by Douglas Messerli
Austin James and Neo Li (screenplay), Neo Li (director) Hank / 2019 [16 minutes]
Hank (Jason Stuart) and his younger lover Tommy (Jay Disney) have been together
for more than 15 years, but as they both grow older, particularly Hank, they
find their sexual lives lacking. Tommy, if nothing else, is in better physical
shape, and it is he who seeks the possibility of an open relationship.
On the morning we first encounter them, in fact, Tommy is expecting his
new sexual partner in a few minutes. He does finally take a moment to make sure
Hank is okay with the situation they are about to try out, and Hank is about to
suggest that they have a further conversation about it when Tommy’s date Gio
(Chris Boudreaux) show up to the door, the two immediately heading off to the
upstairs bedroom.
It is clear that Hank has serious
doubts and certainly questions his own desirability, if not the viability of
his long relationship.
Hanks heads off the clinic where he works. But
he doesn’t go to the clinic but attends a group meeting headed by Paul (Douglas
Scott Sorenson) made up of individuals who are trying to learn how to cope with
their lives living in Los Angeles, although it appears to lack a particular
focus, and Hank, asked to share his problems with the others, shies away from
going into particulars.
Hunter (William Nicol) runs after Hank after they group breaks up,
befriending him and suggesting that he has gone through the same experience.
Hanks is uncomfortable with the friendship, particularly when he hands him his phone
number suggesting they might sometime want to get together for a beer, watch
some Netflix, or just have a little extra fun.
Hank, formerly from Texas, stops into what appears to be a West Hollywood country western bar, where several dancers are engaged in an old-fashioned hoe-down line dance. After a couple of beers Hank, caught up in the spirit of something from his youth, joins them.
He’s a fairly good dancer, and
the younger group readily encourage his participation, but already feeling the
liquor along with the twists and turns of the do-si-do’s, he quickly loses
balance and as he falls into a couple of obviously straight cowboys, he is picked
up by the club bouncer and thrown out unto the street.
Since his nose is slightly
bleeding he checks his pockets for a tissue discovering the napkin upon which
Hunter left his phone number. Apparently, they decide to hook up for sex,
Hunter obviously suggesting an isolated canyon spot where everywhere one looks
they are “No Trespassing” signs.
He enters a cave wherein Hunter
sits in waiting. They begin to kiss, and within minutes somehow Hunter has
convinced him to put on a blindfold and he removes his shirt and pants, heading
off with the clothing, and just as importantly, his wallet. Left alone in his
undershorts, Hanks suddenly recognizes he’s been taken by a crook, and feels
even more foolish for the entire series of events that have led up the event.
Where does he even go from here?
He somehow gets back home late
in the evening, having to knock on his door since the robber has carried away
his keys. On top of everything else, Tommy is pissed since in Hank’s absence
the electricity has evidently been turned off; Tommy has forgotten to pay the
bill. “You have job around here, and now I can’t even turn on the
air-conditioning,” his lover fumes. He wonders if Hank has done this on purpose
because he was jealous of him and Gio. And finally, he notices that Hank is
standing in the room without any clothes.
“Tommy Davenport,” Hank
responds, “I am not okay about having an open relationship. I know that I’m
fat, I’m old, and I’m bald. …Even when you tried to ruin your entire career
with drugs and alcohol, I believe you. I didn’t do that because I had to. I did
that because I loved you.”
If nothing else, the subject
this short film brings up, the difficulties of maintaining a relationship as a
couple ages, particularly when one is a few years younger, is a worthy one. But
this film’s plot is more than a little preposterous. Even if we can accept the
ridiculous series of events that Hank’s undergoes in this single day, how he
even travels around the city from the urban cowboy bar to the canyon cave and
back to wherever their home is located, apparently without the help of a car is
not only explicable but somewhat absurd.
Even more importantly, so many
other details just don’t add up. Hank reports that he’s been married to Hank
for 15 years, although in Texas gay men were only able to marry in 2015, while he
utters these words in a movie made only 4 years later.
Finally, when his partner
attempted to “ruin his career,” in what did he believe? In lies he was told?;
or does he mean he believed in and supported his companion? If so, how
did he protect him from ruination?
Why are the fireworks
suddenly being exploded in the sky on this particular night? And finally, we
have to ask, have the issues between these two men truly been resolved? Can the
two truly come together again as a loving couple, particularly when at some
point Hank will have to reveal what a fool he has been throughout the entire
day.
There are so very many
unexplained events, loose ends, and simple impossibilities strung along the route
of the 16 minutes of this film, that even if we have been convinced that Hank,
in all his naivete, is a true believer in a world of dishonest men, how can we
believe in a story that simply doesn’t make sense?
Los Angeles, November 19, 2025
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (November 2025).
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