The Perfect David (El perfecto David) is a tense yet poetic modern-day coming of age story. It accurately reflects an 18-year old’s transition into manhood, trying to fit into his new adult world when life goals, sexuality, and relationships are usually still a bit vague and sometimes temporarily heading in the wrong direction.
Premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Argentinian writer and director Felipe Gomez Aparicio, along with co-writer Leandro Custo, have drawn on personal experiences to tell a tale of a young man’s pursuit of the perfect body, drawing on themes of perfection, control and co-dependency – issues affecting many of today’s young men.
David is a young student, and although he already has a beautiful body, he is not satisfied and is obsessively driven to get bigger and bigger, preparing for a looming body-building competition. He is aided and abetted by his obsessive mother, his gym instructor and fellow bodybuilders. The pressure from everyone is intense and he goes to further and further lengths to attain the perfect body, such as using steroids, eating protein in the middle of the night and working out more and more often. This starts to affect his mood and relationships.
David has a very close, almost weird, relationship with his artist mother, Juana, who measures his muscles every day and notes his progress, pushing him to get bigger and bigger – the classic pushy mother aiming for the perfect child. She uses plaster molds of David’s body to create sculptures. It seems that no father has been around for a while and so, as often happens, mother and son have developed a very close intense relationship. This is shown in many scenes which have very little dialogue – few words are necessary between them, with dialogue shown through body language. His mother is a delightfully extreme character – we never quite know what she is going to do next. Her behavior has no filter – her hands lingering on his muscles a little longer than necessary during her daily measuring of him, and intimate scenes such as her shaving his armpits, add to the general sense of suspense.
David is excellently portrayed by 18-year-old newcomer Mauricio Di Yorio who had never acted before taking this role. He gives a very subtle, well-crafted performance, accurately reflecting the awkward insecurity that most men of his age feel. His mother Juana is also convincingly performed by multi-faceted artist Umbra Colombo.
This movie has a cold dark tone, and is often filmed in shadows. The atmosphere owes a lot to cinematographer Adolpho Veloso’s moody lighting and the generally unsettling undercurrent of suspense is brought to life by composer Ezequiel Flehner’s excellent score. We constantly feel that something bad is just about to happen. A good film to watch now the nights are drawing in – the numerous scenes of topless David working out his impressive torso, combined with the intensity of his mind, will leave you thinking about his physical and mental state long after you have finished watching the movie.
Being screened at Outshine Film Fest in Fort Lauderdale : further screenings contact
[email protected]Review: Queerguru’s newest contributor Ris Fatah (when he can be bothered) is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
