oreo cookies, red licorice and corn chips
Noah Zachary (screenplay), Noah Himmelstein (director) ShirtTugger / 2025 [9 minutes]
This short film directed by Noah Himmelstein is
about a serious issue, “Binge Eating Disorder.” Yet for all the seriousness of
the issue, it’s hard to feel engaged with Max (the film’s writer Noah Zachary)
who leaves his hunky lover Bill (Matt Gibson) to trot off to bed many a night
while he secretly sits up and swallows down every piece of junk food he can get
his hands on—or even worse, food that he keeps in plastic bags in a hidden-away
drawer.
The next
morning, he dutifully serves up pancakes and eggs to Bill after his companion’s
strenuous workout, while he goes hungry. Is Max pretending to be on a diet? Why
doesn’t Bill ask why his lover isn’t eating?
Throughout the day, Max virtually starves himself despite the people he
encounters, all stuffing their mouths with iced café latte, ice cream cones,
and other fast-food items, as well the vast variety of fast-food restaurants
that he walks past on his way to work.
Despite
his self-conscious pulling away whenever Bill goes to hug him, Max must
perceive that his companion loves him despite his bulging belly. So why does he
once again binge into the night?
In short,
we see his actions, but are provided so little knowledge about either Max or
Bill that we can’t imagine the source of his endless hunger or even how the two
men possibly got together and what they have found in common. All we know is
that there is a problem, and frankly it’s an issue that isn’t that easy to
watch as it’s played out. A plump man chomping on chips, licking the frosting
off Oreo cookies, and downing red licorice does not a fascinating movie make.
While we
may believe be convinced of the seriousness of the disorder, we are given
little reason to care for a solution or to even root for the central figure’s
ability to mend his ways. Frankly, I’ll join the kind and thoughtful
sleepy-head Bill in bed any day before I’ll sit through another night of
watching Max gorge himself to death on calories and bicarbonate of soda to
settle his inevitable stomach ache.
And while
we’re at it, we have wonder what does any of this have to do with being gay?
Los Angeles, July 23, 2025
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July
2025).
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