A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I remember on a trip to Madrid in 2001 before the World Trade Center Towers were attacked I did visit Madrid and spent a few hours in this Chueca neighborhood. I have to say it was a bit seedy, but charming in its own way. This film will have nothing to do with the classic Father Flanagan film Boystown. The boys here can very bad, but somewhat tempting.This was a strange film in its dividing the LGBT community into haves and have nots. There's a real estate salesmen in Chueca who is obsessed with not only making money, but toning up the Chueca neighborhood. I'm not sure if there's a Spanish equivalent for rent control, but I've seen many an American film with that as a basis. True in real life, many landlords will do whatever to get out old tenants of rent controlled units so they can rent them to upper middle class Yuppie types. Only in the gay world they're called Guppies. We learn right away it's this handsome charming real estate guy doing the evil deeds. When will the authorities and the community know is the crux of the plot.I'm not mentioning any of the players because I doubt most Americans will have a clue as to who they are. The real estate guy reminded me a bit of Christopher Meloni.Who does him in? Just the hardworking working class gay men and lesbians and the mother of one of them. Kind of like Columbo.We Americans might enjoy Boystown.

I must admit to wondering if one of the reviewers here watched the same film as I have just watched.Chuecatown is a light-hearted film about the relationship of two guys interrupted by an overzealous mother and a murdering Estate Agent.With touches of early Almodovar, the dialogue was colourful with clever references to the gay lifestyle.The film shows the love that can exist between two men and how that can be affected by third parties, especially those closest to one side of the relationship.A side plot shows the relationship between a mother (Police Inspector) who is a hypochondriac and her policeman son who gradually comes out through the storyline.Yes, lots of clichés are used through the film, but with great humour and fitting perfectly in place.I sense from one of the other reviews, that some political messages were contained in the film. While these might be a bit of a spoiler for the Madrid market, it is so subtle as to have no effect on other viewers. The irony that a homophobic counsellor was played by a drag queen was well placed.I would encourage people to see this film for themselves and don't let comments put you off. Be your own judge !

Just went to see this at the London lesbian & gay film festival with 6 friends. We went because the preview clip we had seen at a screening a few weeks ago made us laugh. We all enjoyed the movie and found it funny, as did the rest of the sell-out crowd in the cinema, with laugh out loud moments and applause from the audience at some of the scenes throughout the film.Yes, there are some so-easy-to-spot-they-might-as-well-carry-a-red-flag set ups and some tired old clichés, but it didn't seem to be a film trying to make too much of a statement. It's just a light hearted picture poking fun at some gay nonsense - or at least that's the way it played tonight with the crowd. The lead women are fantastic, if a bit OTT, but the whole movie is so OTT any other characters would seem stupid. For my money Carlos Fuentes as Rey, was worth the price of the admission alone! If you like a fast moving story that has a few twists, plenty of bearish camp nonsense and a lot of laughs then you'll probably enjoy it. If you are looking for a film with a deep message, then avoid it. Any movie that has a pensioner mother slagging off her son's boyfriend by saying he has an arse 'like a Japanese flag' is never going to deliver much in the way of earnest discussion of the themes afterwards....

*** Warning it could contain some Spoilers ***I went to see this movie the release date in Madrid. From the first minute everything is predictable and the general tone of the movie is defined by the names of the old lady kittens: Aznar, Acebes... all from the members of the former right winged government of Spain (1996-2004).Ads say it's a comedy mystery movie in Chueca, the gay quarter of Madrid, more or less like Castro in San Francisco. But neither mystery, no much fun as comedy during the whole duration of the film.As a comedy it does not work, just a couple of good gags, mystery is inexistent. For a broad audience is boring, as they won't understand most of jokes. For a gay audience is only enjoyable by all those who likes listening to the same old jokes again and again. The only valuable thing is the work of Actors,. Concha Velasco is incredible in her role, even though some of her dialogs are unbelievable, also Rosa Maria Sardá does her best at a completely stupid and unbelievable role.Losers and low class people are heroes, and posh people are the evil ones. That could be funny if the final message weren't so close to the bipolarity of the Spain's politics and maybe society (influenced by mass media). What is most irritating to me is about knowledge and culture. Director shows that as if it were a sign of posh people. Knowledge has nothing to do with remembering 100 fashion designers, that's nonsense.Another problem is that all jokes are too private for gays that lives or visits Chueca frequently. Too old ones listened too many times for local gays.The jokes against PP (right winged political Popular Party) renamed as RR are too local to Spain and even, to Madrid. The parody of the visit to Chueca by the wife (as a counselor) of the former President of the government Jose Maria Aznar, is somewhat naive and inspired in the naive shows of transvestites common in some Chueca clubs. Maybe in the 80's could be modern, not now, maybe it would scandalize the Right Winged bigoted Spaniards, for the rest is somewhat pathetic.Finally I hate the twisted message about bipolarity, unluckily very common again in Spain. Good, left winged, losers, ignorant, but with good heart ones, against right winged, posh, ice-heart, fashion victims or metrosexuals, the bad guys. As if it was everything that simple. There's no room for the rest, for the majority don't identified neither with PP nor PSOE, neither with extreme masculinity nor femininity, neither being fat hairy bears nor shaved fashion and body fitness victims. Neither with ignorant only reading comics or sport press (Marca) nor the ignorant only reading fashion magazines... I expected to see more diversity but on the gay side we have also so many stereotypes as the heterosexual world to see us as a group.Just for fans of the old Chueca humor.