Barrio Boy
The New York filmmaker Dennis Shinners expands his gay short of the same name but fails to dig deeper in any meaningful way.
Image courtesy of Peccadillo Pictures.
It is by no means uncommon to find a filmmaker basing his or her first feature on a short that they have made previously and Barrio Boy is an example of that. The New York-based Dennis Shinners made a film of the same title in 2014 which lasted all of eight minutes and now as writer and director he has extended that into a full-length work with the same leading actor, Dennis Garcia, but with the other roles reprised now recast. As I understand it, the short treatment featured a Puerto Rican barber, Quique played by Garcia, expressing in voice-over his instant attraction to a customer named Kevin. This occurs in Brooklyn and in a community which largely despises gays so that Quique finds it necessary to conceal his sexuality. That’s a situation which readily makes one understand why Shinners should take the view that this material could lend itself to being elaborated into a full feature. What is surprising is that the extension of the subject matter has been handled with so little skill.
Along with Quique this new treatment retains Kevin himself, now played by James Physick, Quique’s cousin Rafa (Pierre Jean Gonzalez), who is a partner in the business, and Cuz (Keet Davis) who had once been a school friend of Quique but who is now an obnoxious tough, a macho type who is markedly homophobic. Quite a lot of new characters come into play too including members of Quique's family, namely his mother Elena (Nancy Ticotin), his sister Nieves (Andrea Morales) and his grandmother (Teresa Yenque). But, having introduced them, Shinners finds no way for them to contribute significantly to the tale being told.
At heart this is, of course, the story of the love that develops between Quique and Kevin and of how that relationship is threatened by the rampant homophobia that is so much in the air and can lead to violence. Kevin is given a backstory in that he is Irish and has come to New York to deal with the estate of his late father who had deserted the family to live in America. But again, this is not built on to make Kevin a more rounded character and the motivation which allows him to be picked up by a female stranger in a bar (Caitlin Mehner) is more confusing than revealing. Meanwhile, we get glimpses of Quique’s hidden gay life: a date with a trick (Michael Borrelli), a visit to a gay club and an encounter with a photographer (Lou C. Liberatore) which only leads to Quique refusing to strip when requested to do so. However, these scenes never amount to more than episodes and, considering the centrality of the relationship between Quique and Kevin, it is surprising that this too seems sketched in rather than explored in detail thus causing the audience to care less about the eventual outcome than they should. There is rather more emphasis on Cuz and his followers but the menace they provide is par for the course in this kind of story.
What emerges in this feature film is a narrative that lacks flow as well as needing more effective dramatic development: it constantly feels bitty and scrappy. That is not to say, however, that it won't have an audience. This is very much the kind of material regularly set up to appeal to gay male viewers and many of them will find pleasure in viewing a tale featuring in Garcia and Physick two competent enough actors who are good to look at. Barrio Boy is also a film that relishes its Brooklyn location as photographed by Garrett Shannon. Short montage views of it are frequently inserted which may not help to make the narrative smoother but does have its own appeal. On that modest level Barrio Boy may be welcomed but, for a work which set out to go more deeply into what had been merely touched in previously, the failure to come up with something better shaped and rounded is a sad disappointment.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Dennis Garcia, James Physick, Keet Davis, Manny Ureña, Pierre Jean Gonzalez, Michael Borrelli, Teresa Yenque, Nancy Ticotin, Andrea Morales, Caitlin Mehner, Cedric Leiba Jr, Lou C. Liberatore.
Dir Dennis Shinners, Pro Dennis Shinners and Crystal McIntosh, Screenplay Dennis Shinners, Ph Garrett Shannon, Pro Des Sam Wegner, Ed Dennis Shinners and Carlo Vasile, Costumes Julia Bartholomew-King and Samantha-Sungeun Kim.
The Lavender Tangent/I Ain’t Playin Films/Cautious Films-Peccadillo Pictures.
83 mins. USA. 2022. UK Rel: 17 February 2025. Available on VOD including Peccadillo. No Cert.
