Locarno review: Tinderboys (2024)
Locarno Film Festival
Pardi Di Domani National Competition
Tinder, the online supermarket of human flesh and a place of unhinged desires, perky nipples, dick pics and straightforward exchange of sexual expectations where 75 million users can “swipe” each other left or right in search of whatever floats their boats, can potentially bring a surprise or two when it comes to actually meeting the person you “matched” with. For the lead female protagonist of Sarah Bucher & Carlos Tapia’s utterly bonkers short Tinderboys, the popular dating platform is a source of a different kind of personal pleasure: a hand-picked one-at-the-time audience for her performance. Bucher who slips into that role, is a dancer/ choreographer in real life currently residing in Germany as a member of the Dresden-Frankfurt Dance Company, and brilliant in what she does.
With an almost completely expressionless face, she greets one candidate after the other, who unaware of what is coming are super fast in undressing, before being seated in the kitchen to observe their host breaking eggs and letting the yolks and the whites sliming down her legs into a plastic washtub. Their reactions differ, and the first spectator, still expectant of something rather meatier than eggy to happen, fights to suppress the laughter. His mood switches from amusement to awkwardness, and not knowing what to do, he lets the performance come to an end still hopeful that the outcome might be different. Alas, the long train journey he undertook to get laid proves to be a wrong calculated decision which hits him the moment the show is over, and the long cleaning process starts, accompanied by a small talk.
With static shots, the camera handled by co-director Carlos Tapia Gonzalez first concentrates on the lengthy performance and the woman’s curious glaze to see the impact of her show on the guests. The lense then switches its focus to the faces of men, offering a profound study of unease in which nakedness becomes unbearable. There is a lot of nose-rubbing, skin-scratching, wriggling in the chair and sudden shyness building in their psyche.
Bucher & González deliver an excellent, deadpan commentary on the physical dates born out of internet browsing for something that is supposed to be a brief, strictly carnal encounter with the potential of developing into something else. It opens questions about our expectations and the outcome of jumping into something based on a couple of messages.
Original, well-paced and excellently executed, Tinderboys is one of the most delicious entries in this year’s Pardi di Domani selection, which isn’t short on good films.
Original Title: Tinderboys
Country: Switzerland
Language: French
Year: 2024
Runtime: 25′
Written/ Directed by: Carlos Tapia González, Sarah Bucher
DoP: Carlos Tapia Gonzalez
Cast: Sarah Bucher, Yann Sauvin, Martin Durrmann, Simon Ramseier, Fabio Zopelli
Art Director: Sarah Bucher
Sound Operator: Yann Sauvin
Sound Mix: Massimo Del Gaudio
