Film-maker Martín Farina's brother played for an Argentine football club. Using this connection, Farina gained permission to make a 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary about the club; 'Fulboy' is the result.
Within the first few minutes of the film, Farina shows some of the players naked in the shower; that dissolves some tension for the viewer! It's also one of the few times we see the players' faces and (tatooed, shaven-legged) bodies in the same shot; for much of the film, Farina concentrates on extreme close-ups which mean it's difficult to know whose body parts you're looking at. Farina's other film-making flaws include focusing on just one participant in a conversation (who is the other person talking?), starting filming in the middle of a conversation (what are they talking about?), filming just one participant in a telephone conversation (what is the other person saying?), and filming with far too much loud background noise. The second, third and fourth complaints, especially, make it difficult for the viewer to work out what is going on.
The most major flaw of the film, however, is that shared by all 'fly-on-the-wall' documentaries: people being filmed probably do not behave as they would do when they're *not* being filmed. In the case of the footballers in 'Fulboy' that means additional testosterone-fuelled bravado - for instance, a player's heartfelt homily about the sacrifices professional footballers make is quickly undermined when one of his teammates is filmed wiping his nose on $10 bills!
I saw this film at the 2015 London LGBT Film Festival organised by the British Film Institute, but it shouldn't be pigeon-holed in such a way: apart, perhaps, from the shower scenes and a few bulge close-ups there's very little homo-heavy content. Whether there's enough actual substance to warrant the film gaining a wider distribution is another question.
