{"id":10272,"date":"2019-08-23T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T14:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=10272"},"modified":"2024-02-04T12:56:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T17:56:03","slug":"angels-of-sex-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=10272","title":{"rendered":"Angels of Sex-2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Angels of Sex-2012<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Director Xavier Villaverde<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Starring Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Alvaro Cervantes, Llorenc Gonzalez<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott&#8217;s Review #934<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/70264287.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10273\" src=\"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/70264287-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/70264287-211x300.jpg 211w, https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/70264287.jpg 426w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reviewed August 23, 2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Angels of Sex (2012) is a Spanish LGBT drama that attempts to create an intriguing romantic relationship between its characters but slowly teeters into a plot-driven soap opera mess, leaving the viewer unsatisfied.<\/p>\n<p>Casting good-looking actors and showing plenty of skin only goes so far before one&#8217;s attention span begins to wane and one starts yearning for more depth, which never comes in this film.<\/p>\n<p>The filmmakers do get some props for crafting a diverse film, but the story ultimately sucks.<\/p>\n<p>The urban setting of Barcelona, Spain is the backdrop of the film as a student, Bruno (Llorenc Gonzalez), is saved by karate instructor, Rai (Alvaro Cervantes), and begins to question his sexuality as the men grow attracted to one another.<\/p>\n<p>Throwing a hurtle into their blissful affair is Bruno&#8217;s girlfriend, Carla (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), who is drawn to both men while shunning their romantic attraction to one another.<\/p>\n<p>The three characters interact and carry on affairs with each other leading to a series of emotions that influence their decisions.<\/p>\n<p>The premise is intriguing, at the beginning of the story anyway, as a &#8220;straight man meets gay man&#8221; moment immediately occurs, and sparks fly between the men.<\/p>\n<p>When Bruno accepts his attraction to Rai while also continuing his attraction to Carla a unique bisexual premise is offered. Why can&#8217;t Bruno spend equal time with Rai and Carla? Which one will he decide to choose or will choose him? Will each of the three be okay with the arrangement?<\/p>\n<p>These are the sorts of interesting questions offered by the film until it slips about halfway through.<\/p>\n<p>Each character begins to crumble and become banal and wishy-washy, especially Carla. She accepts the &#8220;time-sharing&#8221; relationship but then gets mad when she sees Rai and Bruno kiss, finally falling for Rai and having an affair with him. Huh?<\/p>\n<p>This is character assassination 101. Bruno&#8217;s motivations become unclear as he hedges on nearly every decision, while Rai becomes more brooding and indecisive.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s as if the writers did not know which direction to take the characters in or thought their good looks would carry the film.<\/p>\n<p>Other gripes include the title of the film having nothing meaningful to do with the story and rather seems like a weak effort at gaining some attention (and viewers) by incorporating such a title.<\/p>\n<p>Another irritant was the constant inclusion of unknown characters break-dancing to the song. Was this necessary? Rai has an interest in the genre, we get that, but the needless scenes seem like attempts to fill time.<\/p>\n<p>Better use of time might have been additional scenes of Carla and her mother. A passing scene or two and a situation involving Carla&#8217;s father cheating on the mother is limiting and could have been an interesting sub-plot, perhaps even figuring into the main story.<\/p>\n<p>Carla&#8217;s group of friends add little to the film especially her slutty friend bedding two others in the group. The situation seems more like an add-on or a time filler than rich writing.<\/p>\n<p>Props go to any film with the desire to showcase an LGBT-themed story as, despite the film being made in 2012, most LGBT films are still indie projects.<\/p>\n<p>I hoped for and expected more from the film especially the culturally interesting location of a European hotbed of sexuality and parties.<\/p>\n<p>Angels of Sex (2012) starts well until disintegrating into a bad LGBT episode of &#8220;As the World Turns&#8221; or &#8220;Days of our Lives&#8221; with poor character writing, unnecessary supporting characters and a feeble attempt at a twist ending that merely turns into a red herring and thereby a disappointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Angels of Sex-2012 Director Xavier Villaverde Starring Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Alvaro Cervantes, Llorenc Gonzalez Scott&#8217;s Review #934 Reviewed August 23, 2019 Grade: C Angels of Sex (2012) is a Spanish LGBT drama that attempts to create an intriguing romantic relationship between its characters but slowly teeters into a plot-driven soap opera mess, leaving the viewer unsatisfied. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=10272\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Angels of Sex-2012<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3445,3447,35,213,339,122,331,3446,1503,3444],"tags":[75,3449,3451,67,214,123,340,332,3450,1505,3448],"class_list":["post-10272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2012-films","category-alvaro-cervantes","category-astrid-berges-frisbey","category-foreignfilms","category-foreign-dramas","category-lgbt-dramas","category-gay-films","category-lgbt-foreign-language-films","category-llorenc-gonzalez","category-spanish","category-xavier-villaverde","tag-2012-movie-reviews","tag-alvaro-cervantes","tag-astrid-berges-frisbey","tag-foreign-language-films","tag-foreign-dramas","tag-gaylesbian-films","tag-lgbt-dramas","tag-lgbt-foreign-language-films","tag-llorenc-gonzalez","tag-spanish","tag-xavier-villaverde"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10272"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19921,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272\/revisions\/19921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}