Seducing Mr. Bluefrog: #NSFW
Saturday, Oct. 15
11 p.m.
GALA’s Tivoli Theatre
Once upon a time, Hendrik Schäfer, a thirtysomething Berlin filmmaker, started chatting online with a fit, fortysomething exhibitionist who goes by the name of Bluefrog. Hendrik somehow persuades Bluefrog, a socially awkward, shy Scottish man, to visit him in Berlin and take part in an experimental documentary which will culminate in Bluefrog directing a hardcore porn scene. For the first half of the movie, Henrik probes Bluefrog’s psyche in a way that feels clinical, dispassionate, even creepy. Asked why he’s obsessed with posting nude photos and videos of himself, Bluefrog responds, “Everybody has to have a hobby. It’s an area of art I like to explore.” Call it what you will, but we’re pretty sure posting videos of yourself ejaculating into your mouth on porn.tv does not qualify as art.
The tension between reluctant subject, who considers what he does private, and inquisitive filmmaker, who wants to apparently reveal the psychology behind exhibitionism, is the central theme behind the drowsy, flawed Seducing Mr. Bluefrog: #NSFW. At one point, a mildly flirtatious relationship develops between the two, but it remains inert. Maybe they slept together, maybe they didn’t — Schäfer is careful to remain detached and distant, while Bluefrog reveals a playful, flirty side. You get the sense that Bluefrog is a profoundly lonely man, and this is as close to an emotional connection he’s able to make.
The second half of the film preoccupies itself with Bluefrog’s porn scene. Given a multitude of options, from vanilla to extra kink, he chooses a scoop of extra vanilla with a cherry on top, directs his models, Luk and Jace, in a rote fuck and suck session. Schäfer films Bluefrog’s efforts, so we’re watching a film within a film, though the lines are often blurred. Bluefrog has even less personality on the porn set (“It’s time for the rimming,” he says, plainly, as if he were asking someone to sweep the floor), and Schäfer must have been aghast at the resulting footage. How else to explain, then, the overlay of video effects onto the hardcore shots, generating abstract smears and blurs in an attempt to obscure the action. It’s less erotic and illuminating than it is pretentious and annoying.
The film is an exercise in pointlessness. Schäfer hasn’t the skills — or maturity — to adequately explore his subject in other than the most perfunctory manner possible. The movie is deliberately weird and arty but, at only an hour, it’s relatively painless to get through. It feels like an affected film school project gone horribly wrong.
#NSFW is preceded by Peter Ahlén Lavrsen’s Perpetual (), a stunning coming-of-age story about a teenager named Sebastian who becomes obsessed with a handsome, older gay man he’s met online. Much to Sebastian’s dismay, the pair’s intensely erotic sexual encounters are confined to a grimy, austere sex club. The budding young gay wants romance. Instead he gets manipulation and deceit, learning a harsh lesson about what often happens after a trophy is acquired.
The Danish film is bleak but compelling, with a 25-minute narrative that hits every note with brutal perfection. It’s anchored by a strong performance from Nicolas Wollesen as Sebastian, who, upon first entering the sex club, examines his seedy surrounding with a mix of bewilderment and trepidation. The scenes between the older man (Mads Hjulmand) and his teenage prey are progressively more explicit and intense, and while you can clearly see the wall the story is racing toward, it doesn’t make it any less devastating when the inevitable crash happens.
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