Seashore | VOD Review

The Sea Will Tell: Titillation and Vague Angst Tease Substance in Tepid Gay Tinged Drama

Though there’s still a great need to tell vibrant, meaningful queer cinematic narratives, these angst-ridden, mildly dramatic coming out narratives between affluent, handsome teenagers following a handful of scenes dripping with undeniable sexual tension leading to the inevitable physical conjugality tends to feel as egregiously cliché as any other facet of the innumerable coming-of-age narratives proliferating the cinema scene, at large. Brazilian duo Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon have concocted just that with Seashore, their directorial debut which displays this generalized trajectory amidst a vacation road trip scenario. An additional subplot involving troubling familial foibles sucks up the remainder of the film’s energy, but is handled with such vague flippancy it’s as difficult to care as it is to determine what point these additional moments of confrontation serve.

Schoolmates Marcus (Mateus Almada) and Tomaz (Mauricio Jose Barcellos) were once the best of friends but have recently drifted apart. About to graduate, they attempt to remedy the chasm with a road trip when Marcus’ father demands he take a trip to the extreme southern coast of Brazil to meet with estranged relatives concerning some important family documents. We get the sense that Tomaz may have other than platonic feelings for Marcus, but just as they begin to warm up to one another, a drunken night with a group of girls finds Marcus going off to have sex with one of them while Tomaz drinks himself into oblivion so he can avoid doing the same with the young lady who leaves the party with him.

Initially, the restrained approach constructs a rather melancholy ambience in Seashore, but the obvious awkwardness and distance between Marcus and Tomaz gets bogged down in the set dressing. We’re not quite entirely sure why Marcus’ extended family is so hostile, though we get the subtle hints pertaining to his father being a somewhat cold, unfriendly type. Why Marcus was sent in his place and what exactly the document pertains to (it doesn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to guess property or money is involved) isn’t disclosed, and this aside seems to distract from the strained dynamic with Tomaz, who clearly has feelings for his friend. And perhaps it is our methods of categorization and criticism that unfairly detract from our reception of a film like Seashore, which premiered at Berlin and then went on to play numerous slots at LGBT film festivals—something only setting us up for an expectation that is revealed as more or less as a surprise here.

We learn, quite late, that Marcus is well aware of Tomaz’s sexuality, and what’s more, he’s got some curiosities he’d like to satisfy himself. There are a handful of playful moments, particularly a sequence where we see the boys playing an aggressive bout of video games. We can’t see their appendages as they shake the couch to such a degree it resembles another hurried act of self-satisfaction.

Performances, mainly its two leads Almada and Barcellos, are all quite satisfactory, and there’s nothing except the quality of the narrative hinting at the film’s distinction as a debut, and technically, score, soundtrack and cinematography can all be considered notable strengths, with Joao Gabriel de Quieroz capturing a chilly, Brazilian winter, as frosty blue as Tomaz’s eventual dye job.

★★/☆☆☆☆☆