Blake Pruitt | Read Aloud / 2015

a mirror of possibilities

by Douglas Messerli

 

Blake Pruitt (screenwriter and director) Read Aloud / 2015 [15 minutes]

 

Read Aloud, in its short 15 minutes, is all over the place. It begins simply with a young man, Justin (Isaac Josephthal) hooking up on a Grindr date with a good-looking younger man named Marco (Jose Sepulveda). The date works out quite well, even though Justin is forced to bottom for one of the first times in his life; but he actually enjoys it.

     But we already know that, as a film editor he is into images, and is particularly fascinated by drag. He watches a drag performer over and over, and is busy with the image the next morning when Marco awakens after spending the night.

      Marco suggests he’s a would-be director, and wonders if Justin might be interested in seeing some of the work he’s done. When they meet again, Justin is fascinated by some of his images, while Marco realizes that what the editor might be far more interested in is performing—in drag—and encourages him to do so.

     Behind strings of beaded bangles, Justin performs less as a “drag queen” than as a kind of gay commentator asking some fascinating questions of his audience (and by extension of us): “Would it bother you if your partner kept pictures of previous partners?” “What do you feel about the world ‘queer?’” “What is your favorite post-sex activity?” “How does the idea of being slapped hard in the face during sex make you feel?” “How interested would you be in knowing the details of a partner’s sexual history?” “How confident are you of your sexual abilities?” “Do you prefer to pursue a sexual partner or have them pursue you?” “Do you enjoy meaningless sex?” “When a relationship ends, what is the best thing to do?”

     Some of these might be very interesting questions if they were explored, but our hero-in-drag doesn’t even suggest that these are necessarily important questions even to him. And soon after, it is clear, his relationship with Marco has been replaced by a new Grindr date, Brent (Roko Scherer).

      We are almost surprised, accordingly when he makes a quick date just to return Marco’s tapes, and is hurt, quite clearly, when Marco suggests he is too busy to meet up for a longer time together.

       The film ends with another performance, this without the drag, where in a far more personal context Justin talks about his own problems with maintaining a relationship with partners who speak a kind of date jargon without any depth, and glibly answering questions which don’t really show any deep involvement. Almost with pain, Justin admits, finally: “Maybe I can’t respect myself who’s actually into me, or need to prove myself to anyone who isn’t.”

       All of this may be interesting, in parts, but what does it really add up to. What we see are shards of a full human being, an almost schizophrenic presentation of a self that doesn’t know for certain what gender it prefers or if she/he really wants a long-term relationship. In the end, we suspect, that like this short film, the problem Justin has with other people is that he cannot fully make clear to himself or the others what he truly desires. Questions are wonderful, but without even an attempt to answer them, there is truly little behind them but a mirror of possibilities, as if someone were reading out a text that doesn’t add up to a story.

 

Los Angeles, June 22, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2026).