The Astronaut Lovers

The Astronaut Lovers (2024) is Marco Berger's tenth film and lighter than most of his work. Pedro travels from Spain to Argentina for a holiday at his uncle's house and runs into Maxi, a friend from childhood. Maxi is surprised to learn Pedro is gay. Then he discovers his ex girlfriend is on the same holiday and asks Pedro to pretend to be his boyfriend. The game starts there, and for the rest of the film nobody quite knows what is happening. Their friends do not understand it, Maxi's ex does not understand it, and the two of them do not understand what their own game has turned into. Berger's cinema has always been built on looks, and it is here too. What goes unsaid does more work than what is said. The camera lingers on legs, on hands, and on the distance between two bodies. There is something close to Eric Rohmer's summer films in it: a house by the sea, long conversations, very little incident. It won acting prizes at BAFICI and at Guadalajara. It runs 116 minutes. Good for: LGBT stories, Argentine cinema, and slow summer films. Less good for: genuinely very little happens and the pace is unhurried. There is sexual content and a good deal of nudity.