Starry Eyed (short film) Dances with Films Review – delightfully wicked, beautifully performed, and brilliantly directed

Delightfully wicked, beautifully performed, and brilliantly directed, Marcel’s ridiculous mission to win back a man he never had in the first place is a darkly comic gem. Starry Eyed is showing at Dances with Films on June 27 and is screened in partnership with Outfest.

In 1405, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Merchant’s Tale” coined the phrase, “For love is always blind and cannot see”. Still used today but shortened to “Love is blind”, Chaucer spoke of being unable to see the wood for the trees as you are blinded by beauty and your emotions and feelings run rampant without any logic. We all know this to be true, and many of us will have found ourselves, at one time or another, riding the fluffy clouds of love, oblivious to everything and anyone but the person for whom we have fallen head over heels.

However, sometimes love is not blind; it’s bloody delusional! For example, there are people in this world who seem to believe that one kiss is a sign of marriage and babies, and there are others who read far more into a casual one-night stand than you ever thought was possible. Then there are those who are incapable of taking no for an answer; for them, a breakup is just a challenge as they mount their white horse and charge at you repeatedly, hoping you’ll change your mind. Marcel (Iain Stewart) is one of those deluded ‘loved-up’ people in Al Braatz’s delightfully dark comedy short Starry Eyed.

You see, Marcel had a one-night fling with Fox (Sean Cage), a C-list celebrity, some months ago and was photographed that night by the paparazzi wearing his favourite apparel, leather gear. Fox never intended that fling to go any further, making it clear he didn’t want to see Marcel again. But as the pansexual Fox gets jiggy with his new girlfriend (Natalia Gracious) in the bedroom of his luxurious cabin home in the woods, Marcel is mounting a break-in downstairs, determined to win back his love at all costs.

Delightfully wicked, beautifully performed, and brilliantly directed, Marcel’s ridiculous mission to win back a man he never had in the first place is a darkly comic gem that proves that one man’s reality can be a world away from the truth when obsession dovetails with twisted love and hypersexuality.