Nitzan Giladi | In Bed / 2022

bow down

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nitzan Giladi (screenwriter and director) כאילו אין מחר (In Bed) / 2022

 

I have long mentioned my appreciation of contemporary Israeli LGBTQ film. But this time I almost turned away in horror of Giladi’s 2022 film with tatted, drugged, cellphone addicted, and not very friendly boys and a girl with disgust. Although one might say in its vision of the ugly side of the gay world, this film returns to the embracement of gay reality found in the significant filmmaker Amos Guttman’s movies, there something here that rubs me wrong.

       The situation is rather fascinating, based somewhat on fact. A gunman, evidently part of the LGBTQ community itself, suddenly is shooting people dead in a Gay Pride Parade. This kind of horror not only could, but does happen, just as the gay beatings outside of gay clubs and bars continues even today.

      The horror of it all sends the two major figures of the film, Guy (Israel Ogalbo) and his bestie girlfriend Joy (Moran Rosenblatt) back into the shelter of Guy’s apartment, only to discover several shell-shocked individuals gathered on the stairsteps, one of whom, shivering and stuttering in utter horror, Dan (Dean Miroshnikov) they invite into the apartment with them, offering him coffee, the time to recover, and money before he disappears to return in a now quite dangerous world since the shooter or shooters have not been apprehended.

       In the meantime, we become wisened-up to who our heroes really are. Guy seems to work as a tattoo artist, which explains his endless markings across his body, and Joy is a drug dealer, who at least has determined herself to cut off her desire for Tina, (Crystal Methamphetamine), a terribly additive drug that almost put her in the insane society and surely would have led to her death. That doesn’t mean that this wacky couple doesn’t continue with other “chemsex” drugs, from Xanex to a drip on the tongue from time to time of a drug that keeps them in a high and, later, nearly kills Guy.

      And that’s when the film becomes nearly unbearable to watch as, knowing the dangers that lie lurking in the world outside of the bed into which they retreat, they gradually lose control of themselves, their deep friendship, and finally any rational behavior, particularly when Guy begins to search on Grindr for the face-covered villain of the film, which may or may not be the Dan which they have attempted to save.

      A bath, an attempt of heterosexual sex pretending a Dolce & Gabbana-like nirvana follows, before one of the endless fights of the film occurs, sending Joy back into the joyless night, while Dan, a Russian expatriate shows up to fuck seemingly endlessly Guy to his mindless delight and regret.

      Gradually, as the drugs increase, and as for the first time Guy is introduced to Tina, things grow out of control as in many a heterosexual erotic thriller. Guy almost dies, but Dan appears to save him, while both begin to suspect the other of betrayal.

       Almost desperate, Guy tries to contact Joy again, asking for her help (he appears unable to imagine calling for the police), while Dan suddenly insists he’s not gay, that he has a heterosexual partner, and hints that his friends might be among those who pose on Grindr just to pick up gay guys to beat them up. He now is seeking refuge as well in gay sex.

       Finally, he admits that he too is now a suspect, having been involved with a whole group who may or may not have been involved with the Gay Pride Day killings. But by then it is too late, Guy, already hooked on the new drug, fucked intensely at least 4 times by my count (the incredibility of the sexual tenacity is never explained, but if possible, I guess even I would become delirious), can no longer think straight or even crooked.

       Joy shows up to protect the man with whom she would like to have a baby, but is pushed away by the now supposed protector of the drugged-out Guy. When she attempts to intercede, Dan kills her, whether intentionally or accidentally is almost beside the point. Even Guy witnesses, butt-naked, his dragging off of her body.

       By this time, I have to say anyone with a shred a decency has lost all interest in these truly despicable characters. Even if, as the director Giladi insists—“I wanted to explore a topic that is rarely openly spoken about in the gay community, or shown at all in film: chem sex. The ecstatic highs and intensely deep lows of drugs in gay party culture. I have seen this around me; I have seen it influence people I love, and it has affected me…I wanted to show this side of our culture in a truthful way. Not in the sense of being realistic or documentary-like, but portraying, in an honest and visceral way, the feeling of being high, reaching for fantasy, the distortion of reality, and loss of control”—we have to wonder “why?” Is anyone in this film redeemable, loveable, someone to whom we should pay attention.

      Guy survives, walking stark-naked down the street, ineffectually asking for help, and begging, uncomprehendingly, for the police to pay attention. Far too late, far too meaninglessly, far too insignificantly to turn film into the masterpiece many claimed for it. We might even feel sorry for the 28-year-old Guy, but he has been a mindless idiot from start.

 

Los Angeles, December 4, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2024).