"I'm Not Afraid": A gay subtext romance between Miguel and the boy his parents have kidnapped. With dicks, the Nahuatl language, and a shirtless Short Guy.

Link to the n*de photos

In 2003 I saw Non ho pauro ("I'm Not Scared"), the film version of the novel by Niccolò Ammaniti: Nine-year old Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano) befriends a kidnapped boy, and discovers that everyone in his village is responsible.  

Left: Recent photo of Giuseppe.  He may not be the Non ho pauro one.

So I wasn't planning to watch the 2026 Spanish version, No tengo miedo , on Netflix.  How could they expand it into a tv series without a lot of padding?  Besides, I already know the twist ending.  So do you.

Then Yago Sandoval (who plays the kidnapped boy) posts that he and Aldo Navarro (the Michele character) have "Amistad como portal amoroso."  Portal amoroso is used to convey the transcendence, stability, and peace that comes from romantic love.  Is he referring to their own relationshp, or the characters?  There was no significant gay subtext in the 2003 movie, but just in case there is here, let's check out Episode 1.1, "Brujas" (Witches).  

Scene 1: Miguel lies amid dead leaves on the ground.  He has wet his pants.  He asks "Am I dead?"

No, his friends are calling for him.  As he walks through the ruins of an old convent, he stumbles upon a deep pit, and at the bottom a boy, chained up. 

Cut to four kids playing soccer, pretending that they're Mexico vs. Denmark in the 1986 World Cup.  A Bully hits Miguel in the crotch with the ball, then kicks it out into the jungle.  He orders  the Nerd Chuy to retrieve it, "Or I'll kill you."  

Left: The Bully is played by Mauro Guzman, who is quick to point out that he and Bruno Strauss (Chuy) are actually friends.

The Teenage Felix arrives and tells them not to go into the jungle, because a witch lives there who eats children.  Then he grabs his brother, the Bully, and drives him home.

The others ride their bicycles home, discussing why the Bully is so mean and if there really is a kid-eating witch.

Scene 2: Teenage Felix (Cosmo Elio Gonzalez) and the Bully arrive at their run-down, trash-strewn house to see Dad keeled over due to drunkenness and the debilitating disease that they can't afford medication for.  They discuss how horrible their lives are.  Dad would like to hurt himself, but he can't afford a gun, darn.  

As the Bully goes off to fetch some rotten platanos for dinner, Dad asks, "Why don't we have a mansion yet?  You said you have a deal going on that would make us the wealthiest family in the world?"

"I'm working on it!" Felix exclaims.  He must be the kidnapper!

Scene 3:  The kids arrive at Nerd Chuy's house to see his parents arguing with Pino (Luis Alberti, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).  "You can't back out now!" "But I'm scared." "Have faith!"  They're in on the kidnapping, too.

Nerd Chuy stays behind to have dinner, and the two remaining kids, Miguel and his Sister, go home with Pino, their Dad.  I thought he was a single father, but his wife is there, being depressed.  They do Sister's medical treatments, which she hates, and have rice and beans for dinner for the 3,000th time.   Dad Pino promises that soon they'll be able to afford real food, and 20 tv sets so they can watch the game from anywhere in their mansion. 

The kids retreat to their bedroom, where Sister calls him Luis.  Richster Chava appears at the window to invite Miguel/Luis to watch the game in his mansion.

"But you can't go in there without permission!" Sister exclaims.

"Richster Chava can, and his parents are asleep, so they won't know I'm there."  Can't he invite a friend over?  Or are the bourgeoisie not supposed to associate with the proletariat?

Cut to Richster Chava and Miguel/Luis watching the game and being affectionate.  I'd call it a gay-subtext buddy-bond.

Scene 4: In the morning Miguel/Luis is awakened to the poor people arguing with a rich guy.  "Something must have happened!" "We had nothing to with it!" The Nerd  Chuy and his parents have vanished, and his house has been ransacked!  

Richster Chava, Miguel/Luis, and his Sister decide to investigate.  At the house, they find that Nerd Chuy's bicycle is gone.  If he was kidnapped, it would still be there. They conclude that he went to the witch's house to fetch the soccer ball, and got eaten. Then his parents went looking for him, and the witch got them, too.

They run to the jungle to investigate.  Shouldn't you take your bikes?  It was miles away yesterday. 

