I’m not exaggerating when I say that “Long, Long Time,” the third episode in HBO’s (now Max’s) The Last Of Us, was a traumatic thing for many of us. The episode aired on 1.29.23.

It took me several days to recover from the bear sex scenes between the 50ish Murray Bartlett and the dreaded Nick Offerman. I’m not kidding. I kept seeing Offerman coming out of that bathroom with a towel around his waist. Freaked me the fuck out.

I’m mentioning this because I’m getting a strong whiff of Long Long Time from the new trailer for Pedro Almodovar‘s Strange Way of Life, a 30-minute short.

HE to Pedro: Please tell me you haven’t filmed what I’m deeply afraid of sitting through.

HE’s “filmklassik”: “I once read an interview with Harvey Fierstein back in the early ‘90s. He was talking about how straight liberals regarded gays at the time. I’m just paraphrasing now, but he said something like, “Their attitude is ‘don’t have sex. You can be gay, of course…just please don’t have sex. Don’t put that thing in your mouth!…wait! No! DON’T PUT THAT THING IN YOUR MOUTH!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! AGGGHHH!!!’”