Dylan S. Baker | Eric & Oliver / 2023

out of class

by Douglas Messerli

 

Dylan S. Baker (screenwriter and director) Eric & Oliver / 2023 [14 minutes]

 

The subject and location of Dylan S. Baker’s Eric & Oliver might now almost be said to being close to becoming a new genre wherein an unconfident, hard-working boy meets up in the university library or elsewhere on campus with a slightly better-looking, self-assured, and far more relaxed boy and falls in love. There are, obviously, slight variations such as in British director Jacob Kernis’ Who You Wanted All the Time (2024) in which three boys are involved, or as in Brian Rowe’s Lonesome Bridge (2005), where the second boy is not at all willing to go along with roommate’s crush on him, particularly since he’s straight. In each case, nonetheless, two opposites attract and form bonds from which they further learn about one another. If only Nick and Charlie were a couple of years older, one could argue that even the popular series Heartstoppers, since in the final season Nick is heading off to University, might be said almost to fall into the backpack of this recent genre.

     The family-oriented, hard-working introvert in the case of Baker’s short film is Eric (Alexander Espinoza-Luna) who is having difficult with his new Law class assignment. While working in the library with his best female friend, Jade (Olivia Byrne), Eric looks up to see another boy who is in his class enter and hunker down in a study carrell.

     Noticing the distraction, Jade demands to know who he is, and insists that Eric at least introduce himself to his apparent heart-throb, who happens to be the young handsome, friendly Oliver (Noah Schnabel).   

     When Eric actually does as he as half-promised Jade and makes the other boy’s acquaintance, the magic begins as Oliver invites him to work together on their papers. Both quickly discover they are gay, and the seemingly self-assured Oliver admits that he has been through great difficulties with his family while Eric makes it clear that his mother and he are close.

     They boys quickly fall in love and do most of the things young gay students do together on their university campus—you know, take long walks, smile at one another throughout their classroom lessons, share a campus hammock, throw popcorn at one another in the library, and walk across the outer ledges of campus buildings.

     On the more serious side, Eric admits that his parents are divorced and that when his father found he was gay, he refused to have anything more to do with him; his mother, on the hand supported him, and he wants, accordingly, to make her proud. But the courses are more difficult that he imagined they might be, and he’s worried that he might not make it.

     Eric supports him and even makes a commitment to be there for his new friend every step of the way. How he can promise without even a so much on little more than a wink and a touch is not explained, but it’s surely a sign that these two boys are seriously in love, and to prove it they hug, Oliver insisting on showing Eric his favorite campus spot, a sort of religious plaza upon which a giant sculpture of Christ officiates (the film was shot at LaSalle College in Pennsylvania). For Oliver, he likes it because it’s not a highly trafficked spot, and it brought him peace, he recalls, in his freshman year.

     Together they look at the stars, and finally, Eric admits that he “thinks he likes Oliver” (which evidently means that he loves him), Oliver sharing the same feelings which finally allows them to kiss under the statue of Jesus.

    If only writer/director Baker could now explain to us, please, what they doing on a college campus other than sharing their personal feelings and fears. If it sounds like I am making fun of these kinds of films, well I am in part. I also met my life-time companion on a university campus, and I’m sure we did a lot of silly things; I’m certain we shared our worries, and talked about our families; but we actually participated, once in a while, in discussions of about music, film, politics, theater, and general ideas, even sharing what we were learning in our classes. Given their banal behavior and clichéd conversations, these boys might as well be back in high school.

 

Los Angeles, August 21, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (August 2025).