that there was some kind of family issue that had caused some strife or distance, but we never learn what it is, or any real details about it. Matzembacher and Reolon have this recurring trick of having characters in the foreground then walk into a blurry background, and narratively, whenever Martin dealt with his family, it was the equivalent of walking into a blurry background but not as compelling.

What Matzembacher and Reolon make less blurry is the fact that Tomaz is gay. Several scenes wordlessly indicate his disinterest with sex with women and his preference for leering at shirtless men like a friend named Bento or even Martin himself. Obviously, the filmmakers build to Martin and Tomaz's eventual copulation.

That's made abundantly clear in an early scene when the two boys are sitting on a couch side-by-side and playing a video game very aggressively. By the jerky movements and by the way they're framed, so you can't see their hands, it seems as if the two boys are mutually masturbating.

It's funny as it was reminiscent of a joke that people on Chatroulette did, where people were getting tricked into thinking they were watching others masturbate. Once the camera moved to reveal what the hands were doing, it showed that people weren't masturbating but doing something else silly. It was a very telling joke or prank to do in this movie.

The two boys are young and cute. Their flirtations and eventual scene of intercourse are sexy to watch, but there isn't much more to it. The final shot would indicate there is something deeper happening with Martin, but the filmmakers walk too much into blurriness to have it be clear.

Two Stars out of Five.
Not Rated but contains sexual situations.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 23 mins.