The ending of a musical movie is usually a big performance, and while Technoboys gets there eventually, it’s beside the point. Instead, the Netflix movie culminates in an ayahuasca trip that crystallizes all of the script’s themes in a teary-eyed and amusingly ridiculous group therapy session.
How on earth did we get here? Well, it involves a car accident, an attempted murder, and a shaman, among some other things.
The Basics
Technoboys is a relatively simple movie to understand. Alan, the former lead singer of the once-famous titular boyband, wants the group to launch a comeback after he secures the rights to the name when the copyright mysteriously expires. He’s shocked to discover that his former bandmates have radically changed in the intervening years, as have the tastes and temperament of the general public.
Alan is obsessed with his own public image, determined to win back his old flame, Melena, and fearsomely opposed to the rival group, Spicy Roots, who just so happen to reform at around the same time as Technoboys. This all comes to a head when Melena and Spicy Roots’s lead singer, Number Juan, are almost killed in a car wreck caused by Alan and his “number one fan”, Jay.
After the accident, Jay attempts to murder Number Juan in the hospital, and then publicly claims that Alan instructed him to do so. With everything beginning to seem a little too conveniently engineered, all of the Technoboys, along with their manager, George, Melena and Number Juan, all get together. Leo arrives out of nowhere with heaps of ayahuasca, which is just what everyone needs to get to the bottom of things.
Ayahuasca Reveals All
The drugs allow everyone to see the conspiracy for what it is and confess their deepest truths. To be fair, none of what’s revealed here is news to the audience, but in a few cases it is the first time that the characters are sharing their innermost thoughts among themselves.
I really liked this sequence. It’s deliberately silly, sure, but it’s also where the film really digs into its underlying themes of acceptance and understanding, with the band members finally being true to themselves and each other.
Charlize, for instance, didn’t care about fame and fortune and the 90’s Pop Tour that Alan dishonestly promised everyone. She just wanted to be seen as a woman after making her reputation as a “bad boy”. Alan never did love Melena after all, and Melena was driven by lust for Number Juan, who, for what it’s worth, isn’t really Puerto Rican.
George has finally been able to express their gender fluidity. And Freddy realizes that his tough-guy macho shtick is just an act, and that his accident with the bull revealed to him that it wasn’t just a horn in one of his orifices, but the patriarchy as well. Freddy hints at a past encounter with Charlize and I’m pretty sure comes out of the closet in this scene.
Oh, and Melena has to actually accept that she’s a white woman. More importantly, she has to acknowledge that she’s part of a system that compels real women of color to look up to her as an aspiration. She’s a symptom of a disease to make women of color feel ugly and unworthy, and she can no longer continue to perpetuate it.
Masiosare’s Plan and A Happy Ending for the Technoboys (And Others)
After receiving a message of forgiveness from Alan, Jay is inspired to go live on Coquis Topete’s morning show and reveal the real truth – Masiosare planned everything. He let the Technoboys copyright expire deliberately, knowing that Alan would desperately acquire it, and his plan was to use Jay – to whom he had promised fame and fortune – to murder Number Juan and frame Alan for it.
Masiosare knew that Melena was having an affair with Juan, and this was his way of getting revenge. However, a spiritual awakening brought his plan crashing down.
After being cornered by the police, Masiosare drives his car off a cliff, presumably fatally.
At the end of Technoboys, the band take to the stage with Melena and Number Juan and give a great performance. Freddy and Charlize kiss on stage, and George, watching in the crowd, is given an executive’s card with a brief mention of the 90’s Pop Tour.
Maybe Technoboys will be there after all.
