It was an interesting watch. I just couldn't focus on their face reactions as I was reading the subtitle. Yeah, I'm dumb.

slightly cooked premise that maybe only reveals an inherently exploitative dimension to documentary?

I don't really get what Abramovich is doing here. The subjects staring directly into the camera robs them of their subjectivity it in a way I found disturbing even if their stories are harrowing. Ming-liang's Your Face used a similar staring at the camera technique, but there it was a means of examining faces. Here it's used in judgement which doesn't work as effectively, especially me as a gay man who just kept finding new and notable parts of them I found attractive, even as I felt for them.

A still camera, in the style of Warhol’s screen tests, presents seven portraits of Romanian sex workers at the Blue Boy Bar in Berlin. The frames are nicely composed with as interesting a cross-section as you can expect given the narrow demographic. But it all rides on their faces. More than usual, I wish I spoke the language as the subtitles take away some of the power, which derives from the direct eye contact as each stares into the camera as best he can tolerate.

It seems random at first, but there’s a clear arc, like the film is a meta form of sex work: the first guy only reads his Talent Release Form, essentially consenting to give his beauty away; the second laughs as he hears his own rote come-on to johns; the last, unseen, harangues the director for his money.

Hay de todo en estos retratos que provienen del mismo lugar, el blue boy.

La voz durante los créditos y todo el cortometraje hacen que reserve mi opinión personal sobre "lo que está bien y lo que está mal".

Pleasant, subtle, and moving. I would love to see it in a museum or some other proper venue.

The presentation isn't as effective as it could be, but this is an interesting look at various experiences of male sex workers, how they view their lives and themselves.

hard to know if this is touching and sensitive or just exploitative, lighting looked great tho

This movie has a very strange and unique concept. I loved the tension and the emotion expressed through the camera.

This is a type of film that gives you a lot to think about in a very experimental way ~ Four Stars.

MUBI

uma experiência ou um experimento?

los créditos de esta película responden a todas mis preguntas éticas acerca de esta producción.
silenciar desde todos los medios, que paila.

meine popo ja

I didn't perceive it as real. The speeches seemed fake, and the people as well. I was not sure if they were bad actors or real people treated as actors, this didn't work. Or it's real - a documentary - or it's fiction - a movie with script. This was neither one or the other one. Actually it was one pretending to be the other one. No, it didn't work.

Meh

Abramovich plantea un juego tríadico con el espectador que resulta funcional en el sentido de incomodar y seducir el morbo del espectador. Escuchar y observar la reacción del sujeto frente a la cámara, mientras se relatan historias de escorts, sus situaciones, vivencias y percepciones

Taking the ability to tell these stories away from these men seems to just be a way for Abramovich to insert himself into the film’s narrative, which is a pretty terrible and exploitative thing. These stories are powerful, awkward, intimate, and scary on their own, and the added dimension of seeing them react to their retellings feels pointless. We don’t need to see them flinch or laugh to know that these experiences are difficult and painful to recount, and I’m glad and thankful that I got to hear their stories, but I wish I could have experienced them in a setting not engineered to play to the director’s ego.

Mubi
mubi.com/films/blue-boy-2019/watch

The concept of filming people as they listen to their own testimony is so simple and so weirdly absorbing. I wonder if anyone else has tried it, it’s very effective here.

As Roger Ebert said, films are empathy machines.

Exploitative. Filmmaker seems like the kind of guy that gets off on being a total asshole.

the last one was heartbreaking.