No Strings (2015)

2024 Entry #33 04-11-24 “No Strings” is a 22 minute 2015 dramatic short film which was written and directed by Eoin Maher (“Thirst”). It’s available in the 2021 collection “The Male Gaze: Hide and Seek”.

The story follows a “no strings” hookup in London between Sean (Aaron Cini), an outgoing Irish man who is stranded with hookup Bryn (Richard Hay), an emotionally reclusive Welshman. I enjoyed most of this. There were a couple of moments that didn’t quite land but overall there were some nice surprises in here that were appreciated. It felt like time well spent, even if it wouldn’t make my top short list.

“The Den” aka “La tana” (2015)

2024 Entry #007 01-04-24 “The Den” (aka “La tana”) is a 15 minute 2015 Italian short film which was directed by Lorenzo Caproni (“La prima volta”, “The Necklace”, “Lazarus Come Out”) who co-wrote it with Fabio Marson. The story follows Christian (Daniele Mariani), who on a vacation to the beach with his wife (Laura Sinceri) and son (Nicola Luna Maroder) encounters his old friend Luca (Emanuel Caserio), who he had a complex sexual history with… and history often repeats itself.

This is part of the same collection as the previous short I watched, but I liked this entry much better. It left me with many questions about the characters, as shorts often do, but it felt natural. There’s a dangerous edge to the proceedings here but it appears to have a relatively happy ending and I’m not knocking it.

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