by Douglas Messerli
David J. Fulde (screenwriter and director) Eureka! / 2018 [3 minutes]
Sorry to report that David J. Fulde’s very
short film shot on Google Pixel XL is not really all that interesting. Two men,
Sam (Jonathan Wall) and Joe (Will Griffiths) are finishing up breakfast,
obviously an enjoyable time for both. They pay the bill and one walks off.
Since this film is silent until the last few seconds, and even those
words are extremely attenuated, we don’t know whether it is Joe and Sam who
suddenly realizes, in a Eureka moment, just how much he is in love with the
other. He speeds off in pursuit, but misses him on the subway, at the same
moment realizing he’s left his cellphone back at the restaurant. But now nothing
will stop him as he rushes forward by bus, stopping by his lover’s apartment
evidently, only to be told he’s not there.
Next stop is his place of employment. No sign of him.
He
finally finds him atop a building looking out over the city, the way tourists
peer down through the pay-for-binoculars from the Empire State Building in New
York City. What his friend is doing there and how the other knew he might find
him in that location (from the view, the city appears to be Seattle) is as
unexplained as is everything else about this self-advertised Valentine’s Day
special.
I
suppose I should be overjoyed for their love and future relationship, perhaps
even marriage. But since I don’t even know which character is which, let alone
have knowledge of anything about them, I truly could care less. I can only nod
my head and wonder at what seems such a waste of energy. Surely the romance
would have been just an intense if Sam or Joe returned to the restaurant,
picked up his cellphone, told Joe or Sam how much he loved him, and asked him
on a date that evening, where we might have listened in to find how who these
men are and why we should care about them.
Los Angeles, May 9, 2023
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May
2023).
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