a loving lie
by Douglas Messerli
Dustin Lance Black (screenwriter and
director) O SMS (The Text) / 2015 [8 minutes] [commercial
advertisement]
This 2015 Portuguese language commercial
advertising film concerns several boys who hang out together as a gangly group
of teenagers. The group basically, like most teen boys spending a great deal of
time of their cell phone, hang out together to brag and tease one another and
play video games together.
From the very first scene on we observe Rafael (Raphael Thomé) hiding
his phone message and his friend Diego (Pedro Loques) arrives. We notice a
great many hearts upon the page, but what to and whom is not clear.
The troupe of the few friends, Rafael, Diego, and, in the background, Felipe,
move on, mostly arguing the way teenagers tend to about how to treat women,
etc. But Rafel also has a dog, whom Diego insists has to stay outside. Again,
he quickly checks his cellphone for a message.
Rafael is a bit frustrated becomes he keeps winning their video soccer
game, even though he recognizes the Diego is actually good on the field.
Other boys sit behind them on a couch busy with their phones. The
conversation between Rafael and Diego, meanwhile, becomes somewhat more
abusive, Diego commenting that perhaps his mother cannot even dress him in a
proper shirt (he’s wearing a mere white T-shirt), and at their argumentative
height: “Rafael, you gotta be careful. If you don’t shut up to breathe every
now and then you might get brain damage.”
In yet another scene, we see Rafael and Diego running around a track
while Felipe and a quite beautiful woman swimmer sit in the stands watching.
We see them from another time in the classroom, Rafael explaining: “When
you challenge yourself, your body compensates, you know? I you take the easy
way, you get weak.”
Diego, frustrated turns away, Rafael continuing, “You know about
compensation, Diego?’
Diego responds: “It’s like when you put a sock in your Speedo, right?”
A teacher irritated with their conversation queries Diego about speaking
in class, Rafael answering for him. “No ma’am. He’s just loquacious. Is that
the correct use of the word?”
Meanwhile
the beautiful female swimmer smiles at Diego, while Diego turns to his friend
asking, “Do you ever shut up?”
We even spot the two friends sharing a bed before they return to the day
in the apartment with others, as they play their video games, again arguing in
a friendly, challenging manner as usual.
Once more, Diego he sees Felipe in the background sending a message.
Suddenly, Rafael gets up to get some Cokes, forgetting his sacred cellphone.
And
suddenly, as we see the Cokes Rafael is about take back to the group he
realizes he has left behind his entire history in the cellphone, which Diego
quickly discovers. And suddenly he sees the most recent message of hearts shared
between the two boys, Felipe and he, have just exchanged as the other boys
attempt to grab the cellphone out of his hands to see for themselves what they
might discover about their always chatty macho friend.
Returning to the room, Cokes in hand, Rafael perceives what has
happened, that his best friend has intruded upon his private space, the other
boys desperate to discover what he has found. For perhaps the first time in the
film, he is quiet. The other boys, including the now very nervous Felipe awaiting
Diego’s words, realizing that his whole life and teenage reputation now lies in
Diego’s words:
“Rafael,
you worry me.” Rafael stands still silent terrified of what might come next. So
be honest. So why do you got so many pictures of that mutt. You two in love or
what?”
His lie is so beautiful that it brings tears to one’s eyes. It is the
lie of a deepest friend, who refuses to reveal that Rafael is gay and in love
with Felipe.
It permits Rafael to turn back into his endless banter, we now know a
cover for his feelings which he dare not reveal: “Well, I’d rather kiss that
dog than your twin sister and neither one of them will stop following me.”
“I don’t have a twin sister.”
“Must be Your dog then. You look so similar I thought you were related.”
Everyone laughs, and Rafael hands out his Cokes. Order is temporarily
restored. At least, the order of young teenage boys, unable to share their
personal “abnormal” desires.
As the boys run back down the stairs to outside, Rafael momentary tells
his friend Diego: “One more think about advantages, because you have a new one
now….Friends like me, we know most beautiful girls in the world and we’re happy
to introduce them to you.” Obviously the plural represents the newly discovered
information as well: the we is he and the handsome, always silent Felipe.
They now walk down the street, the beautiful swimmer girl and Diego,
with Rafael and Felipe side by side in a gender matched foursome, happy
presumably for the rest of their teenage days.
I have to say, this is one of the most
profound ads, including Coke which has had some wonderful gay ads in the past,
that I have ever seen. It serves as a model of what is possible. It reads more
like a short movie that an advertisement. The boys are all quite charming. Wish
it was produced as well for US audiences, but obviously Coke felt we weren’t
ready.
Los Angeles, September 2, 2026
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog
(September 2026).
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