Nicholas Rowley | Gay Talk / 2024

straight talk to the queer guy

by Douglas Messerli

 

Nicholas Rowley (screenwriter and director) Gay Talk / 2024 / [3 minutes]

 

Two grown friends sit smoking a joint in a car, when Henry suddenly says, “If you’re gay, that’s okay. I still love you man.”

    The other shouts out: “For the last fucking time, I’m not gay. If anyone’s fag it’s you!”

   Henry asks him what’s he smoking in derision, although his friend takes it literally and argues that they’re sharing the same joint.

     But I have a girlfriend, insists Henry, while his friend has been single for his whole life.

     Yeah, because bitches mean shit.

     They continue their name calling, misogynistic blather, and other abuses. Henry’s friend wonders if he really even likes his girlfriend, pointing out that after three months of being together that they haven’t even slept together yet. “She’s probably cheating on you by now.”

     Henry calls him an asshole for suggesting he was a fag. His “friend,” arguing he’s his best “fucking” friend in the whole world calls him dipshit, to which again Henry takes offense.

      Henry insists that he has to treat kinder, his friend responding does he want to be treated like a girl.

      “I just wanted to be treated with kindness, that doesn’t make me a girl.”

      “I treat girls with kindness, so that makes you a girl.”

      Henry retorts that he’s not seen his friend treat any girl nice. “You’re a fucking misogynist.”

     His dumb, bad-mouthed, and frankly not very appealing friend doesn’t even know what the word means.

      Again, he calls his friend a fag, to which Henry suggests proves he’s “projecting.”

    The friend suggests that his gay talk has clearly made him uncomfortable, Henry reversing the argument arguing it is his friend that is clearly uncomfortable. Henry gets out to leave, but his friend runs after him, calling him back.

      If it hasn’t been made clear where this one-liner of a film is going, Henry suddenly admits he is gay, and he doesn’t love Stephanie. His friends leans forward and kisses him on the lips.

    His friend now admits that indeed he was projecting. So much for any need of further conversation. This film creates an imaginary and rather frightening scenario of how nervous gay boys need to speak dirty in order to come out to one another.

      I can assure you, I’ve never seen such made-up figures in real life thank god. And this empty short film is pure bull-shit even though I am sure it sees itself as an outrageous satire.

 

Los Angeles, August 26, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (August 2026).