70
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91The Film StageJose SolísThe Film StageJose SolísThat Silva achieves to both criticize the overuse of online personas (particularly in the white gay world) while becoming a piece meant to be meme-d and TikTok-ed into oblivion is truly remarkable.
- 83IndieWireRyan LattanzioIndieWireRyan LattanzioYou almost wish there was a little more magic, but that’s maybe because some of the truths Silva comes up close to are so skin-crawlingly real that you want to cover them up.
- 75Slant MagazineEric HendersonSlant MagazineEric HendersonAt once an excoriating satire of the performativity of homosexuality within a social media-addled community as well as a seemingly earnest lament for the total loss of collectivity, the film minces neither words nor bodily appendages.
- 75The PlaylistCharles BramescoThe PlaylistCharles BramescoFor all the dicks of varying turgidity on proud display, it’s the intimations of true insecurities that leave these characters most nakedly exposed.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyRotting in the Sun ultimately feels slight and overstretched. But with its freewheeling handheld camerawork and characters grounded in skewed reality, it whips up a compelling kind of 21st century madness as it reflects on the solipsistic nature of artists and gay men in a world consumed by shallow pleasures.
- 70VarietyManuel BetancourtVarietyManuel BetancourtWith its tricky tone and its wildly ambitious themes, it’s not surprising to find Silva’s outrageous, salacious film stumbling as it brings its many threads into focus. Like Sebastián’s art and his journal in the film, Rotting in the Sun remains a patchwork of quotes and ideas and provocations hastily if hilariously stitched together.
- 70Screen DailyAmber WilkinsonScreen DailyAmber WilkinsonWhile the first half of Rotting In The Sun may be overly self-indulgent, once Silva gets himself out of his system, he gives his skills and Saavedra an opportunity to shine.
- 70The Daily BeastColeman SpildeThe Daily BeastColeman SpildeThe most surprising aspect of Rotting in the Sun isn’t how many hard dicks are knocking together at any one moment, but that it’s genuinely a blast despite all of that. It’s a sexy, searing satire of influencer culture and gay misanthropy, as well as a pseudo-murder mystery in one abrasive package (pun intended). This is the sleaziest fun you’ll have all year.
- 50The New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliThe New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliRotting in the Sun is sharpest when exploring the two men’s love-loathe connection because Silva threads a provocatively fuzzy line between fascination for and irritation with Jordan and, by extension, Firstman himself.
- 40TheWrapDan CallahanTheWrapDan CallahanSilva has taken experiences from his own life for “Rotting in the Sun” in an attempt to dramatize or satirize things about the current culture that he hates, but his hate is so all-consuming yet so strangely mild that he misses most of the targets he is aiming for.