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The Extinction of Fireflies

By Golu
The scenario is almost too familiar within the queer movie scene. A comedy about group of friends gathered at a remote seaside home for a long weekend, sounds too familiar; something that we all have seen. So what's different here? The friends in this case have come together to help a playwright flush out his play inspired by Roman Emperor Hadrian and his much younger male lover. Directed almost like a play itself, the plot had potential, but I felt somewhere it gets lost in its own aspirations.

James is an aging playwright, writng a play inspired by a love story. Athis weekend abode in the woods, he has with him a young actor Jay. He is young, almost comically clueless about any worldly affairs including famous writers or AIDS crisis etc. This play material is totally beyond him and he can't figure head or tail of it. Also expected to join them soon are James' old friend Charlotte, a has been star who now just play too her social media audience and Jay's boyfriend Callisto, a Greek hunk masseur, who has the charm and wits and knowledge that all three of others would want but can they handle? The weekend spent is all about just discussions about various things in addition to the main play like infidelity, AIDS awareness, loneliness, shallow life, alcoholism. Turns out Callisto is into older men and he flirts with James and gives him a massage but nothing happens. He then leaves and something happens to him (Like an accident or something, which we are never told), leading to an abrupt end to a weekend where jay and Charlotte both decide to leave and go back to their lives.

My big issue with the film is that these 4 characters go from being such close friends to almost can't handle each other with a few hours. There is a lot of talking with very theatrical dialogues and almost everyone them living in the edge with no scope of patience.  A weird sibling like rivalry between Charlotte and James, a generational gap attraction between James and Callisto, a clueless Jay who takes it personally when Charlotte doesn't think he can make it; all this tries to keep the proceedings going, but the film really is not going anywhere. There are no major surprises, and the sparks that fly have no place to go and, like the fireflies of the title, sputter out too quickly, but for all that there's plenty of amusement. I think I may have actually enjoyed this on a stage in theatre, but as a film, I was kept wondering what is the point! On a brighter side, there are some good funny one liners, and the lead actor playing James does a good job. I have always seen him doing over the top silly roles, but this one s a good change and I was actually quite impressed. I feel there were some meta references between the Roman inspired play that James wrote and these guys were reading vs the attraction that James shared by Callisto; but it wasn't very obvious to anyone. Overall it was strictly ok, could hav been much better as a play. (4.5/10)
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