Black Luchador: Pitch Perfect Buddy Comedy on Reinvention Post Heartbreak

Adrian Jules’ Black Luchador has him playing supportive friend to a man who may or may not be coming out as gay. This meta-mockumentary involves three friends: one recently heartbroken and two others who first attempt progressiveness and then a straight face. The thing about heartbreak, though, is that it can leave you too self-absorbed to notice blunders, whether of those closest to you or your own.

When Tyrone (Carl McDowell) asked his friends to meet him at a ring, they did not know what awaited them. Perhaps they would go hang out at a strip club. But they are met with a clash, and this is where we meet them: on opposite sides of a situation in which no one knows anything, including the production guys Tyrone hired to document his “coming out”. It is an interesting turn of phrase to use with cis-straight men who barely know what they are doing and though they may have the spirit, they certainly don’t know how to channel it.

The plot is fairly thin in this eight-minute film; the gaffs are the point. Jules plays Gene, the wisecracking goof who likes to milk every situation he is put in for comedy, and Luke Woodruff features as the well-meaning white friend. They don kid gloves and a serious face for their friend attempting to prove that what doesn’t kill you does make you stronger. Definitely stronger, definitely not stranger.

Each of the characters are their own flavour of comedy. Gene’s clowning, and especially his laugh, immediately echoes Ncuti Gatwa’s iconic turn as Eric Effiong. When confronted with the truth of what they have been actually invited for, his incredulity and delight add magnitudes of watchability to the film. Woodruff straddles the difference between tough guy and a naive Joey Tribbiani type. The two bounce off each other with a lightweight chemistry natural enough to easily demarcate them into one team (the polite, bewildered spectators) and Tyrone into another (the earnest, oblivious spectacle).

Hinged on the premise that while friends will give you care and attention, they will also relish in tomfoolery, Black Luchador makes the most of its goofy jokes, witticisms, and strong performances. The end result is an entertaining comedy that never suffers from a false note.

Watch Black Luchador Short Film Trailer