Copa 181: bathhouse? brothel? social club? hot mess?
18 Oct 2019.

Breaking Glass Pictures has just acquired Copa 181, an independent Brazilian feature of interest to gay men. I watched it but wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. The director, Dannon Lacerda, chose to make a movie about a dumpy sad Japanese man who is married to a big fat opera singer. The whole time I’m watching it, I kept thinking of that old cliche “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” 

Anyway, the Japanese man is gay, duh. He goes to the world’s weirdest sex club, Copa 181. The first horror is that the door is manned by a woman, who I think also owns the club. She is one of the most annoying characters in movie history. She hosts the club’s cabaret shows with a drawn-on moustache and the worst patter I’ve ever heard from any MC. For some reason, she really hates this one guy, Leo, who is a stunning hunk who never wears a shirt. She keeps calling him a hustler as though it is an insult, but her club is filled with hustlers. I think she dislikes him because he keeps the transgirl on a metaphoric chain, beating her and making her shell out cash. The transgirl cleans and also performs at the club. None of it makes any sense.

What sort of place is Copa 181? Is it a bathhouse, a brothel, or a social club? There are more hustlers than customers and the same customers seem to show up every day. The place seems haunted. And what is the point of the movie? The Japanese guy gets fucked by a cute hustler, then the fat wife shows up to sing at the cabaret and catches him in the audience, and it ends with an interminable sequence where the two of them sit on a park bench and reassess their troubled marriage. Occasionally, there is a scene where the transgirl frets over hot Leo, who is a total asshole to her. And every so often there are those artsy touches that only exist in foreign cinema, like the fact that the film’s title does not appear until the 15 minute mark. But the movie is also full of really hot guys, so ultimately I enjoyed watching it.