Tremors (2019)
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Tremors Movie Review
Tremors is a 2019 Guatemalan drama film directed by Jayro Bustamante and starring Juan Pablo Olyslager. It is a very dark, but well made drama.
When an evangelical father comes out, his family and community are left shattered, and an extremely repressive society is revealed. This movie depicts Guatemalan society as not just deeply repressive, but also extremely family-oriented and restrictive. I don’t know enough about this country to comment on the authenticity of this depiction, but at times the movie was bordering on being implausible as it continued to pile torment upon torment on its protagonist.
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With that being said, this is still a very powerful take on not just homophobia, but on families’ reluctance to accept gay members within their circle. It is always easy to point blame on them without ever delving deeper into the issue, but this filmmaker is clever enough to portray the issue in a nuanced manner.
Every single member of Pablo’s family reacted in a different way. Some want to cure him, others want him to lie about his sexuality while his sister questions why he “became” gay in the first place. But every one of them wants to help him in his own way, which makes his situation even more frustrating.
Tremors is also a very competently made film that is tonally very versatile. Whenever the protagonist gets to play out his gay life, he is content and excited. But whenever he is with his family, he is in utter anguish. This led to a tumultuous rollercoaster of a ride that was consistently involving and emotionally exhilarating.
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Tremors is well acted with Juan Pablo Olyslager delivering a stellar performance in the main role. Others also delivered, though the character roster is huge, so they don’t get to shine all that much with the gay characters being particularly sidelined here. The movie is technically well made, but hardly cinematic. The religion’s strangle on sexuality is well explored and the movie’s ending is memorably dark.
Tremors is a Guatemalan drama that is at times somewhat implausible and overly dreary, but it is mostly a very effective, emotionally exhausting and inherently dark exploration of religion’s toxic effect on sexuality. Tonally diverse and very well acted, this drama was at its best when it dealt with the anguishing conflict that exists in everyone of us where we struggle to live our lives to the fullest while still respecting the wishes of our closest families.
My Rating – 4
This is the 25th film in my American Cinema Marathon where I will watch one film from each American country every day. Next up is 🇪🇨.
Results
#1. Guatemala borders which of these countries?
Select all that apply:
