Papi Chulo

Sean presents the weather on television in Los Angeles. He has come apart after a separation; he cries on air and is put on leave. He is alone in the house. He decides to paint his terrace and goes to where day labourers wait, and hires one. Ernesto is Mexican, middle aged, has a family, and speaks almost no English. Sean needs him less for the work than for company; he takes him out, talks to him, unburdens himself. Ernesto does not understand what is going on but takes the money. John Butler writes and directs. Matt Bomer plays Sean and Alejandro Patiño plays Ernesto. What is interesting is that the two do not understand each other. The talk goes one way; Sean pours it out and Ernesto often does not know what he is saying. The film uses that as comedy and keeps it uncomfortable at the same time. The subject is not loneliness but how loneliness gets loaded onto someone. Sean's need becomes Ernesto's job, and the film does not hide the inequality. Ernesto's family and his own life are in the narrative; the character is not built only as a function. The geography of Los Angeles is part of it: the distance between a house on a hill and the corner where the labourers wait. Its limit is tone; the shifts between comedy and drama do not hold everywhere and the ending resolves too quickly. Who it is for: viewers who like Irish and American independent cinema and unusual friendships. Who it is not for: the premise is single and repetitive, the main character is exhausting, and the film does not go deep enough into the question of class.