Rotting in the Sun

Rotting in the Sun
Release poster
Directed by	Sebastián Silva
Written by	Sebastián Silva Pedro Peirano
Produced by	Jacob Wasserman
Starring	Jordan Firstman Sebastián Silva Catalina Saavedra
Cinematography	Gabriel Diaz Alliende
Edited by	Gabriel Diaz Alliende Sofia Subercaseaux Santiago Cendejas
Music by	Nascuy Linares
Production companies	Hidden Content The Lift Films Caffeine Post Icki Eneo Arlo Spacemaker Productions
Distributed by	Mubi
Release dates	January 22, 2023 (2023-01-22) (Sundance) September 8, 2023 (2023-09-08) (United States)
Running time	109 minutes
Countries	United States Mexico
Languages	English Spanish

Rotting in the Sun is a 2023 erotic black comedy thriller film directed by Sebastián Silva, who co-wrote the screenplay with Pedro Peirano. It stars Jordan Firstman, Silva, and Catalina Saavedra.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2023. It was released theatrically in the United States on September 8, 2023, prior to streaming on Mubi on September 15, 2023.

Plot

In Mexico City, Sebastián Silva is a depressed, ketamine-addicted artist and filmmaker contemplating suicide by taking pentobarbital. His landlord and friend, Mateo, who is renovating Sebastián's apartment building, jokingly encourages his suicidal ideations. Sebastián's long-suffering housekeeper, Verónica "Vero", is concerned about him and worries that the abusive Mateo might fire her, but Sebastián barely acknowledges her.

Sebastián travels to a gay nude beach, where he meets American comedian and social media influencer Jordan Firstman after nearly drowning. A fan of Sebastián's work, Jordan is convinced that their chance meeting is a sign that the two should work together on Jordan's television project. Jordan invites Sebastián to a party that night, where Jordan films Sebastián snorting ketamine and posts the video on his social media without Sebastián's permission. When Jordan refuses to delete the video, Sebastián angrily admonishes Jordan for his vapidity and uninspired ideas.

Upon returning home, Sebastián has an online meeting with HBO executives, who reject his pitch. He mentions Jordan's project, which piques the executives' interest. He then contacts Jordan and agrees to work together; Jordan insists on moving in with him during their collaboration.

Sebastián asks Vero to help him move a heavy couch from his rooftop storage space for Jordan to use. As they lift the couch, Sebastián becomes distracted by Jordan's incessant phone calls and accidentally falls from the rooftop to his death. Distraught, Vero covers his body and leaves for her niece's quinceañera in a daze, where she confesses the incident to her brother, Lalo. Lalo insists that the police will never believe her, so the two wrap the body in a tarp and hide it in the storage space.

The next day, Jordan arrives at Sebastián's place, but is confused by Sebastián's absence. Thinking Sebastián has ghosted him, Jordan claims on social media that he and Sebastián fell in love and that Sebastián was excited for his project and invited him to stay. However, after finding Sebastián's phone and wallet inside the apartment one night, Jordan grows concerned and urges his followers to help him locate Sebastián.

Upon finding Sebastián's journals, which detail his suicidal thoughts and interest in pentobarbital, Mateo becomes fearful that he may be partially responsible for Sebastián's possible suicide. Knowing that he left several incriminating voice messages on Sebastián's phone joking about the pentobarbital, Mateo expresses his concerns to his wife. Overhearing their conversation, Vero obtains pentobarbital and plants the empty box in Sebastián's trash can.

Mateo sneaks into the apartment and threatens Vero for eavesdropping on him. He steals Sebastián's phone and journals, which Vero witnesses. Later, overwhelmed by stress and guilt, Vero breaks down in tears in front of Jordan, who comforts her, though the two cannot understand one another.

Sebastián's brother, Juan, sees Jordan's posts and arrives in Mexico to help figure out what happened to him. The next day, the police arrive to investigate and find Sebastián's ketamine and the pentobarbital box. Believing the suicide to be confirmed, the police then question Mateo about the drugs, saying that they will need to file a report. Mateo panics and confesses that he took the journals and phone, only increasing suspicion against him. Juan is distraught at his brother's seemingly confirmed death, and Jordan leaves at Mateo's insistence. Mateo fires Vero for complying with the police's drug search.

In the park across the street, using a translation app on his phone, Jordan asks Vero if she witnessed Mateo steal Sebastián's journals and phone. Vero confesses the truth into the phone, expressing remorse for her part in Sebastián's accidental death and hoping his family can find peace. The app poorly translates her confession, leaving Jordan confused as Vero walks away with the bottle of pentobarbital in her hand.

Cast

• Jordan Firstman as Jordan Firstman, a vapid American social media influencer
• Catalina Saavedra as Señora Verónica "Vero", Sebastián's long-suffering housekeeper, employed by Mateo
• Sebastián Silva as Sebastián Silva, a suicidal filmmaker
• Mateo Riestra as Mateo, Sebastián's best friend and landlord
• Martine Gutierrez as Martine, Jordan's vacuous friend
• Alberto Rafael Cortés as Beto, the foreman on the apartment renovation
• Gustavo Melgarejo as Lalo, Vero's brother
• Juan Andrés Silva as Juan, Sebastián's brother

Production

Sebastián Silva was approached by Jordan Firstman while in Mexico, finding him hilarious and wanted to make a satirical film. Silva previously approached Michael Cera to lead the film, but Cera declined due to the graphic sexual content. The film contains unsimulated sex scenes, with Silva stating: "The sex is so graphic that it's a double-edged sword. People, especially Americans, are so scared of genitals. I'm scared a little bit that a lot of people will center on the cocks and talking about cocks when it's just a trait of one of the characters." In January 2023, Robert Pattinson's production company Icki Eneo Arlo boarded the film as a producer.