More after the break

"The Secret of the Greco Family": Lesbian Text, Gay/Bi Subtexts in a Kidnapping Family in 1980s Mexico

 In the promo to Mexican series The Secret of the Greco Family, a middle-aged man in a ritzy kitchen puts on a ski mask and takes a tray of food down a secret staircase.  I think "100 to 1 he's got a girl tied up down there."  Surprise!  It's a guy! 

 There's no big mystery -- the guy is being held for ransom -- but just having a Man in Distress instead of a Damsel incites my interest.  

Problem: this tv series is based on a real kidnapping family in Argentina in the 1980s, so there will doubtless be no gay characters.  Maybe some daring boy-on-boy rescues, though.

Scene 1: Tribune of Justice, Jalisco, Mexico, 1985.  Andres Greco (Manuel Masalva, top photo), a  bearded young man,  is interrogated by the police.  He claims that he had no choice: his father forced him. The interrogator: "Gustavo Balbuena tells us that you were in charge of the gate, so you could have helped Gael escape at any time."  

As Andres is led out of the interrogation room, he runs away, jumps from a second-story gallery, and crashes into a glass display case below.  He's still alive, but severely injured.

Scene 2:  Flashback.  Andres playing polo, the Sport of Kings.  He and his teammates frolick naked in the showers (bare butts, no cocks), then get dressed and head into a small party at the country club.  

He kisses his girlfriend and shakes hands with Gael Espinoza, the future kidnapping victim.  Gael (Junior Pisanu) seems a bit feminine, dressed all in pink, with a sweater wrapped around his neck.   Maybe he's gay-coded?  Nope, he compliments Andres on having "pretty sisters."  

He offers to give Andres and his girlfriend a ride home. They have no car?  I thought they were rich.

Scene 3:  The upper-middle class Greco house.  Mom and a daughter are cooking, and another daughter, Abril, is roller-skating.  Andres and his girlfriend enter, and get grabbed by brother Dario (Alejandro de Hojos, bottom two photos), on a surprise visit home (he lives in Baja California).  

Scene 4: Andres wonders why Dad (Fernando Calunga, left, old photo) is hiding out in the bathroom, smoking and drinking but not...you know.  He explains: "In the life of every man, there is a moment of lucidity where you can choose your destiny or remain a nobody forever."   That doesn't explain the bathroom, dude.  After several epigrams of a similar nature, Andres asks why Dad sent brother Dario a letter saying he was in bad health, when he's fine.

Scene 5: Apparently Dad didn't answer (except in epigram): Dario and Andres are discussing the mystery.  Andres tells a story of the epigrams Dad delivered back when he went to the Open with Prince Charles (whew, this guy is gliterati). Sister Abril comes in and complains that Andres is always being featured in teen magazines.  They frolick.

Meanwhile, Dad gets ready for bed.  A closeup of his bare foot.  He steps on a cockroach, then decides to let it go and says "Goodnight, Beautiful"  Is he talking to the cockroach or his wife? 

Scene 6: In the morning, they sit down to breakfast. Dad compliments Abril on how beautiful she is (creepy, dude!).  

A young nun arrives for older sister Sabrina; Mom sends her upstairs to wake her up.  Whoa, and she does: the two girls caress each other's faces.  They are secret forbidden lovers!   

Scene 7: Dad takes daughter Abril into the basement bathroom and instructs her to scream, while older daughter Sabrina listens upstairs in the kitchen.  Very creepy!  Andres, still in his underwear (bulge shot), wants to know what's going on.  Dad won't say.

Scene 8: Dad in his office.  He has just told son Dario about The Project, but he won't tell Andres until the right moment: "When the boy is playing polo, he's something, but off the horse, he's nothing,  But you're ok.  You understand."

Scene 9: A party at Andres' house, the women in skimpy bikinis, the men fully clothed except Gael, the rich kid, wears his shirt open.  He and Andres discuss business ideas, then dance, snort cocaine, and make plans to go on go-karts.  Weirdly childish, but apparently Gael has a dedicated go-kart track on his estate.  

Scene 10: Andres awakens in his bedroom.  Dad sits at the foot of his bed, giving himself a foot rub. That's the second close-up of Dad's bare feet in 17 minutes.  Does someone have a fetish?   

He circumambulates about the Project: "I have a lot of debt, and people are threatening to hurt your sisters. Do terrible things to them.  When I was a cop, I arrested a lot of kidnappers, but they were clumsy and did a bad job.  We won't make mistakes."   

Next he justifies the kidnapping by pointing out that the rich got that way by exploiting the poor.  It's only just to take some of their money.  I'm confused.  Isn't Dad rich?  He lives in a mansion, and his son plays polo with Prince Charles.  Finally he asks Andres to choose one of his rich friends to become the victim.

