A coming out comedy from Chilean
director Nicolas Lopez that broke Mexican movie records opened Friday
in the United States.
In Hazlo Como Hombre (Do It
Like a Man) Santiago (played by Alfonso Dosal) breaks off his
engagement to a woman and comes out gay to his best friends, one of
whom makes it his mission to push Santiago back into the closet. The
film opens with a warning for the lead character's sexism, homophobia
and machismo. Raul (Mauricio Ochmann) brags about cheating on his
pregnant wife and is vocal about being uncomfortable around gays.
According to Variety,
Do it like a Man struck a nerve with Mexican audiences when it
opened there earlier this summer. The comedy opened with a $7.4
million two weekend total, giving it the highest Mexican movie box
office total of 2017.
In a recent interview with Marketplace,
Lopez said that the movie cost $700,000 to produce.
“To put things in context, we made
2.5 times more than Dunkirk in Mexico. And two times more
than Baby Driver with a movie that costs $700,000,” he said.
But several reviewers are not laughing.
The New York Times' Monica Castillo said that the movie isn't
“clever enough to make its lead character sympathetic or
multidimensional, only more insufferable. The movie asphyxiates on
tired jokes about anal sex, dropping the soap in the shower and a
transgender prostitute.”
“The movie flouts its intolerance in
an attempt at provocative humor. Unless you laugh at fossils, I have
no idea why you should buy a ticket to gawk at this dinosaur,” she
added.