Like we don't actually know if Love and Sebastian were going to be ending up with each other again. I felt the ending was kinda too loose, we don't know why Love and Sebastian were crying, like was the sex that bad for them or was it the fact that they just did it because they actually love each other? As a viewer I was kinda confused about this short and felt it kinda needed to be a bit more longer so we can be able to have more detail on the matter! Ill give it a 6/10..........
7 Reviews
Anonymous hookups
mudgeboy9 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
If you want to become acquainted with one of the many dangers of anonymous hookups then this is the short film for you. A beautiful young man named Love first begins drinking in a straight bar with a friend who promises Love that she will go with him to visit a gay bar. However, the friend delays their gay bar visit so Love goes without her: to the front of the bar but not in the bar. For some reason, probably fear, he decides not to enter the gay bar but begins to walk home, where he passes a nice looking older man named Marcus (Love claims to be 22, while Marcus claims to be 28). Marcus takes Love to his one-block-away apartment where Marcus lives with his wife/girl friend. Love at first confesses to be a virgin but when Marcus tells him to leave because he doesn't want to hook up with someone who doesn't know what he's doing, Love changes his story and says he will do whatever Marcus "shows" him. So Marcus rapes him and then tells him to leave. When Love doesn't leave immediately Marcus says he will take a shower, where he displays tremendous self loathing and guilt, calling Love a little gay whore. Love painfully leaves the apartment, goes outside to relive a flash forward that has him vomiting and crying. Soon, his friend calls and asks Love why he left the straight bar early, but all Love can do is sob and cry from the pain that he feels, both physical and emotional.
The acting wasn't bad but it's hard to find much value in the film except to be warned about the dangers of anonymous hookups. BTW, Marcus did use a condom but the encounter could have been much worse for the naive Love. Not an uplifting movie by any means.
The acting wasn't bad but it's hard to find much value in the film except to be warned about the dangers of anonymous hookups. BTW, Marcus did use a condom but the encounter could have been much worse for the naive Love. Not an uplifting movie by any means.
Be Turned Inside Out By Love
so_cold3 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
My name is Love is a short film that was part of a collection of short films with a similar theme under the title "Protect me from what I want" Created by David Fardmar, the set up of how the story is told is quite clever. The main character aptly called "Love" is played by Adam Lundgren. On a night out, partying with his friends, but flashbacks show that this is a good time that goes bad, in more ways than one. Unable to find the courage to seek someone himself, Love gets sought out by Marcus, played by Jonas Rimeika.
This short film has twists and turns, the tension between the characters is believable. For example when Love hesitates to tell Marcus his name, and when Marcus finds out his secret, the viewer can't help but feel Love's embarrassment. It raises good topics without taking sides. The ending's quite shocking though, some people who are easily upset may watch scenes through their fingers. This is one of those films in which the ending is left open, but because of the high level of acting, the viewer may care about the characters and could want to know what happens next.
This short film has twists and turns, the tension between the characters is believable. For example when Love hesitates to tell Marcus his name, and when Marcus finds out his secret, the viewer can't help but feel Love's embarrassment. It raises good topics without taking sides. The ending's quite shocking though, some people who are easily upset may watch scenes through their fingers. This is one of those films in which the ending is left open, but because of the high level of acting, the viewer may care about the characters and could want to know what happens next.
Love or the imperative of joy
atlantis200625 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
When 'Love', a young college student, spends the night with another man, he surrenders to manipulation. This man, named Sebastian, mocks Love for being a virgin and tells him to get out of there, as he has no interest in having sex with someone who doesn't know what to do. Love then affirms that he is willing to do whatever Sebastian asks of him. And that proves to be a most calamitous mistake.
Why is Love so willing to accept the conditions forced upon him by a complete stranger? Well, there is the psychoanalytic imperative of joy which sometimes can be more powerful than anything else. Here the imperative is a necessity, it's what Love needs to do but it's never what he wants to do. Jouissance, after all, is different from pleasure. We are immersed in a fetishistic culture of disavowal: one wants to be the object of desire of the other. But when a male turns another male into the object of his desire, what happens to the 'object a' in a culture of 'plus de jouir'? Simply that desire gets diluted and only the jouissance remains.
As a result, Sebastian feels compelled to perform anal rape even when Love begs him to stop. Both of them are enslaved by the imperative of joy. In a society so concerned with virginity, or rather the loss of virginity, Love feels ashamed of being a virgin at 22; at the same time, Sebastian, married with a woman, feels the need to circumnavigate his heterosexual position by engaging into homosexual intercourse, even though he regrets it and feels awfully disgusted at himself afterwards. Jacques-Alain Miller wrote on the subject: 'Their mutual presence in flesh and blood is necessary, if for no other reason than to have emerge the sexual non-relation'. After all, there is no rapport at all between the two characters; and that's the way it plays out from the very beginning: they are two strangers which have effaced any possibility of a real contact (Love and Sebastian constantly maintain their distances, even when they're just drinking beers and making casual chit-chat).
