The Astronaut Lovers (2024)

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The Astronaut Lovers begins as a sunlit queer summer tale but gradually unfolds into a tender, complex meditation on intimacy, longing, and identity. Pedro, an openly gay man returning to the warmth of a family home in Argentina, seems at first a calm observer of the chaos around him. When he reunites with Maxi — his handsome, seemingly heterosexual childhood friend — their dynamic carries the tension of unsaid feelings, shared memories, and an undercurrent of attraction masked as friendship. The film wastes no time blurring the lines between genuine affection and the roles people play to protect themselves from rejection.

The central conceit — that Pedro pretends to be Maxi’s boyfriend to help him win back an ex-girlfriend — is played both for laughs and subtle emotional tension. What might seem like a typical rom-com setup quickly evolves into something more intimate and emotionally raw. Through casual flirting, physical proximity, and silent gazes, the film builds a slow-burning chemistry between the two men. Yet the situation is complicated by Pedro’s awareness of the possible heartbreak ahead. He understands the risk of getting emotionally involved with someone who may never fully accept or reciprocate those feelings — a familiar but rarely explored experience in queer cinema.

Director Marco Berger infuses the film with his trademark style: extended silences, naturalistic close-ups, and languid pacing that reflect the inner lives of his characters more than their dialogue ever could. Rather than rush toward resolution, Berger lingers on the tension between moments — a hand that almost touches, a shared glance at nightfall, the silence after a joke that lands too close to the truth. Even the frequent penis jokes and space metaphors serve a dual function: breaking tension through humor, but also signaling a coded way men express affection or vulnerability when honesty feels too exposed.

What makes The Astronaut Lovers resonate is not just its exploration of sexual fluidity, but the emotional honesty it extracts from its characters. Maxi, though initially dismissive of any romantic attraction to Pedro, begins to exhibit signs of confusion and longing. His internal struggle — torn between social expectations and his growing feelings — plays out subtly, through body language, hesitation, and contradiction. Meanwhile, Pedro tries to balance self-preservation with the hope that something real might emerge. Theirs is not a traditional love story with declarations and certainty, but a fragile dance of possibilities shaped by fear, desire, and timing.

By the film’s end, nothing is fully resolved — and that is precisely the point. There is no dramatic confession, no firm commitment, just a quiet understanding that something meaningful passed between them. Berger allows space for ambiguity, suggesting that not all love stories need closure to be powerful. The Astronaut Lovers invites viewers to sit in the uncertainty of attraction and connection, honoring the beauty of moments that feel suspended in time — like astronauts floating between one world and the next, uncertain where they will land, but unwilling to let go.