Felipe Sholl | Tá (Okay) / 2007

retrograde behavior

by Douglas Messerli

 

Rafael Lessa and Felipe Sholl (screenplay), Felipe Sholl Tá (Okay) / 2007 [5 minutes]

 

Two friends meet up in the school bathroom, one (Fernando São Thaigo) reading as he sits on the countertop, his figure reflected in the mirror. He reports that he snorted some coke, but when asked by the other boy (João Ferreira) how it made him feel, he responds, “Didn’t feel a thing,” but his cock got hard.

     The other counters, “Mine never gets hard…my cock never gets hard with that.”

     When asked, the first admits he has some, and they sniff the coke together, but this time the first boy doesn’t get an erection, which the other checks out, eventually suggesting he jerk him off, and when the first rejects that idea, he posits the idea of sucking him off, which he proceeds to do.

     But soon the first boy begins to laugh. Nothing is happening, and he abandons the idea for another time.

     He sniffs some more coke, the other asking what he feels now. Still nothing.

     But this time the second boy asks, “How about my finger in your butt?”

     “Who knows.”

    The one cleans his hands and the other his butt, both having evidently not kept such careful hygiene habits previously.

     The finger goes up the ass, but still nothing. He feels not a thing, although from his face we perceive it may hurt a little.

      The first boy has another idea but is too afraid to mention it. Yet the other persists, curious to know what’s on his mind.

      He pauses longer, finally shyly speaking: “What if…what if we kissed?”

      “Kissed?”

      “A kiss.”

      “On the mouth?”

      “On the mouth.”

      “Forget it.”

      But finally, the second boy agrees, “okay,” and they begin, deeply kissing, clearly getting into it, becoming increasingly involved in the activity so much so that even when the screen grows black we continue to hear the smacks of their lips and tongues throughout the credits.

     Brazilian director Felipe Sholl comically suggests that perhaps in the time of internet porn and the open discussion of sexual activities we may have forgotten some of the most basic enjoyments in life.

 

Los Angeles, October 20, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (August 2023).