Content MOVIE REVIEW - Even in my dreams
Last Updated on Thursday, 19 November 2009 15:21 Written by Toby Grace Monday, 22 September 2008 23:00
I don’t usually review shorts. But this film deserves special mention. Produced in cooperation with New York University and written/directed by Flavio Alves, it is a small, simple masterpiece. A tired, lonely, old man happens to see a Tom of Finland action figure in the window of a sex shop. It rivets his attention to a subject and a part of himself he has clearly never previously allowed himself to explore.
That night he dreams the doll has come alive and enters his bedroom. The film ends in sadness, as can only be the case for a life so near its end and so long repressed and in denial of its core truth.
There is little dialog, minimal sets and no cinematic embellishments.
None are needed in this powerfully stark statement about a life lost and wasted in denial of the truth and the sadness of an old age uncomforted by the memories one should have had—the things one should have done, had one the courage to embrace the truth about one’s own self. This is a film that should be seen by every questioning and fearful young person as a lesson in how a life lived as a lie can end.
