Dave Scala | Grotto / 2013

echo

by Douglas Messerli

 

Dave Scala (screenwriter and director) Grotto / 2013 [7 minutes]

 

This short film by US writer and director Dave Scala, like so many of its kind, is a tease about a young man, in this case Marco (Ben Getz), on the verge of coming out.

      Evidently the 20-year-old boy has returned to his hometown after a year away at college, and in the few moments of the film is being grilled by one of his best friends, Claudia (Lian Amado) about what has been happening in the time when no one has heard from him back home.

      The party is pool-side, but is already sprinkling, and when her friends Manny (JC Casely), Andrea (Daniella Escobio), and Manny’s college buddy, Ben (Adam Jepsen) arrive they complain about the night she has chosen for the party, although Manny seems to be willing to swim as long there is there is no lightning.

      But mostly what the group seem most interested in is quickly downing the bottles of beer Manny has brought along. Ben, slightly older than the others, strips down for swimming, revealing a nice body as he introduces himself to Marco.

       Marco seems apart, however, no longer truly one of the group. The others finally insist he joins them in a game of “spin-the-bottle,” evidently still a popular game among teens and college kids if the short LGBTQ films I’ve seen are representative.

       Claudia’s spin points at Andrea, who gives her a brief kiss. The bottle then goes to Marco, who attempts to bow out but is dragooned into participating. His bottle spins to the handsome Ben, and for a moment there is the complete silence of anticipation, broken only by a huge crack of lighting and thunder, sending everyone scrambling into the house. That is except Marco and Ben who find themselves in the pool together. As the two make light conversation, Ben moves closer and is about to kiss Marco, when suddenly we hear a voice, “Are you coming out...?”

       Marco is confused, as is the audience. Has he been imagining the encounter between him and Ben. He shakes his head a little, stunned by the realization that he has indeed been fantasizing what he admits verbally, “I have been trying to…..”     

   Ben reaches out his hand to help him, as Marco continues his sentence, “...of the pool?” Marco takes his hand and allows himself to be pulled out, Ben responding with an intense kiss, the other startled by the event. Ben adds, “Well, maybe you should try harder,” as he runs off, calling back, “Come on.”

       I presume the double incident of “coming out”—coming out of the pool and “coming out” sexually in this case—was director Scala’s way of permitting an internal self-realization and acceptance before the real event. And I presume the title hints at the double event that occurs in a grotto, the spoken word and its echo. It seems a bit coy. Why not just get down to business since it has been apparent that something has happened in that year that Marco has been away at school without communicating with his friends.

 

Los Angeles, May 5, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May 2022).