Andy Mukherjee | The Invention / 2013

may the force be with you

by Douglas Messerli

 

Andy Mukherjee (screenwriter and director) The Invention / 2013 [15 minutes]

 

Brad (Matheus Hernandez), in bed with his wife (Fiona Alexander), is having difficulty sleeping. A noise or perhaps just a sensation is bothering him and he rises, turns on the living room television and watches a few programs, flipping through the channels.

     Suddenly he discovers himself on a male porn site and quickly attempts to switch to another station, but the control unit doesn’t work and he is forced to turn it off. A piece of paper on the coffee table seems to indicate that he has recently lost his job and suggests a new place of possible employment, which he visits the very next day.

    On the way to the appointment, as he attempts to find the building he encounters several males, all whom for those of us with gaydar fully operating seem to be gay, one man in particular stopping and looking back to stare of Brad, suddenly bringing a large smile of contentment also to Brad’s face. Has he suddenly “gone gay?”

     Much of The Invention seems as purposely vague and out-of-sequence as is the marvelous invention of the boy Brad has run into on the street, Kevin (Carl Leroy).

   The next few scenes, for example, seems to be at the front desk of an apartment building or perhaps even a hotel, where Brad is now the night concierge. He receives a call from one homeowner or guest that there is noise coming from the room above which will now allow the caller to sleep.

      Brad checks its out, knocking without an answer. He opens the front door with his building keys, but finds no one within, simply another door which appears locked with indeed a strange noise coming from within. Brad puts his ear to the door, now hearing voices, one of which is clearly speaking of leaving, an act which apparently results in sex. Inexplicably, Brad begins to feel sexually intrigued by their carnal moaning, eventually dropping to the floor with apparent sexual lust as if he too were in the midst of an orgasm.

      Again we see Brad at the front desk, Kevin struggling with a huge box he is carrying, demanding that the front desk guard help him. Brad does so, and carries it upstairs to the very same room, this time the door easily opening for Kevin as he and Brad carry in the box.

      Brad is fascinated by a machine that is lit up, an invention Brad suggests that will completely alter the world for the better. As Brad says that he must leave, apparently to return to his position, Kevin asks him to stay and makes a sexual pass, which Brad forcibly rebuffs.

     The night clerk is again at the front desk in the next scene, Kevin struggling with the same box. Events are repeated in detail, but this time when Kevin comes forward with a kiss, Brad greets it fully, stripping off his clothing, and docilely moving into position to get fucked, his sounds of pleasure being the very same as those of the first of these scenes. And indeed, as the camera crosses the barrier of walls, we see Brad outside the door highly intrigued by the sounds of Kevin and Brad’s lovemaking.

      I’m sure how we can precisely interpret the seeming out of sequence scenes and the simultaneity of the third. Perhaps it is simply an aspect of the invention’s ability to transform

straight men into beings that they never before imagined themselves being, transporting them into a different time-space continuum. But I’m sure that this film cares deeply about a sense of coherence considering that the narrative seems quite pleased with itself by simply representing a machine that can turn straight men into hot gay lovers.

      But then, we also have wonder if perhaps there is no such machine. Perhaps just the thought of it permits the straight man to grant himself what previously he could not. Or perhaps the three instances represent three alternatives for the man unsure of his own sexuality.

      How that might change the world or possibly make it better is not explored, let alone the deeper consequences of altering the straight world into one of homosexual desire.

      The British short was shown at the Short Film Corner of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

 

Los Angeles, October 15, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (October 2022).