"Rotten Powers" deals with the idiotic pattern of false moralism that plagues certain conservative figures of our society, which are the
people who don't follow what they preach, being on the outside judging everything they're against yet on the inside, their private lives, they
are exactly what they are judging and criticising.
Here the pattern is observed with a young alderman (Lucas Di Sandes), that kind of figure that talks about God, country and family and is all
up in arms against gay people, but he's the one hiring male hustlers to spend a great night out with fun and orgies. Caio (Jeferson Inacio) is the
hustler and you can imagine the scenario from here which revolves around blackmail and such.
Certainly that most of the plot twists you could see a mile away from happening - the very last one actually took me by surprise. But this short
is hard to care about since it doesn't show the action and audiences needed that. By action I mean, we want to see the the alderman having his ecstasy
of pleasure, engaging on a sexual act of which he complains that other people are doing. Nope, we just hear a bloody audio.
But what really kills this movie is the acting, one of the most atrocious things I've ever seen in my life. It's terrible and painful to see,
each deliver of line, some expressions and most of the scenes are all cringey to see. The tension bits were quite alright to follow, though the
snowball effect of which they shift to one another is so quick and so unbelievable takes away any credibility this short could have.
The ultimate
thing left for audiences to find some small enjoyment is the theme dealt, because when it happens in real life, a scenario as this or even on a less
dangerous degree there's always some shock from a small parcel of the population, most notably coming from those who elect such fake politicians.
"Those who insist in judging others is because they have something to hide" says a late poet in a great song. True to that, the film gets such idea.
Happened before, and will happen again. But I can suggest you to watch this since the part we most expect isn't shown, therefore the film falls into a
certain hyprocrisy mode. Or worst, it falls on self-censorship. C'mon, audiences can handle a little sexual interaction between men. We're well
past those subliminar scenes of ages ago. Thumbs down on this one. 5/10.