GODLESS

US, 2015, 80 minutes, Colour.

Craig Jordan, Michael E.Pitts, Garrett Young, Michelle Gallagher, Joseph Aloysius McGinn.

Directed by Joshua Lim.

A short drama dealing with an unusual subject, the relationship between two brothers, an incestuous relationship, not usually the subject of cinema.

This is fairly slow-moving film, lots of close-ups, lots of long takes, silent, giving the audience opportunity to respond to the characters, to their situations, to their crises.

The younger brother, by one year, Nate (Craig Jordan) talks to camera throughout the film, narrating his story, ultimately the farewell video indicating that he would commit suicide, a gun near the computer.

Which means that most of the story is told in flashback. The two boys, Nate and Stephen, Stephen the older, two very devoted parents, supportive, the audience finding them sympathetic. The father has cancer and dies. The mother, to whom Nate was devoted, also dies, Stephen coming back from college to help Nate who has been living with his mother and supporting her.

Then the revelation of the intimate relationship, from when they were young boys, continuing, Nate especially involved, depending on his brother, going into listless grief at the death of their mother.

Stephen brings home a boyfriend, obviously causing tension for Nate, some resumption of the intimate relationship, the boyfriend, on his PhD on  astrophysics, is weary. In the meantime, a friend at the local gymnasium is in love with Nate.

Some tense sequences, Nate one of the most emotionally needy characters, Stephen needy but much less so than his brother. And the discussions between Nate and his friend at the gym – and some possibilities for the future.

The title? Stephen professes himself as atheist. Nate is not sure, wanting to see his mother again, agnostic. But, with scenes of the heavens and the stars, the work of the boyfriend, there are suggestions that, in fact, we do live in a God-created and sustained world.

The moral and religious implications and judgements are left to the audience.