Nico and Dani

Cesc Gay's charming, rough-around-the-edges feature is an honest and mostly good-natured (though there is that troubling date-rape scene) story about growing up spoiled and horny in upper-class Spain. Arriving at the seacoast villa of his pal Dani (Eddie Haskell look-alike Fernando Ramallo), scrawny, down-to-earth Nico (sparrow-like Jordi Vilches) announces to Dani that he intends to lose his virginity by the end of vacation. In the meantime Nico and Dani practice at night what they call "krámpack" (the film's Spanish title), a kind of mutual masturbation; the krámpack gets a little out of hand and Dani develops a crush on Nico that hides sinister shadows of jealousy and treachery under the beachy sunniness. A kindhearted older gay writer adds a comforting and melancholy touch in this uncompromising but uplifting look at the heart's strangeness and resiliency. In Spanish with English subtitles. At the Avon.
-- Peter Keough