Remember, fellas, women will almost always outfox men when it comes to sex and seduction. It’s an unfortunate truth that’s exquisitely and metaphorically demonstrated in this sexually charged chess match between the sultry Natalie (Gabrielle Galanter), who plays Black, and the cool but out-gunned Gregory (Robert Gaylor), who plays White. Like a guy who’s forgotten his wife’s anniversary, Gregory has been backed into a move that will cost him at least a Rook. As a professorial narrator explains Gregory’s dilemma, he neatly turns the game into a running commentary on what’s going inside each of the players’ minds; a window into how the combatants are trying to spin the match into an unspoken, no-holds barred mating ritual. With a nicely modulated erotic undercurrent and a warmly elegant, sepia-tinged look of fine hardwood floors about it, Luis Camera Silva’s suave and polished “Endgame” was easily one of the classiest, smartest and most sophisticated Slamdance short films.
