I have honestly been floored by this movie so excuse my very long ramble.
Going into this movie I was expecting a simple queer coming of age movie set in the 80s, not very conplex hitting the usual beats about homophobia and what not but instead this was sooo much more than that.
So many things I loved about this movie. Aesthetic wise, I loved how it was set in the 80s without it feeling annoying or shoehorned in, I loved the lighting in this (esp in the cinema scene and the club scene) I loved the soundtrack (though wouldnt have minded more music if I'm honest) The framing for the storytelling in this movie was really cool too.
I love how they didn't villinize kate. I was sad at first that they left their friendship open ended but at the same time its part of its strength too, it trusts the audience because we know that the friendship is solid and there so considering the way alex grows, you can realistically see them becoming friends again without things being weird (and she even went to his court case!)
I also loved the english teacher (and thank god he has boundaries with his students, bare minimum ofc but its unfortunate how many queer movies have predatory relationships. I was scared it would go different and ruin such a beautiful movie)
I loved alexs relationship with his parents and the mix of acceptance and understanding (from his mom) but at the same time not being able to fully talk about it. Ive been there where ive had to hide a break up from my parents and it was so painful I cant imagine having to hide the reason why youre grieving. The queer erasure at the end while painful makes sense for the era without it feeling forced, the casual homophobia in general was really well done.
I really really loved alex and damians relationship because it was so complex and so real. I still dont know if who damian was, if that was an idea built from alex because the way he was crying and the way he really loved him makes me think differently. I think hes someone thats confident but also pushes people away when it gets too serious (hence why he jumps from person to person) but alex was different (or he wouldnt have ran after him to the point where he died) but at the same time we dont know and thats the tragedy of death. People arent these perfect victims when they die which is something damians mom didnt unserstand, which makes sense because she wanted to make her grief simple and find someone to blame, but thats not the right way to deal with it, id venture to say its disrespectful for the person that died.
Anyways I think my only complaints were that the whole death talk felt very heavy handed and I didnt really get the point of the case work character when we already had the english professor lol but those are very minor issues I would still really recommend it. Hit really hard (clearly)
I have honestly been floored by this movie so excuse my very long ramble.
Going into this movie I was expecting a simple queer coming of age movie set in the 80s, not very conplex hitting the usual beats about homophobia and what not but instead this was sooo much more than that.
So many things I loved about this movie. Aesthetic wise, I loved how it was set in the 80s without it feeling annoying or shoehorned in, I loved the lighting in this (esp in the cinema scene and the club scene) I loved the soundtrack (though wouldnt have minded more music if I'm honest) The framing for the storytelling in this movie was really cool too.
I love how they didn't villinize kate. I was sad at first that they left their friendship open ended but at the same time its part of its strength too, it trusts the audience because we know that the friendship is solid and there so considering the way alex grows, you can realistically see them becoming friends again without things being weird (and she even went to his court case!)
I also loved the english teacher (and thank god he has boundaries with his students, bare minimum ofc but its unfortunate how many queer movies have predatory relationships. I was scared it would go different and ruin such a beautiful movie)
I loved alexs relationship with his parents and the mix of acceptance and understanding (from his mom) but at the same time not being able to fully talk about it. Ive been there where ive had to hide a break up from my parents and it was so painful I cant imagine having to hide the reason why youre grieving. The queer erasure at the end while painful makes sense for the era without it feeling forced, the casual homophobia in general was really well done.
I really really loved alex and damians relationship because it was so complex and so real. I still dont know if who damian was, if that was an idea built from alex because the way he was crying and the way he really loved him makes me think differently. I think hes someone thats confident but also pushes people away when it gets too serious (hence why he jumps from person to person) but alex was different (or he wouldnt have ran after him to the point where he died) but at the same time we dont know and thats the tragedy of death. People arent these perfect victims when they die which is something damians mom didnt unserstand, which makes sense because she wanted to make her grief simple and find someone to blame, but thats not the right way to deal with it, id venture to say its disrespectful for the person that died.
Anyways I think my only complaints were that the whole death talk felt very heavy handed and I didnt really get the point of the case work character when we already had the english professor lol but those are very minor issues I would still really recommend it. Hit really hard (clearly)
