Matt Vance | Lunch / 2015

skipping lunch

by Douglas Messerli

 

Matt Vance (screenwriter and director) Lunch / 2015 [4 minutes]

 

This very short film is so light, that it almost floats away before it finishes.

     A local office worker (Ryan Obermeier) decides to take his lunch in the park. It’s a busy park, filled with women workers who have taken over most the benches. Our “Young Man” as the cast directory designates him, is forced to sit near a street performer (Orion Griffiths) who is a master of head stands, balance upon bars, and acrobatic leaps.

     His small crowd having dissipated, the handsome acrobat spots our gay “young man” and begins his performance all lover again just for him. One by one he repeats his marvelous athletic maneuvers, not of which seem to impress our young office worker.

      Finally, the performer removes himself from his perch and somersaults his way over the bench sitting beside the other man. Suddenly, our office worker moves toward him and kisses him intensely, both responding in this truly speechless film—a genre with which I have become increasingly disinterested and impatient, since it presumes our screenwriter is incapable of writing dialogue—the both mouth the words “I love you,” for absolutely no credible reason as the upbeat music of this video bravely moves forward as if pretending it too were somehow profound, as he offers him a lunch plastic covered container, perhaps having brought along an extra just for him? Perhaps they are already a couple just meeting up for lunch? At least their expression of love would then make sense.

      Some may find this film charming. But if you love film, you can skip Lunch.

 

Los Angeles, October 10, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2026).