Jonathan Lisecki | Gayby / 2010

political assimilation

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jonathan Lisecki (screenplay and director) Gayby / 2010 [11 minutes]

 

This quite charming short film of only 11 minutes serves as a kind of template for director Jonathan Lisecki’s feature film of the same name and subject of 2012.

    But as one commentator put it, in a sense you can’t improve it much more than this acerbic and clever work in which two friends from college meet up again after some time apart. Matt (Matthew Wilkas) has been in a six-year relationship with Tom, which he finally realizes has been doomed from the start, although he continually keeps talking about his ex, obviously compelled by the love that went sour.

     His female friend, Jenn (Jenn Harris) has been moved on from teaching Pilates to Hot yoga, which Matt somewhat mocks: “You get so thirsty.”

      They briefly talk about their long relationship and the reasons for their parting of the ways, while still revealing that they care about one another as friends. But their meeting on this day is apparently about something else. Jenn has decided to have a baby—Matt’s baby, without the help of intrusive doctors, which in any event she can’t afford. She hopes, in fact, that he will also be involved with the child. The one stipulation is that they do it “the old fashioned way,” both wondering, quite comically whether that will be possible.

       He assures her that as a male he can accomplish that, simply by sticking it in. But when they actually get together in bed, the rules they both set up rather comically demonstrate his total lack of interest in females and her incomprehension of gay men. He decides to just begin by masturbating and when he’s near climax to “stick it in,” but she talks, commenting on his size (actually quite large), etc. until he insists she be quiet, obviously focusing on the opposite sex.

       They finally accomplish the task, and wait for a while for the results of the test, retreating to the roof to talk and suddenly realize what they may have just done. Can they truly raise a baby together? What were they thinking of? Neither have enough money, although she reveals that she has been left a trust fund from her aunt for just such an occasion. But doubts engulf them both comically as they wait to discover whether this new adventure in their lives has been successful.

       Yet through this all, with their comic banter and their friendly argumentation, we realize that, in fact, they might be the perfect couple for a “gayby”—although Matt reminds Jenn that a true “gayby” has to have two gay parents.

       He observes that he’s recently seen a documentary about gay couples having babies which makes gay life seem so much about assimilation when for him and his generation it was all political. Yet secretly, he envied the gay couples talking about their children. But still…are these two odd people ready for what the test might reveal? They take out cigarettes but refuse to smoke them just in case Jenn might already be pregnant as the camera switches off.

       I will certainly review the 2012 feature version when I find a copy.

 

Los Angeles, February 21, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2024).