From Omeleto.
A couple question their relationship.
FAFO is used with permission from Rocco Shapiro. Learn more at https://roccoshapiro.com.
Maya and Darren stumble home to Maya’s apartment after a date. Flirty, tipsy and drowsy, they’ve had a nice time out and look ready to settle into the next stage of their night.
Maya seems amorous, but Darren has a slightly different agenda. He wants to take their relationship to the next level. Maya, though, is happy with their current status quo. As they debate what their future looks like together, they end up in a larger discussion about commitment, expectations and what they truly want from each other.
Directed and written by Rocco Shapiro, this short romantic drama has a naturalistic, slice-of-life look and feel to its portrait of a potential couple at a crossroads in their relationship. But the relative understatedness of its artistry belies the sharp and poignant emotional dilemma faced by its characters. Darren wants a more committed relationship with Maya, but Maya remains uncertain and noncommittal, their differing perspectives creating natural tension for the narrative to explore.
Taking place at night in one room, the narrative takes advantage of its close confines to create a kind of intimate bubble, with its hazy, textured cinematography and handheld camerawork. Darren and Maya seem to exist outside of time in this world, but they’re both strikingly contemporary characters, fluent in modern dating culture and hinting at past experiences. They’re also frisky, and as the story begins, we think things will take a sexy turn for a few moments — until Darren wants to slow things down and get to know Maya more.
Maya rolls with it, though she seems a little disappointed not to be hooking up right away. But Darren is more sure of what he wants. Actor Alexander Roberts plays Darren as warm, ardent and ultimately confident about how he feels about Maya. This contrasts with actor Gabrielle Garcia’s blithe breeziness, which falls apart as her inner fear and trepidation surface. Darren and Maya clearly like and are attracted to one another, but as they try to find out what things can be between them, they unearth deeper insecurities that may tank them altogether.
Urbane, understated and witty, FAFO — short for "f**k around and find out" for all those not fluent with text slang — is ultimately both a wry and wistful watch. With its intriguing writing, it hits upon the ambivalence of modern dating in general, exploring what’s gained or lost when courtship remains in a perpetually suspended state of possibility. It manages the trick of being both of the moment and universal: it hints at all the liberated, convoluted modern arrangements we have today, but it also touches on how these can be a shield against deeper vulnerability. And in its final moments, it muses on what we lose out on when we don’t take risks and avoid honesty with ourselves, much less others.
