Unknown filmmaker | Can I Call You Back? / 2010 [commercial advertisement]

a fortuitous date?

by Douglas Messerli

 

Director unknown Can I Call You Back / 2010 [34 seconds] [commercial advertisement]

 

Two beautiful men are standing at the end of a swimming pool along with a good-looking woman.

On the far right of the picture (stage left) the man is talking: “I don’t want to seem to forward. I’m only here for a few days. Do you think we can have dinner soon?”

     The man in the center responds, “I’d love to.”

     The other man reacts, confused, “Love to…?”

     “Have dinner with you.”

     The other man again speaks: “Can I call you back?”

    We realize what his handsome friend has not, that he has been talking on the phone, hidden away in Razorwire, Oakley + Moto sunglasses, sold by Motorola.

      Do the two actually get together? It appears not, as the man speaking to his sunglasses appears to move off—perhaps to continue the conversation in a more removed spot. Indeed, we don’t even know if he is gay; perhaps he was discussing a business date.

     Too bad. I’d certainly love to have dinner with the agreeable man in the center of the screen.

     And if my interpretation is right, Moto has revealed one of the problems with their new “invisible” phone. Perhaps our phone communicator swims back to agree to the fortuitous date.

 

Los Angeles, September 13, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).