an empty slate
by
Douglas Messerli
Lane Janger (writer and director) Just One Time / 1998
Producer and director Lane Janger’s short film of 1998 Just One Time might almost be described as a brilliant trailer for his 1999 feature film by the same name. In the latter the situation is repeated, but we get to actually know the characters and see them come to some sort of resolution regarding the sexual challenges, Amy (Joelle Carter) and Anthony (Janger) demand of each other before they can be married.
Yet, I somehow like the abbreviated
version better simply because it allows the viewer’s imagination to play out a
wide range of possibilities on which the feature finally reneges as it settles
instead for a greater sense of awareness concerning the fluidity of sexual
identity.
As they walk past the window neighborhood
friends they overhear a heated argument between Amy and Anthony, from which
Michelle walks away, while the ever curious Victor, who is highly attracted to
the handsome Anthony, stays on to eavesdrop.
Equally insensitive, Victor cannot
understand why she also might be also outraged by his auditing their
conversation. But he is so charming in his complete candor that she shares her
concerns with him, debating whether or not she should even leave Anthony for
making such an outrageous request.
Victor sees it another way. Why should
she leave the obviously “sexy and hot” Victor when she might easily arrange a
quick fling with Michelle that would satisfy Anthony’s whims?
Those “whims,” we quickly discover represent a
far deeper desire as Janger’s camera suddenly returns to the bedroom where we
watch Anthony pull out an apparently lesbian magazine from under his bed with, which
along with a handful of lubricant, he begins to entertain himself.
A few seconds later Amy returns,
interrupting his masturbatory pleasures, to announce she will go through with
the deal if only he promises fulfill her part of the bargain. He agrees, as she
announces her request, that he have sex with a male—in this case
the all too eager Victor, who immediately appears at the doorway muttering that
he’s never been this lucky before and suggesting that his only sexual
experience has come from magazines, ready and willing to take on the adventure
as he quickly begins to strip.
What any normal gay male would desire,
obviously, is that the one time might convince the “hot” Anthony to try it
again and again, just as any regular lesbian might wish that Amy truly come to
enjoy Michelle’s company. I’ll describe what actually does occur when I review
the feature below. But for now, at the close of the short, all options are on
the table.
And that’s the joy of Janger’s short: in
its very brevity the film puts no limits of the possibilities we might dream up
for all the characters involved. It’s an empty slate which the viewers are
encouraged to fill in.
This work won a GLIFF Award in the "Best
Boy's Short" category at the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival.
Los Angeles, December 7, 2020
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog and World Cinema Review (December
2020).
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