Bustamante renders the film’s distinct milieus with extraordinary texture. The sanitized and soulless spaces of Pablo and his family form an evocative contrast with the lively, bustling bars and streets frequented by Francisco. But this emphasis on sensory detail comes at the cost of the big picture.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Jayro Bustamante offers a thoughtful, emotionally-charged exploration of a devoutly religious family man torn apart by the revelation of his love for another man.
It’s a magnificently unflinching film from a master director in the making, whose thunderous strength will surely make waves in Bustamante’s Central American homeland and abroad.
There are any number of movies about gay men trying to liberate themselves from the long shadow of heteronormative oppression — a regrettably, enduringly relevant premise — but few have been told with the extraordinary nuance or compassion of Jayro Bustamante’s Tremors.
This strong second feature from Guatemalan talent Jayro Bustamante doesn’t ask new questions, but its sensuous, reverberating atmospherics find fresh, angry ways to answer them.
Los Angeles Times by Michael Rechtshaffen
A penetrating, mournful portrait of sexual identity in contemporary Guatemala City.
The Hollywood Reporter by Neil Young
Bustamante's screenplay is a philosophically and theologically nuanced affair, intermittently elliptical, concentrating on the bigger picture without bothering to sketch in the smaller details. This becomes something of an issue, given that these are often the pivots upon which the somewhat telenovela-like plot hinges.