Scene 11: Church.  The Nun and Older Sister Sabrina are sitting together. Dad and brother Dario take the consecrated host in their hands instead of their mouths.  I'm not sure why this is significant.   

Afterwards, Andres, Sabrina, and their romantic partners flirt in the town square.  Dad's friends offers to set him up in business, but he refuses.  That's two people who have offered to help the family financially.  I think Dad and Dario just like the idea of committing a crime.

Scene 12: Dad discussing logistics of The Project with Dario and two older guys.  Andres has the job of luring Gael to the pickup spot.  

Meanwhile, Mom and her friend Lupe are taking tennis lessons and discussing how handsome their instructor is.   Andres arrives just as they leave, enters the country club, sees Gael, and feels guilty.  He goes home, where the gang is preparing the victim's cell and the van, and lies down on his bed, feeling guilty.

Scene 13: Morning.  Dad criticizes younger daughter Abril for wearing her skirt too short.  Andres goes to a party at Gael's house, and runs into his Uncle Hugo, Dad's partner from when he was a cop.  Five parties so far, and this is the first where Gael is shown with a girl.   

Andres asks Gael "Are you busy?", and he responds: "No.  Shall we all head upstairs?"  Flashing signficant looks, Andres, Gael, and the Girl head upstairs -- for a three way?  So Andres and Gael are bi?

Meanwhile, Dad and the gang argue over how to split the money.  Dad wants a larger portion, since his sons are involved, too.

Scene 14:  Older sister Sabrina and her nun-girlfriend are doing girl stuff when Andres stops by the room with his shirt off, to see if he turns on the nun.  He does.  Then Mom drags Sabrina off to a massage session, in spite of her protest that she wants to stay home...in an empty house...with her girlfriend.  

While the women get massages, Dad and Andres start the kidnapping.  "He won't be a good victim.  He knows Uncle Hugo, your old cop partner."  Dad is upset, but it's too late to choose another victim now.

Everyone waits in their separate cars and van for Gael to drive by and see Andres on the street.  He explains that he's waiting for his girlfriend to get out of class.  Gael offers him a ride.  Suddenly the guys put a bag on Gael's head, punch him, and drag him into the van, where they use chloroform to knock him out.  But won't he wonder why Andres didn't intervene?  

Andres runs home and opens the gate so they can drag Gael in, then starts crying.  Dad orders him to go to the club for polo training, like usual.

Scene 15:  Polo training, followed by nude-butt showering.  Dad and Dario are back home, watching tv. The women return from their day-long massage and begin preparing dinner.  Andres returns from practice, glances at the hidden door, and feels guilty.  They sit down to dinner, and say the Lord's Prayer.  The end.

I fast-forwarded through the rest of the series.

Beefcake: Mostly Andres, showering, in underwear, and having sex with two women in various positions.  

Foot Fetish: One or more closeups of a man's bare feet in most episodes.

Gay Characters:  Older daughter and nun have a canonical gay relationship, complete with kissing.  

No more hints that Andres is bisexual, at least none that I could see by fast-forwarding.

Dario is never shown interacting with women, and seems to be falling in love with kidnapping victim Gael:   "We talked all day.  When I wake up in the morning, the only thing I can think of is seeing him again."  He also flirts with the second kidnapping victim (and tickles his bare feet, of course).  It remains subtext, although the scene where he practices oral sex on a banana comes close to text. 

"The Boy Behind the Door": Classic Gay Subtext Couple Kidnapped

 

Two boys roam a desolate forest.  Tight close-ups of their faces as they discuss going somewhere else,  somewhere where "the sun is always shining," like California.  Living in the Straight World, it's hard to remember that West Hollywood is still there.  If I didn't tell her, I could leave today.  California dreamin' on such a winter day.

Kevin (Ezra Dewey): Promise you won't go without me.

Bobby (Lonnie Chaves): Of course.  Friends to the end.

They share dandelions and play with their fingers against the sun.  Then a ball bounces into the woods.  Kevin goes to fetch it.  When he lingers, Bobby goes to see what happened.  They are both grabbed, tied, and put into a car trunk.   This is ridiculous.  Why would someone hang around a deserted woods looking for victims?

Six hours later, they arrive at their destination: a huge house in the woods.  The Kidnapper grabs Kevin, but leaves Bobby in the trunk.  Why would they leave one of their victims in the trunk?    He manages to free himself, but he can't run away and leave Kevin behind.  He goes into the house.

