Now & Later Film Review

By Kam Williams    

Politics Make Strange Bedfellows in Sexplicit Agitprop Adventure

Bill (James Wortham) was making a decent enough salary crippling Third World economies as an international banker to be able to afford a great house in L.A. But when greed got the better of him, he ended up accused of embezzlement.

He subsequently became so despondent and suicidal about the prospect of spending eight years behind bars that, rather than face the music, he decided to jump bail without even telling his wife (Marcellina Walker). As a fugitive from justice with little more than the clothes on his back, he sought to keep under the radar by fleeing to the barrio, a place where no one would think of looking for him.

There, on the proverbial other side of the tracks, he hatches a plan to escape to Honduras. But while awaiting the arrival of his getaway driver (Luis Fernandez-Gil), he's directed to hide out at the apartment of Angela (Shari Solanis), a gorgeous nurse from Nicaragua.

The socially-conscious illegal immigrant has bones to pick with Bill about the role he might have played in the oppression of poor folks in Latin America. Still, as an advocate of free love, she's also more than willing to overlook his previous profession, and proceeds to seduce him on the spot.

With nothing left to lose, Bill is happy to indulge, and the two shed their clothes and start cavorting with abandon, like a couple of dogs in heat. Not content with just conventional sex, adventurous Angela ups the ante by asking him to indulge her more kinky fantasies. When he hesitates, she goads him by saying, "You Americans are such a bunch of frustrated hypocrites."

It's difficult to discern whether the jaw-dropping Now & Later is designed as politically-progressive agit-propaganda or merely as a thinly-veiled pretext for soft-porn, since it serves up generous helpings of film fare which border on both. Regardless, it's compelling enough to keep your eyes glued to the screen for the duration, given the unbridled passion of a mismatched pair you'd never expect to see in the same zip code, let alone sharing a bed.

To top it all off, the plot thickens when Angela's bisexual boyfriend, Diego (Adrian Quinonez), arrives home from the road unexpectedly. Will tension or a triangle flow from this combustible scenario? It's anybody's guess, given this unlikely trio.

The most sexplicit romp you'll encounter in theaters this year, guaranteed.

Very Good (3 stars)

Unrated

Running time: 99 Minutes

Distributor: Cinema Libre Studio

To see a trailer for Now & Later, visit:

Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, the African-American Film Critics Association, and the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee. Contact him through NewsBlaze.