The Ex-Lovers
Wayne Koestenbaum
•
10m
Directed by Wayne Koestenbaum • Documentary • With Josh Lockman, Ben Toubia • 2023 • 11 minutes
In this serio-comic adventure in contemporary queer cinéma-vérité, Koestenbaum films an encounter between two handsome ex-lovers, Josh Lockman and Ben Toubia, who recreate the arguments and tussles that characterized their now-ended romantic relationship. The love affair may have crashed, but the two men still have a close, affectionate, teasing bond, tinged with flirtatious aggression. They eat yogurt together, clean up a mess on the kitchen floor, engage in grooming rituals in the bathroom, and hug a bag of raw potatoes, as if it were their child. The filmmaker himself is absent from the scenario, although he appears, in one shot, reflected in a bathroom mirror, as if to remind the viewer that this impromptu rapprochement between lovers is staged as a performance for the unseen auteur.
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