Nathan being outted happened way too quickly. Not nearly enough set up in my opinion. It's pretty much the first thing which happens and yet we have no idea who he is as a character etc. Of course I empathise with someone in his position but at the beginning, I'm not nearly as emotionally invested in it as I could be. I had no frame of reference for the possible stakes involved for him personally or socially and even when he encountered a lot of the fallout from that photo, I only cared about 30% because I haven't really been given a reason to care.
Similarly, when Louis said to Nathan it was just an experiment and didn't mean anything, I didn't really care. I have no idea who Louis is, no idea what his history with Nathan is and no frame of reference for anything. I just found it kinda bizarre that they choose to start the story when they did and skip over all the important details and context. Even the flashbacks which fill in some of those gaps aren't very satisfying because we've already seen what those moments have lead up to.
Outside of that, the homophobia in this is pretty suffocating and adds nothing in my opinion. Sure, by all means depict the realities of being outted in a homophobic environment etc but the shear volume and severity of it all, hits a point of diminishing returns quite quickly for me and just comes across as barbaric and distasteful. In fact some of it is just disgusting, I don't know what exactly they're trying to get across but if I wasn't out yet and internally struggling, watching this would have only made things a lot worse and validated my deepest fears. Nevermind Louis, I'd be on that bridge. Even the ending doesn't exactly inspire much hope or confidence.
In terms of the good stuff, I enjoyed the father's storyline and development throughout, I think it could have been stronger but it was an effective way of bringing him and Nathan together after his outing while offering a contrasting but complimentary perspective. I also liked the maths teacher's show of strength, support and courage after Nathan's assault.
Overall, I found it boring. I'm so bored of the typical gay tragedies which are just filled with trauma, depression and shame. Having those elements isn't necessarily a bad thing but when that's all the film amounts to and all you can remember from it, it does more harm than good in my opinion. There were some aspects I liked but nothing warranting a rewatch or that I couldn't find else where done better. As a viewer, I'm just not interested in reliving all that trauma.
Nathan being outted happened way too quickly. Not nearly enough set up in my opinion. It's pretty much the first thing which happens and yet we have no idea who he is as a character etc. Of course I empathise with someone in his position but at the beginning, I'm not nearly as emotionally invested in it as I could be. I had no frame of reference for the possible stakes involved for him personally or socially and even when he encountered a lot of the fallout from that photo, I only cared about 30% because I haven't really been given a reason to care.
Similarly, when Louis said to Nathan it was just an experiment and didn't mean anything, I didn't really care. I have no idea who Louis is, no idea what his history with Nathan is and no frame of reference for anything. I just found it kinda bizarre that they choose to start the story when they did and skip over all the important details and context. Even the flashbacks which fill in some of those gaps aren't very satisfying because we've already seen what those moments have lead up to.
Outside of that, the homophobia in this is pretty suffocating and adds nothing in my opinion. Sure, by all means depict the realities of being outted in a homophobic environment etc but the shear volume and severity of it all, hits a point of diminishing returns quite quickly for me and just comes across as barbaric and distasteful. In fact some of it is just disgusting, I don't know what exactly they're trying to get across but if I wasn't out yet and internally struggling, watching this would have only made things a lot worse and validated my deepest fears. Nevermind Louis, I'd be on that bridge. Even the ending doesn't exactly inspire much hope or confidence.
In terms of the good stuff, I enjoyed the father's storyline and development throughout, I think it could have been stronger but it was an effective way of bringing him and Nathan together after his outing while offering a contrasting but complimentary perspective. I also liked the maths teacher's show of strength, support and courage after Nathan's assault.
Overall, I found it boring. I'm so bored of the typical gay tragedies which are just filled with trauma, depression and shame. Having those elements isn't necessarily a bad thing but when that's all the film amounts to and all you can remember from it, it does more harm than good in my opinion. There were some aspects I liked but nothing warranting a rewatch or that I couldn't find else where done better. As a viewer, I'm just not interested in reliving all that trauma.
