Shane Aaron | Floating Novelties / 2018

it’s that kind of movie

by Douglas Messerli

 

Shane Aaron (screenwriter and director) Floating Novelties / 2018 [27 minutes]

 

In order to attempt to restore their relationship—after Miller (Milly) (Jonathan Wilson) has caught his boyfriend Ben (Thayne Caldwell) having sex in their bed with another man—the two boys head out to camp in the woods, only to discover that the space they rented is still inhabited by two girls who suggest they share the space.

     It’s the perfect solution, of course, of which any heteronormative mother and father might approve; when gay marriage fails, send the boys back to bootcamp to toughen them up and throw in some good-looking girls, even if they happen to be lesbians.

 

     The girls, catching on immediately that these are two gay boys, immediately take them on an “awesome” hike where they discover a large flat waterfall and take in the joys of nature, after which the boys go into the nearby town for a shopping trip, you know, glass trinkets, yards of various colored and patterned bolts of batik—a literal representation of the “floating novelties” of the title.

    As such earlier freshman movies such as this one have carefully taught director Shane Aaron, the boys push at one another, splash water into each other’s faces, and sit around a late-night campfire with the girls in order to help bring their relationship back into shape. As Ben admits, during the three years of their relationship “it’s been a journey.”

       Jess (Payton Astin) and Tessa (Ashlyn Talcott), the girls, have regularly been coming to this spot, sent by their parents at an early age to help make Jessie’s life more normal since she’s had cancer since she was 4 years old. And so “normality” creeps in the story once more.

       The next day, they all get dressed up and head to the nearest gelato bar, laughing and socializing like the young adults they supposedly are, except that Ben stands up, and goes over to the boy in which we saw him in bed in the very first scene and gives him a big kiss—oh, sorry, that was Milly’s dream. He’s clearly not over the “situation” and is still pouting when the sun comes up.

      On the way to the lake—a necessary location shot for such teen boy and girl films, unless there’s a closer ocean—Miller admits to Jess that he caught Ben “cheating,” which is why he hasn’t talked to him since they’ve staked their tent. As the two girls and Ben toss each other in and out of the water, Milly stays on shore pondering fonder times, particularly remembering a smaller swimming pool where the two boys first met. But still, back in the tent, Milly can’t accept Ben’s hugs, and goes out for a middle-of-the-night wonder about their camp.

     There he encounters Jess, the cancer survivor smoking and in tears. She’s heard word that she’s had a return of her cancer, three masses which the doctors don’t feel they can treat. And she hasn’t told Tessa, not wanting to ruin the rest of their time together. So obviously she’s now become the one who can properly tell Miller that he has to stop stringing his lover along. “In life you can’t choose what happens, but we can choose how you react. And all these ideas of what the perfect life is is just “floating novelties” up in the air. …You can’t keep waiting idly by wishing for a miracle to happen. …You need to let go,” she concludes, the two hugging, as Miller appears to recognize the actions he now must take.

      This is a perfectly pleasant moment in what is a rather hackneyed and cliché-ridden short movie, and I wish the movie could have ended with that good advice and let us all go home to fuck life up. For as I’ve indicated in several previous reviews, I have little patience with gay boys who maintain all the conventional notions of heterosexual monogamy. Of course, it hurts to think that one might be losing his lover to someone else, but the best solution, I’d argue, is to find out why—if there’s a reason other than the sexual desire momentarily got the best of him—and to get over it quick if you want to keep living with the guy.

      But this pouting boy doesn’t seem to be much better in the morning, and meanwhile Tessa has overheard Jess and Miller’s conversation in the night and is angry that her lover hasn’t told her the truth.

       The boys, at least, finally have a talk, Ben begging for an answer about their relationship, and Miller still insisting he needs more time to work it out. “I made this trip for you,” insists Ben, pointing out that Milly hasn’t even touched him or even looked at him the whole darn time. “Show me how I can fix it!” Miller gets up and runs off, the solution of most conventional cowards.

     And even when Ben goes after him, apologizes, admits he fucked up and that it will never happen again—the words I’d argue that should never have to be spoken in a fully honest gay relationship since anyone with a tinniest bit a sense knows that in any relationship both of the couples continually will “fuck up” despite their best of intentions—Milly still pouts, cries, but, of course, finally puts his head on Ben’s shoulder and admits his love. It’s that kind of movie, sealed with a kiss.

      The two girls also come into frame and kiss just to remind us and themselves how much they too are still in love. And the boys head off to the lake for a dark swim where, once again, they splash water on one another and kiss. The end?

      Sorry, this little well-meaning movie still has one more thing on its hetero-normative little head: in the morning, as the boys pack up to leave, Ben gets down on one knee and proposes marriage to Miller, planting a ring on his finger. It’s that kind of movie.

 

Los Angeles, September 3, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).