Cola De Mono

"Cola de Mono" takes place over the course of an unbearably hot Santiago Christmas Eve in 1986, in those pre-tech days before cell phones were invented and families still had to talk to each other. However, Borja's (Crist�bal Rodr�guez-Costabal) family don't, at least not very much. He's a precocious young man, about to turn 17 and obsessed with movies - especially the stack of obscure ones on VHS tapes that he inherited from his late father, a movie critic.

His chain-smoking mother Irene (Carmina Riego) doesn't hesitate to tell her son that he is weird, as she is, too, in a different way. She claims that the only 'normal' one in their family is Borja's older brother, Vincente (played by his real-life brother Santiago Rodr�guez-Costabal).

Most of the preparation of the dinner that night is taken up with the making of Cola De Mono, a traditional Chilean eggnog drink served for the holidays. It's the consumption this holiday libation that emboldens the boys to want to start fulfilling some of their erotic fantasies.

In this family everyone, including the late father, has secrets, and they are all determined to keep them to themselves; but before Christmas Day dawns, several will come to light, with dire consequences. Maybe it's the extreme heat or the potency of the Cola de Mono, or just their sheer sexual repression, but this is not a night for turning back.

This is the sixth movie from openly gay Chilean writer/director Alberto Fuguet, and his first to have an LGBT theme. Impressively made on a mini-budget, it's a compelling movie that mixes dark themes with a fair smattering of humor (and, one suspects, a dose of reality: Was the story taken from his own life?). The casting is inspired, especially using the Rodr�guez-Costabal brothers to play the brothers (and, in the final part of the movie, when it fast forwards to 1999, the older brother plays the adult Borja). Neither they nor the rest of the cast, have any inhibitions at all about the nudity that's featured throughout.

There is a fair element of surprise, with some unpredictable plot twists, and this certainly adds to the compelling nature of this fascinating movie.

"Cola de Mono"
DVD
$24,99
http://tlareleasing.com/films/cola-de-mono/