Just
One Time, which expands to feature length an eight-minute
short in Boy Shorts III (1998), is about a New
York City opposite-sex couple who are very much in love and
are scheduled to marry in ten days. Prior to exchanging vows
before a priest, Anthony (played by Lane Janger, the director
and cowriter of the film) and Amy (played by Joel Carter)
agree to indulge one final fantasy—a menage à trois. Anthony
wants to prove his machismo to Amy by having sex with a Lesbian
so that he can double his pleasure, but Amy, an attorney,
insists that double the fun would be for her to enjoy having
sex with Anthony and another man. Furthermore, she will choose
the man and the woman. Anthony then agrees, not knowing exactly
where the fantasy will lead. However, Amy chooses Victor (played
by Guillermo Díaz), an effeminate gay whose sexual preferences
are fully accepted in the neighborhood, as Anthony’s partner.
As a macho firefighter, Anthony is Victor’s dream date, but
hardly what Anthony had in mind; he would have preferred one
of his three seemingly homophobic firefighting buddies, Dom
(played by David Lee Russek), with whom he jacked off at the
age of thirteen. Anthony begs Dom to replace Victor, but Dom
declines the offer, advising Anthony to play along, assuring
him that at some point Amy will realize her error and call
off the fantasy. Amy, however, holds Anthony to the agreement.
The plot thickens, with Anthony going on a date at a gay bar
with Victor; though Anthony is uncomfortable in the dance
bar, Dom and his two buddies have a ball (not literally).
But Amy does not call off the fantasy; instead, she finds
Michelle (played by Jennifer Esposito), a tomboyish Lesbian
carpenter who is very seductive and understanding but not
appealing to Anthony. Just before taking the final plunge,
with Victor in his bedroom, Anthony sees outlines of two women
kissing in Michelle’s apartment and goes ballistic. He accuses
Amy of going too far, but Amy says that she was instead with
her parents, in town for the wedding, and she is incensed
that there is so little trust before marriage, a bad omen
of what might occur during marriage. The wedding, then, appears
off. Next, an unexplained situation (a homophobic beating?)
places Dom in the hospital. Anthony goes to the hospital to
provide comfort, but finds Victor in the arms of Dom, who
finally comes out of the closet. Anthony then visits Michelle,
finds that the two who were kissing were Michelle and her
former lover, as the two have become reconciled. Anthony then
apologizes profusely to Amy, and the wedding is on. In the
manner of a sit-com, Just One Time exposes lightheartedly
but subliminally a range of issues--early teenage homosexuality,
compulsory heterosexuality, latent homosexuality, homophobia,
heterosexism, bisexuality, fragile same-sex relationships,
male and female bonding, closeted macho gays, the range of
progesterone and testosterone across men and women, frustrated
effeminate gays, male sexual pretense, gay bashing, the influence
of soft porn on sexual fantasies, female insistence on relationships
based on trust, and of course sexual obsession--by breaking
down stereotypes with believable characters who confront realistic
dilemmas. In another sense, the film goes beyond Sigmund Freud’s
permutation of the thesis of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that all
are born free (bisexual) but are everywhere in (heterosexual)
chains. In a post-Freudian world, where intolerance of same-sex
attraction is considered boorish by cosmopolitan people, cultural
norms still plague self-styled macho men. Should we feel sympathy
for men who checkmate one another into heterosexual identities,
as the film implies? Not at all. Thanks to the gentle ribbing
and clever hilarity in Just One Time, we should
expect that some day their moment of truth will come. MH
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