Lee Matthews | Chasin' / 2021

taking a leap

by Douglas Messerli

 

Ben Chuah (screenplay), Lee Matthews (director) Chasin' / 2021 [8 minutes]

 

Not much seems to happen in Australian director Lee Matthews short film Chasin’ from 2021. Two men meet up after midnight for sex in a park, one a slightly older individual, a black man named Joseph (Dushan Philips) who fears he might have been stood up by a later arriving younger white boy, Spencer (Jay De Leon). And even when he does arrive, Spencer seems disinterested in even introducing himself, more focused of finishing his cellphone game of Pokemon.

     Yet he does introduce himself and seems amiable enough, and certainly cuter perhaps than the still good-looking Joseph might have expected. Joseph suggests they go into the woods for sex, but Spencer immediately points to what appears to be the park recreation center, entirely closed off with a quite high fence. But Spencer suggests it’s no problem and quickly begins scaling the fence.

       Joseph has a far more difficult time, but eventually makes it over, coming down hard on his leg, however, as he falls into the inside tennis court. Spencer comes to rescue him, joking about his friend’s older age while supporting him as they limp over to a bench.

      Spencer insists he has a special potion to help the pain, and pulls out a bottle of what looks like an orange drink. Joseph is skeptical and defers, but Spencer insists he drinks. He does so only to discover that it’s mostly vodka.

      We see the two soon after their sex, which has apparently been quite fulfilling for both of them. They continue to talk, Spencer suggesting that he’s in a relationship, but with an older person—perhaps even older than Joseph—which he doesn’t particularly want given that all of the experiences he shares are 4th or 5th-time for the person he’s with, while he wants them all to be first time encounters with the world.

      As Spencer takes another phone message, Joseph suggests it’s time for him to go, after 2:00, and besides he’s hungry—particularly after his first experience of jumping a fence for sex. His phone battery seems to be running out, and Spencer, pulling another surprise out of his backpack offers him his own battery charger which he tells him to keep “until the next time,” clearly a statement that comes as somewhat of a surprise to Joseph. 

      Obviously, despite the age differences and amusements they both shared at the expense of the others, something between them has amazingly “clicked.” Spencer even suggests he share a late night dinner. But then, as Joseph looks back toward the exit, there’s still that fence to climb once again.

      This short film, in the end, offers more than it might at first seem, a budding relationship that has occurred somewhat obliquely, some of it offstage, but even what we’ve seen cloaked in the humorous generational differences that both have found in one another. Spencer seems always to be a kind of wild card as Joseph patiently awaits to see what’s dealt, as if he were “chasin’” the constant shifts of mood and expression of this young man. 

 

Los Angeles, October 13, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (October 2022).