Lex Rentería | Agaves al alba (Agave Echoes) / 2024

the last goodbye

by Douglas Messerli

 

José Mendoza, Lex Rentería, and Tamara Sánchez (screenplay), Lex Rentería (director) Agaves al alba (Agave Echoes) / 2024 [12 minutes]

One might describe the short Mexican film directed by Lex Rentería—one of the five filming companies who competed in the Rally Expresso Tequila competition—as a kind of beautiful summary of Brokeback Mountain shot through the commercial lens of the Agave azul, the “blue agave” used in the production of honey and, far more importantly, in its use in the Jalisco production of the potent drink Tequila.

   These two gay cowboys, in fact, meet up in a bar, drinking shots of tequila where they engage in friendly love-hugs and in the case of Miguel (Diego Ramírez) even a dance into which he attempts to engage his lover Alejandro (Abraham Ríos). The bar patrons are delighted, but Alejandro is nervous, and with good reason.

    He is about to join his uncle in Mexico City, where he wants to study acting at the conservatory, and this is their last night together in the small Jalisco town in which they’ve grown up. Alejandro can’t even be seen giving Miguel a last-minute kiss given the gossip of the community.

     Together they escape to the agave fields, where in a small tent they make love and express their true love and last moments of passion. The commentator on the IMDb site basically summarizes the simple plot, which took evidently three writers to create: “A young man goes to big city for becoming actor. Behind travel, he meets his friend. A last drink (and dance) in a bar, a night in tent together, intimacy near agave field and, in night, looking to stars.” I didn’t notice the stars, but longing and love is certainly at the center of this last goodbye.

     More importantly, as in most commercials, it’s a pretty-to-look-at 12-minute ad.

 

Los Angeles, February 7, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2025).