Bruno Collins | The Morning After / 2012

slow learner

by Douglas Messerli

 

Bruno Collins (screenwriter and director) The Morning After / 2012 [15 minutes]

 

Harry (Joshua Berg) wakes up to pee the morning after a late drunken night out only to discover, in a not very original scenario, a man in his bed. Surely this handsome man, Thom (Luke Striffler) who immediately attempts to hug him “just crashed” at his place; it can’t possibly be that he was so drunk that he…? To such closeted men since time eternal such events couldn’t possibly mean they really had sex with another man. The standard phrase, repeated endlessly through the centuries, is “I was so drunk last night I don’t remember a thing.”

     “You said you wanted to experiment, try something new. Yes, we had sex. It’s not a big deal,” reports his new bedmate. But, of course, it is a big deal for Harry, who literally kicks his overnight lover out, but not before Thom leaves him his number—just in case.

      In British director Bruno Collins’ not very original story, Harry, like many another man in his situation rushes over to his former lover Lucy’s (Juliet Lundholm) pad to make passionate love just prove he’s still heterosexual. Lucy, now married to Jack, is quite delighted by what some women might describe as almost a rape. And she is disappointed to hear that Harry is still dating with the obviously less adventurous Jess (Alice Maguire), who may, in fact, represent one of the many reasons why Harry has been so eager the night before to “experiment.”

      Harry dares to ask her if she’s ever kissed a girl, to which Lucy quickly replies, “Hasn’t everyone?” 

      “Have you ever had sex with a girl.”

    Lucy’s answer probably surprises him, “Yeah. Quite a few times.” She continues, “I love cock, especially yours. But a woman knows what a woman wants.”

      Clearly Harry feels that he’s missing out on something. Returning home, he discovers the telephone number Thom left behind and tosses it into the trash. A few beers and telly programs later, he pulls out the paper from his trash can.

      The door Harry buzzes frames the face of his current girlfriend Jess, who loves the romantic movie they watch together: “The boy gets the girl and they live happily ever after.” As she begins to kiss him he keeps fantasizing a man kissing him, and he pushes her away, finally running out as he shouts, “It’s not what I want. I want something else,” presumably reacting to his fantasies, but actually, we quickly learn, reacting quite honestly to Jess’ kisses.

      He quickly texts Thom and they plan a meet-up at a local bar. But when he arrives he notices Thom slipping the bartender the same kind of telephone number he had left behind at his house, and Harry quickly turns around and walks out. Yet only a bit further down the street he stops into another gay bar, spotting a very cute boy at the bar, to whom he sidles up, offering him a drink.

      This is a well-made short with cute actors but says absolutely nothing that hasn’t been recorded in dozens of films previously and even seems rather outdated given the supposed sexual openness of the year in which this film was shot. Perhaps we just need to chalk up Harry and the millions like him as slow learners.

 

Los Angeles, April 27, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2024).