Wow, that was… really not good at all. A deadly earnest, by-the-numbers coming out story that felt ripped straight out of an after-school special. Sensitive nerdy gay boy, check; his feisty PC fag hag BFF (not a minority, but disabled, which still counts), check; broody and tormented jock he falls for, check; gay bashing scene, check; PG-rated sex scene that’s over-the-top perfect and magical and everything, check; oppressive soundtrack that swells like The Song That Goes Like This whenever a Big Dramatic Moment comes up, check. Oh, and the jock dies at the end, having tragically succumbed to his tormenting issues. Check? Sure, why not.
Oy.
Apart from all the clichés, the movie did a lot of things wrong. First, the framing story of an adult Danny (a.k.a. Sensitive Nerdy Gay Boy) as a successful artist who got famous on paintings and drawings of Carter (a.k.a. Broody And Tormented Jock) really doesn’t work. Not only does it depressingly show him as still not over Carter’s death, it’s frankly unnecessary and distracting. The final scene of him reconciling with his boyfriend and presumably moving on for good was kind of sexy but would have been a lot more effective if we’d known anything about the boyfriend or cared about their relationship.
Speaking of sexy, Danny and Carter’s first time was… just weird. What the hell was up with the rain? Was there some kind of symbolism there, or did the director just want the actors to glisten? I don’t get it.
As for Carter, the writers did aim for “broody and tormented” but actually landed on “asshole”. Stealing from Danny’s mother to support his drug addiction was bad enough, but stealing the BFF’s crutch when they visited the museum? That wasn’t cool, it wasn’t funny, it just made him a gigantic prick who doesn’t deserve to be in the same zip code as Danny.
So yeah… this movie had potential, especially with a gay nerd main character— we sure don’t get enough of those—but it turned out to be a huge disappointment. The one serious dud of the whole festival.
I think you missed the boat on this one and did not pick up on the internalized homophobia of Carter. This issue rarely gets dealt with or even talked about in our community but is ever present. I do think they could have dropped book ending the story with the adult artist segments and the rain was a bit over top. Overall I think it is a good movie and nowhere near a dud like some others I saw.
Fair enough. I know others loved this movie, but I didn’t. And I did pick up on Carter’s internalised homophobia, but (a) it doesn’t make him any more sympathetic to me, and (b) it doesn’t make the story less cliche.