Nicholas Zhur | Your Aura / 2019

getting what you wish for

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nicholas Zhur (screenwriter and director) Your Aura / 2019 [18 minutes]

 

This short film is centered around subjects that I’m afraid I have no ability to speak about, observing auras around someone you just met and betting a $100 in your belief that he might be gay. Neither is something I’ve ever experienced, and frankly I hope I never do.

     Finn (Charles-Curtis Sanders) is a handsome young black gay boy who’s somehow found his way to a fairly well-to-do Los Angeles neighborhood where he rents a room. He’s attempting to try-out for acting roles, so far without much success.

 

    Tony (Landon Tavernier) is a handsome white boy, who lives in a nearby quite chic apartment, privilege written across his face (could any casting director found a better actor to play such role than someone named Landon Tavernier?). He’s just landed a small speaking role in a new TV series, and can afford to have his own calling card which he hands to Finn after he accidently meets him on the street, watches him fall from his skateboard, and witnesses an aura surrounding him, to say nothing of obviously finding him quite attractive.

     Tony’s friend, Alejando (Donnie Luther) is evidently a quite wealthy and nasty queer boy who is quite convinced by his gaydar that Finn is most definitely straight. In fact, he dares Tony to make a bet, something Tony, to give him credit, wants no part, but to which he finally is swayed to agree: his suggestion is that if Finn turns out to be gay, Alejando must pay him $100, and vice versa if the cute new boy is straight.

     Alejandro, clearly jealous, suggests he has no need of the money, and changes the rules so that each other will simply grant the other’s wish. We perceive that Alejandro’s wish will surely involve Tony having sex with him.

      Finn does eventually call, Tony and he joining up for breakfast, after which, at Tony’s suggestion, they stop by his apartment, a place which so awes the troubled Finn that Tony, now clearly perceiving the aura that surrounds the boy, helps him to come out with just a few words about how important it is to be yourself and not listen to what anyone else says.

      Gee, I wished I’d had such terribly sage advice whispered into my ears back in my days. But then I probably didn’t have a bright light emanating from my hands as Finn does in Nicholas Zhur’s short fantasy.

      For a second, time spins forward and Finn and Tony, having fallen in love, dance through the Crescent Heights neighborhood streets, kiss, and obviously make love (discreetly off camera); within minutes Finn, rolling all his possessions in a small suitcase up to Tony’s door, moves in with him.

      Bringing us back to reality, Finn’s phone rings, Alejandro having evidently recorded their voices about the bet. Devastated by the realization that his opening up to Tony has been about a bet to prove he was gay, Finn angrily leaves and refuses for several weeks to answer Tony’s calls.

      Of course, they eventually have to meet up again, with Tony apologizing after he realizes he is really in love. Hesitantly Finn forgives him, while Tony takes him out onto the street where in the hazy sunset of a Los Angeles evening, the moon appears to have landed on earth. They kiss.

      Welcome to fantasyland in this washed-out picture postcard portrait of LA LGBT life.

 

Los Angeles, September 9, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).