cold feet
by
Douglas Messerli
Pablo
Vázquez Argüello and Francisco Terán (screenwriters), Pablo Vázquez Argüello
(director) Coming In / 2021 (3 minutes)
Mexican-US
director Pablo Vázquez Argüello begins his mini-film with argumentative Juan (Francisco
Ojeda), sitting in the car with his boyfriend Carlos (Andres Stepanenko) just
outside of his family’s house in which they are about to celebrate a family
Christmas dinner.
Having obviously planned to introduce his boyfriend to the family, Juan has suddenly gotten cold feet and is vociferously insisting that they drive away and visit a gay bar or go anywhere they don’t have to face his judgmental parents, uncles, and aunts.
While they argue, however, Juan’s aunt
stops by, insisting he roll down the windows, and wondering why he and his
friend aren’t coming in? And are their girlfriends also coming? She’s fixed one
of his favorites, Catalan sausage.
She hurries on, while he, closing the
window, again becomes insistent that he can’t go through with the event, Carlos
attempting to calm him down.
Soon, in the distance, Juan’s parents
appear, having evidently come out to wonder why they haven’t yet left the car.
And Juan has no choice but to open the doors and leave his auto.
The rest of the film, as opposed to his
loud and noisy beginning, is shot from a distance from which we cannot hear the
voices. But we see Juan kissing both parents and apparently introducing Carlos,
perhaps even explaining their relationship since both parents kiss and hug the
newcomer as if he has become one of the family.
It’s quite apparent, even as outsiders viewing
this world as if we had been left in that car, that both young men have been
heartily embraced and welcomed into the family celebration.
As the title suggests, instead of coming
out, Juan and his boyfriend in this comic short have been invited to a “coming
in.”
Los
Angeles, November 6, 2022
Reprinted
from World Cinema Review (November 2022).
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