In her third feature, Argentinian-American filmmaker Julia Solomonoff presents the immigrant experience from a unique perspective as a gay actor tries to make a new start in the United States. Nicolas "Nico" Lencke (Guillermo Pfening), a former Argentinian soap star, moves to Manhattan to star in a film only to find himself stranded without a visa.
Until he gets the bad news, he works as a nanny, a cater waiter, and an Airbnb housecleaner. For the time being, he sleeps on a friend's couch. He gets around the city by bike and blows off steam by playing soccer in Central Park. It isn't a terrible life, but it isn't a great one either. In flashbacks, he remembers Martin (Rafael Ferro), the older lover he left behind, but whenever Martin's number lights up his phone, Nico lets the calls go to voicemail.
While looking after a dance instructor's infant son, Theo (Guillermo's son, Asia Pfening), Nico takes the little boy to the park where he joins a community of Spanish-speaking nannies. Some of them are undocumented, and they beat a hasty retreat whenever cops visit the playground. Eventually, a few of the women realize they recognize him from Rivales, a soap opera they used to watch in Columbia, but he insists he isn't the same guy.
Out of pride, Nico won't take the money his more comfortably-situated friends offer. He's convinced he'll be working on the funding-delayed film any day now. When the project moves on without him, he's not sure what to do, so he lies, insisting he has other jobs lined up. He also shoplifts and "returns" items he never bought, using receipts recovered from Airbnb. Though he auditions for a few acting jobs, casting directors find the blond actor either too Hispanic or not Hispanic enough. A casting agent even suggests that he get rid of his accent by working with a $200-per-hour voice coach.
When a Rivales castmate pays him an unexpected visit, Nico amps up his lies to convince Pablo (Marco Antonio Caponi), who remains in touch with TV producer Martin, that he's doing well. Ironically, Nico only feels comfortable confessing his unhappiness to Martin when they finally connect. Unfortunately, Martin remains unavailable for a committed relationship, and Nico is no longer interested in clandestine affairs with closeted men.
As fall turns to winter, his situation grows increasingly precarious, but it forces him to figure out who really cares about him—and who's just taking advantage. With that realization, he finally finds the strength to rebuild his life.
Though the entire cast delivers, Guillermo Pfening appears in every scene, and he makes all of the various twists and turns in Nico's fortunes painfully believable. It's also worth noting that the US-set film is primarily in Spanish, a trait it shares with Jim McKay's equally fine New York-set En el Séptimo Día, also from 2017. A strong effort overall, Nobody's Watching is highly recommended for LGBTQ, Latin American, and World Cinema film collections.
Discover more titles for your library shelves in our list of drama movies.