You & I

I've read the other reviews here and am amused but not surprised at some of the descriptions. Some reviewers see motivation and action and inaction where others have quite different explanations of what's happened.

I find that to be perfectly understandable. Nothing is spelled out precisely for us in this film. There's an ambiguity to the characters' relationships that could easily cause different people to form different opinions about what happened. It's purposeful, and an interesting concept.

Two old friends (one gay, one straight) go on a camping trip and are having a rollicking good time. Then they pick up hitchhiker. You kind of wonder when the hitchhiker is going to turn out to be an ax murderer. Especially after the gay guy asks if his being gay is a problem for the hitchhiker.

It isn't.

This is a slender film that at first glance doesn't seem to add up to much. However, there is dynamic tension throughout the latter part of the film for reasons we're not quite sure we understand. The relationships are purposely somewhat vague and ill-defined, something I found to be an insightful take on modern relationships, especially gay relationships.

My initial reaction to the end of this film was WTF? On reflection, I get it. I liked this movie. It's deceptively simple-looking but there isn't anything simple about it. You know, like life.

Whoever called this a "fetish" film missed the point. Two old friends get together for a road trip. And they do what men do, that is, engage in casual nudity, and one of them isn't shy about bodily functions. That much is obvious. What is less obvious at first, but becomes increasingly so, is the attraction they feel for each other. This attraction becomes more obvious when they are joined by a Polish hitchhiker, and the two men show, in various ways, their jealousy when the other man becomes too attentive to Boris. You have to watch this movie a couple or three times to catch all the subtexts. The film offers a lot more than the normal viewer might catch on a first viewing.

The first virtue of it is simplicity. Familiar pieces - friendship becoming love, a road trip , relations and their structure, slow rhytm and the character changing, step by step, the equilibrium, an open end and a film without the desire to demonstrate anything. I love it for the courage and art to be different, to propose, in natural manner, a simple and precise in details story, good acting and the fair development of facts. My favorit - the image of the window at the end of hall.

In trying to be subtle and leave open ended questions for the viewer, the film ends up lacking a lot of depth into the emotions of the main characters. It is true that it leaves a certain vagueness that is akin to semi platonic relationships between straight and lgbtq persons.

The synopsis of this short indie film is that Jonas, who is German and straight, has invited his British and gay mate Philip for a camping trip. This is ostensibly so Jonas can carry out a photography project. They head off in an old VW camper and Phil sort of finds any excuse to get his kit off.

Then they run into Boris who is a friend of Jonas' and he tags along. At first the chemistry of all three is thrown out by the new arrival but then Phil and Boris start to get along a bit too well and all bets are off.

Now as I said this is a fairly short film at 79 minutes and a lot of that time not very much happens, but that may be the point. It could be seen as a slow build up I suppose but it does not translate very well. There is some chemistry but it takes a while to rear its head. And despite a lot of nude bits being shown there is no real bedroom action either. In German and English too with good sub titles; this is a film for those who like their stories to be fairly simple and take their time getting there. I am still in two minds as to whether I really liked it so am giving the benefit of the doubt. However, this is one of those films I would not want to watch twice – so maybe try a rental option.