The coming-of-age film has been around for a long time. Most focus on teenagers who are either 16 or older. There are a few that focus mainly on children who are younger between the age of 11 and 15, which are the earlier years of puberty. One of the most acclaimed is
The 400 Blows (1959). One film that is also referenced a lot is
Stand By Me (1986) or even more recently
Moonrise Kingdom (2012). A lot of these coming-of-age films are plot-driven like
The Goonies (1985) and a large swath are about young boys who are heterosexual. It's rare that a coming-of-age film about a queer or gay, prepubescent child is made, especially one that isn't plot-driven but just a character study. Of those films, the majority are foreign flicks. An early example is
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (2006). That Filipino movie was a lone example, as far as I could find. However, since 2011 and the French film
Tomboy (2012), there have been an uptick of movies that have made protagonists of LGBT people who are prepubescent, no older than 15.
If gay, prepubescent, coming-of-age films is becoming a genre, I would say two of my favorites are the American film
Little Men (2016) and the Dutch film
Jongens (2015). One of the purveyors of this genre is Breaking Glass Pictures, which has provided about a half-dozen or so movies in this genre in just the past two or three years, including the Mexican film
Cuatro Lunas (2015), the Argentinian film
Esteros (2016), the French film
Baisers Cachés (2017), the Icelandic film
Hjartasteinn (2017) and the Canadian film
Porcupine Lake (2018). This film, also from Argentina, is yet another to add to the list.
Angelo Mutti Spinetta stars as Lorenzo, the teen boy in question here who lives seemingly in Buenos Aires with his mother, father and younger brother. He's a normal kid who plays football aka soccer and has a girlfriend. He's a bit of a sensitive and reserved child who studies music and typically has his head in a book. However, Lorenzo begins to feel emotions that he's never experienced before, those of a sexual nature, when another boy comes to stay at his house.
Lautaro Rodríguez co-stars as Caíto, the son of the best friend of Lorenzo's father. Caíto's father is probably suffering from some kind of addiction. Caíto was living with his mother and her boyfriend but things with her boyfriend resulted in domestic violence, forcing Caíto to stay with Lorenzo's family. Like
Being 17 (2016), which is another film in this genre but with older boys, Caíto has to adjust to a household that is more stable and loving. He also contrasts with Lorenzo in that he's less a bookworm and more of an outdoors type who camps, bicycles and who hangs out at bars.
Caíto has emotional issues that don't allow him to trust the family relationship here. He's also clearly damaged. Lorenzo recognizes this damage and does his best to help Caíto adjust. This causes them to bond. It also causes Lorenzo to lust quietly after Caíto who looks like he's spent a considerable amount of time in the gym. Yet, nothing sexual develops. A love instead develops. Whether that love can sustain their staying together is the question, given that Caíto might be going down the same path as his biological father.
Like
Little Men, it's not even totally clear if Lorenzo or Caíto are even gay, though that's the implication. In that, the one thing to judge is the chemistry between these two kids and if it's believable and if it works. When it comes to a movie like this, the central performance from the child actors are essential to whether the film sinks or swims. A lot of it is on the children but the director as well can mold and manipulate good performances onto the screen.
In a lot of the aforementioned films, the young performers do a good enough job or the directors manipulate very well. In
Jongens, for example, the director simply managed to frame the two young boys well in the camera. Having them have fun together, exert themselves and stare at each other can be effective, especially when they have a few lines of dialogue. The child actors can be effective when the movie doesn't really demand that much more complexity from them but simply poses them correctly or even provocatively.
Director Martín Deus in his feature narrative debut does this. He poses his young actors correctly, but he does demand more than just the boys having fun or staring at each other. There is a bit more complexity and nuance than the average film of this sort. Spinetta in particular proves himself to be a terrific, young actor who brings a weight to this performance that is certainly felt. There are things that Spinetta is doing here that is comparable to what Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were doing in
Brokeback Mountain (2005). Rodríguez complements what Spinetta is doing, but Spinetta is the one who shines the brightest here.
Not Rated but contains sexual situation and teen alcohol use.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 31 mins.
Available now on DVD and VOD.
Comments
Post a Comment