Rotting in the Sun
MUBI | Release Date: September 8, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The Film StageJose SolísSep 7, 2023
That Silva achieves to both criticize the overuse of online personas (particularly in the white gay world) while becoming a piece meant to be meme-d and TikTok-ed into oblivion is truly remarkable. Read full review
83
IndieWireRyan LattanzioSep 7, 2023
You almost wish there was a little more magic, but that’s maybe because some of the truths Silva comes up close to are so skin-crawlingly real that you want to cover them up. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellSep 17, 2023
More than a casual swipe at modern social trends, Rotting in the Sun exposes a kind of cruelty, alienation, and social stratification that is only as modern as the technology through which it expresses itself. Read full review
80
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsSep 14, 2023
It’s a film which sets up a lot of easy targets, but shifts its aim at the last second to take on – and bullseye – a whole lot of hard ones. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 8, 2023
As ever, Silva’s filmmaking — formally rough on the surface, carefully worked out underneath — depends on the steady upending of expectations. Social media is phony but potentially revealing. Bodies are hot and sexy until they’re gross and inconvenient. Jordan is insufferable, the worst kind of self-entitled Ugly American, but also endearing, perceptive and admirable in his tenacity. Read full review
78
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpSep 8, 2023
It takes a shock to the system to draw honesty out of an influencer, and Rotting in the Sun is absolutely a shocker. But rooting himself in the fabrication-friendly space of social media leads Silva, and his film, toward an earnestness that outmatches even his best work to date. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarSep 8, 2023
Although Rotting in the Sun isn’t revelatory about how little those in the higher echelons of society think about the tribulations of average people, the movie’s forceful way of expressing it achieves its presumed goal: to punch up and mock the fools. Read full review
75
The PlaylistCharles BramescoSep 7, 2023
For all the dicks of varying turgidity on proud display, it’s the intimations of true insecurities that leave these characters most nakedly exposed. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEric HendersonSep 7, 2023
At once an excoriating satire of the performativity of homosexuality within a social media-addled community as well as a seemingly earnest lament for the total loss of collectivity, the film minces neither words nor bodily appendages. Read full review
70
The Daily BeastColeman SpildeSep 7, 2023
The most surprising aspect of Rotting in the Sun isn’t how many hard dicks are knocking together at any one moment, but that it’s genuinely a blast despite all of that. It’s a sexy, searing satire of influencer culture and gay misanthropy, as well as a pseudo-murder mystery in one abrasive package (pun intended). This is the sleaziest fun you’ll have all year. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAmber WilkinsonSep 7, 2023
While the first half of Rotting In The Sun may be overly self-indulgent, once Silva gets himself out of his system, he gives his skills and Saavedra an opportunity to shine. Read full review
70
VarietyManuel BetancourtSep 7, 2023
With its tricky tone and its wildly ambitious themes, it’s not surprising to find Silva’s outrageous, salacious film stumbling as it brings its many threads into focus. Like Sebastián’s art and his journal in the film, Rotting in the Sun remains a patchwork of quotes and ideas and provocations hastily if hilariously stitched together. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 7, 2023
Rotting in the Sun ultimately feels slight and overstretched. But with its freewheeling handheld camerawork and characters grounded in skewed reality, it whips up a compelling kind of 21st century madness as it reflects on the solipsistic nature of artists and gay men in a world consumed by shallow pleasures. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 12, 2023
It’s a dark, deadpan comedy that isn’t really funny, but whose premise is the the quintessence of “permission to laugh.” Read full review
60
The GuardianCath ClarkeSep 13, 2023
Silva packs in more penises in five minutes on the beach than I’ve seen on cinema screens in a decade of movie-watching; his representation of hedonistic gay culture feels nicely casual and natural. Read full review
50
The New York TimesElisabeth VincentelliSep 7, 2023
Rotting in the Sun is sharpest when exploring the two men’s love-loathe connection because Silva threads a provocatively fuzzy line between fascination for and irritation with Jordan and, by extension, Firstman himself. Read full review
40
TheWrapDan CallahanSep 7, 2023
Silva has taken experiences from his own life for “Rotting in the Sun” in an attempt to dramatize or satirize things about the current culture that he hates, but his hate is so all-consuming yet so strangely mild that he misses most of the targets he is aiming for. Read full review
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