The accolades for "Marilyn" include a "Best Feature Film" award at the 2018 Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
The ways in which our titular teen (nee Marcos) is not like the other boys in his rural town begins with his caretaker father Carlos and his older brother doing most of the heavy lifting while Marcos spends much of time inside with his mother and dreams of taking computer classes.
Extremely blatant cattle rustlers already are making the demanding life of Carlos even more challenging when the arguable climax of the film occurs. Marcos fulfills his grandest desire by taking advantage of the anything goes Carnival spirit by having the time of his life attending that event dressed in drag. He obtains his titular nickname courtesy of a song to which he particularly shakes his groove thing.
The party fully ends with a foreshadowed confrontation by a local bully and his gang. Their brutal attack on Marcos is one of seemingly countless cases of boys who like boys being subject to unwarranted hostility, especially in small communities. Another sad aspect of this is that Marcos is relatively resigned to his fate until the pack fully asserts its dominance.
Marcos not returning home until the next morning further strains life back on the ranch, It also arguably sets up a downward spiral that leads to an extended reversal of fortune for the family.
The one bright spot for Marcos is mutual love at first sight regarding new friend with benefits and convenience Federico. Sadly, what should be a reasonable expectation for Marcos regarding the "meet the parents" moment does not go well. The arguable point here is that the timing of Marcos is not great regarding reminding his family about his not-so-embraced sexual orientation fresh off of that being a factor regarding the aforementioned stressful existence.
The final moments of "Marilyn" are very impactful and fully make the real story worthy of a film. It is tragic to see things get to the point that prompts Marcos to act as in the manner that he does, It truly should have been avoidable.
The always special Breaking DVD extra this time is a 30-minute making-of feature. It begins with clips of the film and the thoughts of director Martin Rodriguez Redondo. Redondo discusses how he learns of the story, why he does not tell the story in pure documentary form, and his efforts at authenticity.
We next hear from star Walter Rodriguez. An especially interesting aspect of that casting is Redondo commenting that he almost did not select Rodriguez to play Marcos because that actor gave an animated audition. A compelling aspect of the film is the numerous scenes in which a miserable Marcos and his equally unhappy family simply sit and stare without any expression on their faces.
The strongest endorsement of the film comes from the real Marilyn, who offers a wonderful perspective on the film.
All of this amounts to a well-produced and acted movie that speaks to most audience members either as a coming-of-age story, the tale of a rural gay teen having a very rough life, or a family on a fast ride to rock bottom.
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