O FANTASMA **

An almost fly-on-the-wall look into the life of a young gay garbage collector in Lisbon. Sergio, (Ricardo Meneses), seems comfortable with his sexuality; he likes to cruise and he's certainly getting enough casual sex, (explicitly shown), but his fetishes and his infatuation with a young rich boy would indicate he's not entirely happy. Joao Pedro Rodrigues' first film, "O Fantasma" doesn't offer much in the way of plot and you can't say Sergio's life is particularly interesting but Meneses plays him with an unabashed physicality that at times seems to go beyond mere acting. It's not a particularly pleasant picture but while it deals with 'sensationalist' material, it feels honest, at times even dull and never exploitative and as an addition to New Queer Cinema, it's certainly different.