Pet Shop Days

Sex, drugs and tedium.

This promising debut, however wrought from such fair-weather providence with its creative team, has too shaggy a screenplay and seems distracted, like Alejandro, by its own impulses.

Alejandro isn’t the kind of bad-boy who gradually reveals a dark side&#59; he essentially carries a neon “STAY AWAY, I’M BAD NEWS” sign for the entire film.

Schnabel distinguishes himself with a debut that feels tactile, real and suitably off-putting as he attempts to capture the sensibilities (if not always common sense) of twentysomethings.

Unfortunately, Pet Shop Days’ exploration of its characters’ misanthropic attitudes eventually reeks of arty indulgence.

A crime cocktail so bland and uninspired (despite being heavily inspired) that all it makes you want to do is press charges against those who served it.

The most damning thing about Pet Shop Days is that, even in an LGBTQ cinema landscape starved of controversy, Schnabel’s coming-of-age attack on basic human decency is more likely to elicit yawns than gasps.

Pet Shop Days ticks every box on the checklist for terrible films. There had to be a massive disconnect between the scripted material, what was filmed, and then clumsily cobbled together.

A wonderfully lurid little film.... Bernal serves up insouciance with sex appeal in every scene, and his cocky performance is riveting.

Pet Shop Days is a nobly scathing piece of work, though the juice may not be worth the squeeze.