Vivamax: Review of PATHIRSTY: Lessons in LGBTQ Love

July 13, 2022

Pearl (Adrianna So) and her vlogger friends Achilles (Kych Minemoto), Bunny (Chad Kinis), Sean (Bob Jbeili) and Faith (Kate Alejandrino) had been invited by Ali (Alex Diaz), the young attractive CEO of Sebastian's Beach Resort, to visit and feature his resort on their vlogs for promotional purposes before the big launch. 

Ali had just confessed online that he was bisexual, so Pearl thought he would be a great match for her best friend Achilles. However, upon meeting him in person, Pearl also got attracted to Ali herself. When Achilles mentioned that he and Ali were better off as friends, Pearl did not have second thoughts when Ali made a move on her.

This new Vivamax film is a spin-off of the successful pandemic BL series "Gameboys" (2020) created by Jun Lana. Pearl Gatdula and Achilles de Dios had been characters from the original series. Ivan Andrew Payawal (writer of "Born Beautiful" and "The Panti Sisters") had been the director of "Gameboys" since the first episode, and for the projects that spun off from it, like "Pearl Next Door" (2020), "Gameboys:The Movie" (2021) and now, "PaThirsty". 

This film still used the same bright and cheerful aesthetics and social media savvy that made the previous projects in its franchise very easy on the eyes, especially for the Gen Z and Millennial viewers. Because of Pearl and Achilles's colorful friends, there is representation here of practically all the stripes in the LGBTQ rainbow. There was inevitable opposition from the older generation, this time in the person of Ali's dad Roger (Rey PJ Abellana).

Ever since the first "Gameboys" series, Adrianna So's perky and lovable Pearl had been a fan favorite character, and her generous character deserves her share of happiness. Kych Minemoto's Achilles had an annoying wishy-washiness which caused the whole mess in the first place, certainly not Pearl. Fil-Canadian actor Alex Diaz's Ali exuded a confident manly appeal which made the rivalry between the two best friends understandable. 

The story of two best friends vying for the love of one man is not a exactly a new story, except of course, for the LGBTQ dynamics underlying it all, as written by Payawal and Ash M. Malanum. The cinematography of Kara Moreno was so vibrant, confirming that her good work in "Kitty K7" was no fluke. While the Vivamax-signature sex scenes were done with a touch of comedy, I felt like they should not have gone that far or that messy. 6/10.