Shorts: Swipe Right
Saturday, Oct. 15
7 p.m.
GALA’s Tivoli Theatre
Things in this hodgepodge of shorts get off to an esoteric note with Intrinsic Moral Evil (), a filmed modern dance piece performed by three handsome men who may or may not be manifestations of the same person. It’s never clear what’s fully being put forth here — as with any dance, everything is open to interpretation — but the piece seems to be about accepting one’s sexuality. Maybe. Harm Weistra’s 11-minute film, set to Beethoven, is luxuriant and dreamy, but needless over-editing keeps killing the mood. It’s followed by Kiff Scholl’s Surprise (), in which an otter (John Halbach) and a bear (Bil Yoelin) meet at a party and, through a series of strange “flash-forwards,” break down their three-month relationship. Toying with convention, Scholl’s narrative is novel enough to keep us engaged, though the final minute is head-scratchingly abstract. (Also: For a 23-minute film, it has an ridiculously long end credits roll.)
Lisa Donato’s Spunkle () is a well-meaning comedy about a lesbian couple who use the stoner brother of one of the women as a sperm donor for their baby. The comedy never settles on a tone and confounds itself by the end, landing with a thud instead of a feather-light laugh. It’s cute but pointless. In the mostly black and white, stiffly-acted Bed Buddies (), three friends wake up to find they’ve had sex with one another. From there, they walk around the room in their underwear and anguish over whether or not they’ve ruined their friendship, weigh the pros and cons of a possible thrupple (“I need you two as friends, not as exes!”), and marvel over one friend’s sizeable endowment. Writer-director Reid Waterer might have concocted a funnier, friskier film had he not fallen victim to the sin of starchy exposition.
Easily the best entry in this program, Sign () follows a relationship from beginning to end — with a twist. Nary a word is spoken, as one of the men is deaf. The cinematography is arresting and beautiful, the performances by Preston Sadleir and John P. McGinty expressive and potent, and the direction by Andrew Keenan-Bolger is the kind Hollywood looks for in shorts to see if there’s a spark of talent. In Keenan-Bolger’s case that spark is a sky full of fireworks.
Regrettably, Sign is followed by Where We Left Off (), a textbook case of how not to make a short film. Better suited to a 10-minute play festival, Alyssa Carroll’s 13-minute drama, in which a lesbian comes out to her recently deceased father via an imaginary conversation, spends its first three minutes watching her boil a pot of tea. Make it your bathroom break.
Letargo () reminds us that Spanish men are among the most handsome, sexiest creatures on the planet. That aside, the drama, in which a failed relationship is rekindled over a sick dog, is intimate, involving and steeped in a melancholy that fully tugs at your heart. Writer-director Xavier Miralles marvelously captures feelings with an economy other filmmakers in this series should study. “Are you cold?” says Marc to Alex after an deeply sensual lovemaking session. “No,” comes the reply. “I’m still warm inside.” An magnificent film in every regard. The program concludes with Gabriella Moses’s Sticky Fingers (), a lively rollercoaster of sexual self-discovery for a budding lesbian who realizes what she really needs from her BFF. Moses pushes her direction a bit too hard in spots, but the visuals are engaging and the emotions, natural and honest. A decent program capper.
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