(2018, 74 min)
Country: United States
Director: Konstantinos Menelaou
Studio: TLA Releasing
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: What happens when two gay men in a disintegrating relationship leave the big city to spend some time alone, together in nature? Is it possible for nature to reveal their true essence and help them to change? Can these two wounded men; traumatized, hurt, and desperate on a remote beach find a way back to innocence? Is there a way back to reality, back to love? A romantic, poetic and sexually explicit rumination on modern gay love, He Loves Me is queer cinema at its finest and most authentic.
REVIEW:
“He Loves Me” [Time Alone Together] is a feature film written and directed by queer filmmaker Konstantinos Menelaou and is about a gay couple who is convinced that a holiday away from the city will help mend and strengthen their rocky relationship. The two hitchhike to a remote seaside enclave, filling their days and nights with passionate lovemaking and making excursions into the rocky outcrops for sensuous times under the sun. A narrator articulates their inner thoughts as they enjoy the sand and surf, but even in this golden paradise, the doubts that they wanted to leave behind catch up to them, taking the to an emotionally charged confrontation that will either result in destruction of their already fragile relationship, or a chance to once again discover the spark that originally brought them together. We see sex being frankly depicted as the two men explore the unconventional nature of love and its ability to survive against the odds.
Is it even possible for nature to reveal their true essence and help them to change? Can these two wounded men who are traumatized, hurt, and desperate on a remote beach find a way back to some kind of innocence? Is there a way back to reality, back to love? “He Loves Me” is a romantic, poetic and sexually explicit exploration of modern gay love, and it is also queer cinema at its finest and most authentic.
The film is a balance between fiction and documentary and looks at the unconventional nature of love and its ability to survive against the fear of loneliness and the problematic lifestyle of a big city. Hermes and Shanuye know that their relationship is on the verge of collapse and so they dare to venture to an isolated beach where hey expose their feelings and release their emotions. Their reborn love might be too fragile to amend all the shattered pieces of their relationship.
Director Menelaou wants to create a new outlet of communication, which will allow himself and the actors to explore the key issues posed by the script and to offer the audience the chance to participate and further the dialogue when the film reaches its destinations.
-- Review by Amos Lassen (http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com)
