The best thing about Glue is that it confirms that there is a universal language of adolescence no matter what country you live in. Youth are caught up in changing moods; they live in their bodies and pay a lot of attention to them; they yearn for a friend to share their journey; they obsess about sex in all its permutations; they stretch and strain against the rules and expectations of their parents; they cling to the pop culture of music for endless avenues of pleasure; they worry about being rejected by their peers; and they philosophize about the essential questions of life pertaining to their place in the universe and the meaning of it all.
Sixteen-year-old Lucas (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) feels like an orphan in his family now that his mother and father are engaged in a war. His father has committed adultery and has moved out. It is summer, and Lucas has plenty of time to ride his bike, listen to his rock music favorites, and goof around with his best friend Nacho (Nahuel Viale). They spend some time flirting with Andrea (Ines Efron), a teenager who wants to expand her erotic repertoire. She enjoys an evening with the two of them after seeing Lucas premier a song he wrote at a local bar backed up by a Nacho's band. Plans to take Andrea and another girl to a sex motel fall through, and Lucas and his buddy spend some time at his father's apartment sniffing glue and watching porn films. In the process, both boys discover something important about their own sexuality.
The debut film of Argentine writer and director Alexis Dos Santos makes the most of the windy rural village in Patagonia that provides the sunny backdrop for this slice-of-life drama about the exhilarations and confusions of adolescence. It may look like nothing much happens in Lucas' life, but he goes through some changes as he navigates the surprises which befall him when he least expects them.
Screening at the New Directors/New Films Festival in New York City, March 2007.
