MACHO DANCER

Long unavailable and beautifully restored, the late Filipino master Lino Brocka (MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT and INSIANG) delivers one of his most enthralling films with MACHO DANCER, a queer coming-of-age story set in Manila's bustling gay clubs, which demonstrates Brocka's flair for socially conscious melodrama with pulp provocation. The film follows ingenuous teenage sex worker Pol (Allan Paule) as he leaves his small town to go to the city, where he gets hired as an erotic dancer—meeting new friends, lovers, and potential enemies. Featuring extended, seductive dance sequences that pulse with sweat and longing, the film is at once salacious and wonderfully sincere, ever sensitive to the fragile dreams of youth. With his sharp eye for class-based exploitation, Brocka doesn't shy away from tragedy in this bold, highly entertaining depiction of the realities of sex work.