Boystown is an amusing, if slightly uneven, Spanish gay comedy centred around a bear–club couple. Leo (Pepón Nieto) is the older member of the couple and works as a driving instructor while his younger partner Rey (Carlos Fuentes) does odd jobs as a plumber. At the start of the film, they're very much in love and their only problems are a shortage of money and an ex-boyfriend of Rey's sniffing around a little bit too intently.
All of this changes when there are a spate of murders of old ladies living alone in the neighbourhood. This fate befalls Leo and Rey's elderly neighbour. When the police find out that the neighbour left her flat to Rey, Leo and Rey are immediately suspects. The situation is not helped when Ray's harridan of a mother comes to live with the couple after being kicked out by her daughter for drying a cat in a microwave.
The murders are investigated by neurotic policewoman with multiple phobias and her long-suffering son. The audience learn very early in the film that the culprit is a buff, gay estate agent who is bumping off the old ladies so that he can buy their flats and redevelop them to sell the gay yuppies.
The two leads make a very good job of playing a happy gay couple, with a number of funny and touching scenes, not least the playful scene in which Rey has taped pens to his hands to look like his cartoon hero, Wolverine, before he ravishes his beloved.
What was really interesting to me however, is a scene in which the improbably buff estate agent beats up Leo while berating him for being the kind of gay men who isn't interested in going to the gym, endless personal grooming and wearing the most fashionable clothes. This scene really struck a chord with me, with the estate agent almost seeming to symbolise mainstream gay culture with its emphasis on the superficial and Leo representing the more balanced gay existence where what's on the inside matters more than what's on the outside.
This film is an amusing watch if you're looking for something undemanding, especially if you have a taste for Spanish bears.
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