Evan Roberts | 33 Teeth / 2011

combing through desire

by Douglas Messerli

 

Evan Roberts (screenwriter and director) 33 Teeth / 2011 [8 minutes]

 

The most innocent of these man and boy films is Evan Roberts’ 33 Teeth, of only because in this comedy of youthful desire, there is no possibility or need of consummation. It represents only an early childish feeler into the far deeper problems that the young boy central to this story, Eddie (Spencer Siegel) may one day have to face. But for now it is simply desire with any possible hope of being brought into reality. Nonetheless, the gap between that childlike desire is filled with apprehension and actually may involve some danger with which Eddie is still willing to engage.

     Eddie is of the age of early sexuality when one begins to perceive that he is interested in young men of the same sex. For Eddie it’s clearly the boy next door, Chad to whom he’s attracted. Returning home with his mother from shopping, the kid almost drops his grocery sack as he witnesses Chad doing exercises after a run in his front yard.

        As the boy retreats to his bedroom soon after, he gets an eyeful as he looks out his window to observe Chad in his bathroom, measuring the length of his erection through the use of a comb, plucking the tine that meets the tip of his cock. Eddie’s impressed and obviously fascinated.

       The moment Chad drives off with his best friend for an evening on the town, Eddie, who’s been sent to carry the garbage to the street, drops his bags purposely this time and rushes to the door of Chad’s house, greeting the elder boy’s mother as he hands her the mail he has stolen from their mailbox, claiming it was delivered by accident to his own house.

      Without any invitation, he enters through the door, answering the mother’s polite inquiries about his and his mother’s health before inexplicably asking if he can use the bathroom. What can the woman say?      

     In the bathroom Eddie spots Chad’s billfold, opening it and checking it out, before laying it back where it was. He opens the bottle of the elder boy’s cologne, smells it, and pits a dab on his own head. Finally, he opens a drawer to discover the sacred comb, pulling it out before the camera shifts to see Chad returning, asking his mother if she’s seen his billfold.

       A second later Eddie rushes out through the back door as Chad moves from his bedroom search to the bathroom, where of course he finds his billfold. But he also spots his red comb, picking up to see a few notches lower that another tine has been removed, which puzzles him.

       Back in his bedroom, Eddie curses for a moment his dangerous maneuver. What if he had been discovered holding the comb? His whole childhood would come tumbling down the revelation of his crush on the straight boy next door—although we know that Chad’s friend has already observed the boy’s fascination with Chad, teasing his friend about his young lover.

       But suddenly Eddie recalls his treasure, pulling it out, looking it over, and hiding it under his pillow in delight. In a real sense it represents a kind of sexual act, both their erect penises having met up with tines of that comb.

       Does Chad suspect that Eddie is now watching him? Will his mother reveal that Eddie has just visited his bathroom? Those are the further apprehensions that a younger lover must always face when he loves someone older. Eddie has now entered the gap.

 

Los Angeles, January 14, 2022

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2022).