‘Follow the Protocol’ Review: Reel Affirmations 2023

metroweekly.com:

Plays Friday, Oct. 20, at 3 p.m. at The Eaton.The days of masks, distancing, and endlessly googling symptoms may be long gone for many, but not in Fábio Leal’s Follow the Protocol (★★★☆☆), set during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.The Brazilian filmmaker, who writes, directs, and stars as protagonist Francisco, opens on a familiar pandemic scene: the mind-numbing nothingness of being stuck indoors.

Francisco putters about his small apartment, watering plants and sorting his antidepressants, while muted environmental sounds filter in from outside.But Francisco isn’t just an idle isolator — instead, he’s also enforcing lockdown on others.During a video call with distanced — and distant — lover Ronaldo (Marcus Curvelo), Francisco is branded the “Instagram inspector” for spending his days calling out friends for daring to break protocols and have sex — a hyperlocal Gays Over Covid, of sorts.

Naturally, that much piety leads to hypocrisy; after Ronaldo admits to cheating and the pair become permanently socially distanced, Francisco has one thing on his mind: sex.His paranoia about Covid-19 leads him to search for information on safer sex during the pandemic — something enough people were doing at the time that New York City put out official guidance, which Francisco eagerly follows.

Reaching out to an old flame, he arranges a hookup in possibly the least sexiest way possible: “Would you like to fuck following ALL the protocols.”In a scene lifted straight out of Dexter, Francisco seals off the apartment, erecting a giant plastic sheet between him and his suitor.