There’s been a lot of discussion, and understandably so, concerning the decision to ban Travis Matthews' *I Want Your Love* from this year's Melbourne Queer Film Festival. Many people have voiced their disagreement with the Classification Board’s reasoning—that the film’s six minutes of sexual content didn’t advance the plot—and I share that view; the sex served a clear purpose in developing the characters. What struck me was just how unarousing realistically portrayed intimacy can be. It's not that it lacks appeal; Matthews' film is genuinely beautiful in its depiction of physical closeness, but the focus shifts to the participants – two or three men – and their expressions become far more captivating than the mechanics of the act itself. The anticipation leading up to the actual encounter, those moments of uncertainty, really generate the tension within these scenes. One segment from Marco Berger and Marcelo Mónaco's *Sexual Tension: Volatile* demonstrates this perfectly. The anthology film, comprised of six sections alternately directed by Berger and Mónaco, suggests sex but never truly delivers it. It’s a playful eighty-five minutes of suggestive teasing, though ultimately enjoyable. Each segment takes a potential same-sex connection as its starting point, building the anticipation to the brink of climax before moving on. Berger, whose previous films *Plan B* and *Ausente* have both explored sexual tension extensively, is given the strongest section, "El Primo." Javier De Pietro, who starred in *Ausente*, appears as a young house guest drawn to his friend's awkward cousin, who spends much of his time lounging around in his underwear—a situation that predictably stirs up our hero. Berger expertly uses both camera work and acting to portray a familiar scenario: the gradual descent from surreptitious glances to bolder advances, ending with the realization that an opportunity has been missed. It resonates so well because it taps into experiences many people can relate to. The same holds true for most of the remaining segments. There’s always that sense of recognition that enhances the viewing experience. A particularly strong segment follows a young man at a tattoo parlor who becomes infatuated with the artist, who remains oblivious; from there, we see straight men exchanging tips on how to better please their girlfriends, sponge baths, hotel staff lacking boundaries, and personal trainers. *Sexual Tension: Volatile* is entertaining. There’s never a dull moment—thanks to the constant sexual tension—but the overall quality declines noticeably after the first couple of segments. Given the film's Spanish title, *Tensión sexual, Volumen 1: Volátil*, it seems there's more to come, and I’m happy about that. ★★★ *Sexual Tension: Volatile* screened as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2013.

Source on TMDB