Principal photography took place almost entirely in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, and concluded by December 2021.

Themes

Suicide & mental health

Since very early in the film, Sebastian is seen looking up ways to kill himself painlessly in Mexico and thats how he finds out about pentobarbital. From this moment forward, Suicide becomes the central topic of the film for the protagonists. When he talks about it with Mateo, he encourages Sebas to take the pentobarbital and makes multiple jokes about it. Jordan is the next person that Sebas talks about how he's been feeling and Jordan only brings him down for not being happy and being so serious, completely disregarding Sebastian's emotions. It isn't until the second half of the movie, after Sebastian's disappearance, that Mateo and Jordan show visible concern for their friend's well being.

Mateo's concern seems to be coming from a more selfish stand as he knows he texted and called Sebastian multiple times, encouraging his suicidal thoughts; even if they were meant initially as a joke, he is concerned he will face legal consequences; he even tries to hide any evidence, like Sebastian's journal and phone, which might incriminate him. After the police find the pentobarbital box in Sebastians garbage, Mateo is forced to turn in the phone and journal after confessing to taking them, but only for safekeeping.

Jordan seems to be more genuinely concerned over Sebastians safety as we see him do a complete 180 degree shift from the character he portrayed at the beginning of the film, to now. This reaction does come across a little bit as fake or performed at times because he didn't really have that strong of a relationship with Sebastian throughout the film yet he believed he loved him and they were meant to be together.

Vero, the true protagonist of the film, is the one we can see have the biggest shift in regards of mental health. Even if she directly was the one that caused the Sebastian's accident, there were a lot of external factors that added to it and ultimately caused it to happen. She feels guilty and responsible for what happened. Very visibly affected over what happened to Sebastian, we see her slowly unravel on screen. we see her planting the evidence for the police to find and take her out as a suspect. Shortly after we get the ending of the film where we see Vero finally reach her breaking point, she no longer cares about what happens next as we notice in her demeanour that she has completely given up after fighting throughout the whole film to keep her secret safe by telling Mateo the whole truth; even if it was lost in translation.

Homoeroticism

Early on in the film, it is established that the main character, Sebastian Silva is a homosexual man by remarks made by his landlord and heterosexual friend, Mateo. At the beginning of the movie, Sebastian is told by Mateo that he needs to go and find someone to have sex with to help with his depressive behaviour. Mateo also assumes that Sebastian has herpes and jokes that he will spread it to other guys. This comment by Mateo shows how he has preconceived stereotypes in relation to sex about gay men. the irony is that Sebastian's character actually shows very little interest in sex, if any at all.

The scene where Sebastian meets Jordan, is set in Zicatela, Oaxaca, a well-known, tourist hot spot for gay men. Here, the audience is first exposed to multiple full male nude and homoerotic scenes. From Sebastian Silva for That Shelf “We are shooting in a nude beach. When there’s no clothes, there’s genitals. That’s how, organically, the dicks came into the film." The male genitalia is a recurrent visual throughout the movie adding to an important topic of the film, the reality of life.

"And then Jordan is such a slut, so the dicks will just follow him or he will follow the dicks wherever he is.” Jordan's character is portrayed multiple times engaging in sexual situations that are considered common practices in the gay community like cruising for sex and orgies. One of the most interesting and shocking aspects of this film is that it utilizes unsimulated sex scenes, meaning that the sex depicted in the film is actually happening on camera as opposed to just making it look like its actually happening.

Drug abuse

The theme of addiction and drug abuse is very much present throughout all the film. Ketamine being the drug of choice for the protagonists. Sebastian constantly abuses the use of ketamine as an escape from uncomfortable situations, like when Vero ruins his paintings or when he is at the nude beach. Even when Sebastian's brother, Juan Andres, arrives, he and Jordan do lines of ketamine to try and summon Sebas.

In one scene, Sebas and Jordan have an argument because Jordan uploaded a video to his social media of Sebas doing lines of ketamine at a party, with Jordan insisting to Sebas that no one cares and neither should he. Ketamine is a popular drug amongst members of the LGBTQ+ community so it makes sense this is the drug we see the most throughout the film.

The other drug that is constantly being mentioned is pentobarbital, a drug commonly use for the euthanasia of dogs or physician assisted suicide, and how easy it is to acquire in Mexico. Sebas is often pondering on the idea of pentobarbital as his means of suicide and includes it in his journal and art. Mateo jokingly encouraged Sebas to ingest pentobarbital in multiple occasions which he later visibly regrets once he learns Sebas might actually have committed suicide.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2023. In June 2023, Mubi acquired distribution rights to the film; it was released theatrically in the United States on September 8, 2023, and began streaming globally on Mubi on September 15.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 57 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Rotting in the Sun's bold ambition and infectious frenetic energy prove a natural – albeit not universally appealing – fit for its unique flavor of dark mischief." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

External links

• Rotting in the Sun at IMDb