tla releasing, which is the foreign art-house division of LGBT film company tla video, takes a break from artful tales of the challenges of young (and sometimes slightly less young) gay love to add Fulboy to the releasing catalog. The subject of this modern-style documentary by Martin Farina is his professional football (my people call it soccer) playing brother Tomas and the teammates of Tomas. (A bonus short focuses on Tomas.)
The following YouTube clip of the "Fulboy" trailer accurate portrays the fun spirit and highly featured masculine beauty in the film. Like many such promos, it also focuses more on the (figurative) fluff than the nicely presented substance in the movie.
The overlapping foci of the film are revealing the true natures and the private thoughts of the players and their exceptional physical attributes. Numerous scenes of group showers and locker room activity are the strongest examples of the latter. Two spoilers are that the universally well-equipped subjects seem to enjoy showering with their colleagues and most of them are not from families that follow a particular Jewish practice.
The goal (pun intended) of the less lascivious aspect of "Fulboy" is to dispel the positive and the negative myths regarding the team. The primary theme of this element is that the athletes are doing a job, rather than playing a game. Their handling of business affairs and managing (not always substantial) incomes are only the tip of the iceberg regarding the truth behind perceiving these guys as cavalier millionaire playboys.
Letting the team take the lead regarding merely pointing the camera at them and having them share their thoughts further makes the audience think a little more about these celebrities as human beings. We learn about physical and emotional hardships related to spending so much time away from home, the impact of scorn from fans, and other less glamorous elements of the profession.
Footage of nearly naked team members roughhousing, getting massages, and discussing the amount of money required to engage in sexual activity with each other supplement the aforementioned images that are designed to provide stimulation of a non-cerebral nature. All this shows that boys will be boys and that every man is aware of how he measures up to his colleagues.
This combination of insight and the softest possible soft porn makes an interesting "behind-the-scenes" look at a world that is rarely portrayed in such depth; the copious nudity is valid but largely is a (validly) blatant attempt to increase the demand for the film. At the same time, this makes asserting that you are buying the DVD "for the articles" reasonably believable.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Fulboy" is encouraged to either email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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