burnt money is the perfect festival film . it will show once or twice , and then no one , thankfully , will ever have to hear from it again . this film from the seattle international film festival 2001's emerging masters series is easily one of the year's worst . billed as a gay `bonnie and clyde' , this gritty film from director marcelo pi ? eyro has its only highlight in a well-designed title sequence . two gay lovers get involved in a bank robbery that makes a gang leader , whose plan they screwed up , angry . this causes the gang leader to send his boys out to get the gay guys , one of whom may not actually be gay . hiding out in a prostitute's apartment , the two men must fight off police and gang members in a very long showdown for the movie's conclusion . if caught , they risk losing all the money , and their love . as an added emotional bonus , one of the gay men is dying . or something like that . everything that happens is so quick and confusing i was completely lost . clarity isn't exactly this movie's striving virtue , so it was a little hard to pick up . not much could have really happened though . the main events in this long two-hour film are explicit homosexual and heterosexual sex , graphic drug use , extreme violence , and strong language . lots of explicit material is never a bad thing when there's a reason , but there's no purpose to anything in this film . most of the sex and violence scenes come off as silly , while the heavy drug use comes off as ridiculous and depressing . it appears pi ? eyro ( who co-wrote with marcelo figueras , from a novel by ricardo piglia ) purposefully adds more blood and lovemaking for his own amusement . he makes the actors as sweaty and dirty as possible , makes them snort cocaine , gives them guns and condoms , and lets them go . burnt money is pointless . the performances are bad . it tries to thrill and shock , but only causes boredom . god forbid it will ever get a distributor . another disappointing film from this year's so-called emerging masters series . pass on by .
