Jason Larkham | Light Bulb Sun / 2012

the last exams

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jason Larkham (screenwriter and director) Light Bulb Sun / 2012 [29 minutes]

 

It’s final exam time for Freddie (Evan Rees) and his friend Ellis (Elliot Winter), and things are tense as they always are in the final moments of the high school—in this case, since the film is British, the gymnasium. These young 17-year-olds are about to begin a new life, and old friendships and relationships necessarily begin to either weave into full fruition or unweave the warp and weft, as did Ulysses’ wife Penelope, into a desolate emptiness where school boys and girls might never again hear from one another ever again—particularly in this case since Fred, having just picked up again with his former girlfriend Fay (Marley Hamilton), is planning on attending a university.

     Fred, a self-centered heterosexual, whose major dilemma at the moment is how to get rid of Fay—so he explains the situation to his best friend El, has utterly no clue whatsoever that Ellis is head-over-heels, quite romantically as we perceive from the little prelude to this short film, in love with him after all these years with no possible way of expressing it—particularly since Fred is constantly talking about his shifting relationships between women and running off for drinks with other male friends such as Tom (Jason Larkham) on the very night when El is as close as he can ever get to telling Freddie what he feels for him.

     Not only is El ready to reveal his love, but since his mother has just gone off for a six-day trip, leaving the house for him alone to tend, he is encouraged by everyone to host a party—which for his peers these days seems to require that each individual singly swell down a bottle of their favorite alcohol beverage: not a bottle a beer mind you, but a quart of Gin, Vodka, or whatever beverage works best to blot out all their late-adolescent frustrations and fears.

      Moreover, it’s final exam week, and Freddie is already unsteady given the fact he feels he might not have answered the final exam questions correctly enough to gain him entry into the Uni world he so desires, having headed off the night after with Tom (who appears to be a real-life vampire and perhaps a queer boy to boot) to get stoned drunk and, meeting up with El—who in his frustrations is about to head off to the local gay bar to relieve his tension—and returning home with him to share a bed.

      Even then, the light bulb in Freddie’s head doesn’t switch on, despite his constant restatements of drunken love to El, that he might, in fact, be leading the gay boy head-on into romantic despair.

      The party, from El’s point of view, only reiterates his notion that Fred will have to break up with his girlfriend and turn to his male bestie with, just perhaps, a few final kisses which will certainly wake him up to his real prince.

    Since by now everyone at the party is totally drunk, however, Ellis is clearly an unreliable narrator, and what really happens is that Fay and Freddie—before his very eyes—make up and kiss.

      What’s a gay boy dressed as a vampire supposed to do but retreat to his room in tears. Even light bulb empty Fred follows him, realizing something is wrong; but when he assures the poor boy that he truly love shim, and Ellis leans forward to kiss him, heteronormative Fred flies backward across the room like any proper teen boy having finally come to the recognition that his best friend is a queer: “I’m not gay,” he shouts out.

       Who can answer for that declaration? After a few more tears and the recognition that he now needs to face him with all the mess of cigarette butts, empty bottles, and chaos across the floors of his mother’s usually spotless house, he needs to clear away not only the room but his own imaginary life. The man he loves, just as they usually do, has gotten away with all the pretense that straight boys generally are able to, leaving their ridiculous queer lovers to clean up after the mess.

 

Los Angeles, May 25, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2024).