One could then ask, why does Sebastian insist on denying his homosexuality and keeps on living a life of lies? And why does Love refuse to go into the gay bar at the beginning of the short film? Perhaps, the unconscious imperative of joy drives them around, or perhaps this is yet another symptom of society's malady.
Why is Love so willing to accept the conditions forced upon him by a complete stranger? Well, there is the psychoanalytic imperative of joy which sometimes can be more powerful than anything else. Here the imperative is a necessity, it's what Love needs to do but it's never what he wants to do. Jouissance, after all, is different from pleasure. We are immersed in a fetishistic culture of disavowal: one wants to be the object of desire of the other. But when a male turns another male into the object of his desire, what happens to the 'object a' in a culture of 'plus de jouir'? Simply that desire gets diluted and only the jouissance remains.
As a result, Sebastian feels compelled to perform anal rape even when Love begs him to stop. Both of them are enslaved by the imperative of joy. In a society so concerned with virginity, or rather the loss of virginity, Love feels ashamed of being a virgin at 22; at the same time, Sebastian, married with a woman, feels the need to circumnavigate his heterosexual position by engaging into homosexual intercourse, even though he regrets it and feels awfully disgusted at himself afterwards. Jacques-Alain Miller wrote on the subject: 'Their mutual presence in flesh and blood is necessary, if for no other reason than to have emerge the sexual non-relation'. After all, there is no rapport at all between the two characters; and that's the way it plays out from the very beginning: they are two strangers which have effaced any possibility of a real contact (Love and Sebastian constantly maintain their distances, even when they're just drinking beers and making casual chit-chat).
One could then ask, why does Sebastian insist on denying his homosexuality and keeps on living a life of lies? And why does Love refuse to go into the gay bar at the beginning of the short film? Perhaps, the unconscious imperative of joy drives them around, or perhaps this is yet another symptom of society's malady.
Generic and uninspired
Horst_In_Translation5 April 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Love" from almost 10 years ago is a Swedish 20-minute movie that got a solid deal of attention recently because it features the very young Alicia Vikander, an Academy Award winner this year. And she was also the main reason I got curious about this movie. Sadly for us, she is pretty much completely irrelevant in here and has almost no screen-time despite being listed as the third credit. The writer and director is David Färdmar and his career has not turned into something special since this film. Same can be said about the two male lead actors. It is not surprising though. Neither the script nor their performances are memorable at all. The story is just the same as in all these other uncountable gay-themed short films. Denial about homosexuality, self-hate, doubts etc. This film is a clear example of somebody trying to make a difference, but just not having the talent. Pretentious alert. Don't watch.
a sketch. not a worst one.
Kirpianuscus22 June 2022
The good thing about it - a well intentioned short film.
The bad thing - it is only a sketch, not for status of short film but because all who can offers is only a brutal rape. And the to short presence of Alicia Vikander.
A young man on a party. Bored , after the refuse of his girlfriend to leave , he walks on street , in night. A guy, a short dialogue, an invitation , an answer to save apparences. And a brutal rape scene. The end - between denial of violater and the cry of victim.
Far to be a bad film, it remains a demonstration of less courage to use in more fair manner the points used.
Sure, for viewer is simple to have his own conclusions and the sketch is not so uninspired.
But the final feeling is, in essence, only a punch in stomach. The rape scene , between the proposition about presumed virginity and the savage brutality, cynical at whole is the only memory about this film.
Maybe , it can be enough.
But the subject real deserves a better use.
The bad thing - it is only a sketch, not for status of short film but because all who can offers is only a brutal rape. And the to short presence of Alicia Vikander.
A young man on a party. Bored , after the refuse of his girlfriend to leave , he walks on street , in night. A guy, a short dialogue, an invitation , an answer to save apparences. And a brutal rape scene. The end - between denial of violater and the cry of victim.
Far to be a bad film, it remains a demonstration of less courage to use in more fair manner the points used.
Sure, for viewer is simple to have his own conclusions and the sketch is not so uninspired.
But the final feeling is, in essence, only a punch in stomach. The rape scene , between the proposition about presumed virginity and the savage brutality, cynical at whole is the only memory about this film.
Maybe , it can be enough.
But the subject real deserves a better use.
Who needs love like that?
adamjohns-4257517 June 2021
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