The Kidnapper has trapped Kevin "behind the door" to await the arrival of the Creep (Micah Hauptmann), who will purchase him, probably to rape and murder.  

Ok, this is ridiculous.  The vast majority of kids who go missing every year are runaways.  A small percent have been kidnapped by noncustodial parents.  The number of kids kidnapped by strangers is tiny, less than 1 per 100,000 capita, and most of those are for illegal adoptions or human trafficking.  Stranger kidnapping for rape and murder is so rare that you probably know the names of all of the victims from the last 20 years.

The movie becomes a taut (not taunt) thriller, as Bobby rescues Kevin, and Kevin in turn rescues Bobby.  There are footsteps in hallways, slowly turning door knobs, people with axes, and deaths:  a suspicious police officer (Sean Michael Scott, top photo), the Creep, the Kidnapper.  

The boys make standard horror movie mistakes -- don't go upstairs, get out of the house!  -- but they're 12 years old, so who can blame them.  They are both injured.  But -- spoiler alert -- they escape.  And the police cars finally arrive.

Next scene: A desolate beach, presumably in California.  What happened to the boys' parents? It's a gray, cloudy day, but they're together. They smile at each other. Friends to the end.  

Beefcake:  None. Lonnie Chaves was a kid in the movie, but he's now 17, and on his way to hunkiness.

Gay Characters:  Bobby and Kevin have a classic gay subtext romance, with rescuing, physicality, and permanence.  Plus at no time before or after the kidnapping do they have a discussion about girls.  

My Grade: B. 

"Clickbait": Gay Representation on the "Non-Stop Thrill Ride" about a Kidnapped Family Man

 

My viewing schedule is rather crowded with Korean soap operas, Disney Channel teencoms, and awful action-adventure movies, so I'm leery of giving the Netflix thriller series Clickbait (2021) a try.

The description immediately turned me off: "family man" Nick (Adrian Grenier) is kidnapped.  I hate the phrase "family man."  It's used to claim that heterosexual men who have reproduced are more moral, more industrious, infinitely more valuable than the rest of us.  So you've had sex with a woman.  How does that make you a saint?

But one of my Facebook friends, who is gay (like all of my Facebook friends except for a few relatives), called it a "nonstop thrill ride."    So I conducted some research.  Quite a lot of research, actually.

Beefcake:  According to the Parents' Guide, there is no male or female nudity, but several scenes where men and women kiss, and a woman takes her bra off.

Gay Characters: A search on "Clickbait," tv, and "gay" revealed numerous copies of an interview with Abraham Lim, who plays the reporter working on the case: "as a gay man," he feels marginalized whenever he goes into a gay bar, and faces anti-Asian racism.

Yes, but is his character gay?

A search through the cast list reveals that Family Man Nick has a wife and two children.  The older is played by Camaron Engels, who has a TikTok video labeled LGBT and "gay."  But I don't get the connection: it shows a space alien dancing.

Nick's younger son is played by Jaylin Fletcher, who definitely has something nonbinary going on, and has played gay characters (or the little brothers of gay characters) in Snowpiercer and Sunday Church.  Little Bro could be queer.

Phoenix Raei (Roshan Amiri, the detective investigating the case) is an Iranian-Australian actor who played a gay character on the soap The Heights.  It's refreshing to see someone of Middle Eastern descent play something other than a terrorist, but I doubt that any network suit will ok a character who is Muslim and gay.

An article on "10 LGBTQ Series to watch this fall" reveals that Nick's sister Pia is bisexual, and reporter Ben Park (Abraham Lim) is gay.  Ok, but do they actually do anything, or is it "bisexual but only dating men" and "gay means fabulous."?

Gay Representation:  Wikipedia has a much-too-detailed plot synopsis, which is why I didn't read it first..  I'm surprised it hasn't been flagged.  Of the 52 references to Pia, only one mentions her dating, and it's a guy.  There might be some female loves in the series, of course, but it is a very detailed plot synopsis.

Ben Park, however, gets a centric episode (#5), where he and his boyfriend Cameron (Jack Speer) argue over his callous handling of the case, and finally break up. Neither Cameron nor Ben appear in the plot synopsis after that.  

At least Ben is "ruthless" and "driven," breaking the stereotype that all gay men are fierce and fabulous.

Will I Watch:  Probably not.  I've already spent two hours on Clickbait, and I know about the surprise ending.