EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (1998) (USA) (David Moreton) (+Soundtrack)

Edge of Seventeen (1998)

Kada prelisatm spisak svih mojih filmova ispade da je bar polovina sa temom coming out! Većina tih filmova spada u melodramatične srceparajuće drame, sa očitom namjerom da rasplaču pedere širom planete. Naravno ne pada mi napamet da blog napunim tom otužnom tematikom, ali neki filmovi su zaista neizbježni u svakoj kolekciji filmova sa gay tematikom.
Nije da osuđujem pedere koji mašu zastavom duginih boja po ulicama, ali naprosto oni nisu u mom životnom filmu ništa više od sasvim sporedne uloge.
Ovaj film se zaista nemože svrstati u ona klasična jeftina ostvarenja.
Eric Hunter, je sedamnaestogodišnjak u fazi istraživanja svoje sksualnosti koja je sasvim očito homoseksualna. Pokaztuje nam odrastanje jednog pedera, njegove seksualne frustacije, zaljubljenost, razočarenja, gubitak nevinosti....
Simpatična mi je njegova hrabrost i odlučnost da ostvari svoje želje, pa ma koliko nevolja mu to izazivalo. Počev od flertovanja sa najboljim drugom, heteroseksualne prolazne faze sa prijateljicom, prvi poljubac, pušenje, lizanje guze u autu od strane nepoznatog lika, i konačno onog auuuh ovo boli, vadi ga!
Film je prožet muzikom 80-tih godina, a mislim da dosta pedera i dan danas sluša Eurythmics i sjajnu Annie Lennox.
Više o ovom filmu pročitajte u prijateljskom blogu http://gaythemedmovies.blog.hr

Director: David Moreton
Writer: Todd Stephens (writer)
Release Date: 20 April 2000 (Australia)
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot Keywords: Family Relationships | Sex | Oral Sex | Rain | Shower
Awards: 5 wins & 2 nominations
User Comments: HONEST, SMART & SEXY
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)
Chris Stafford ... Eric Hunter
Tina Holmes ... Maggie
Andersen Gabrych ... Rod
Stephanie McVay ... Bonnie Hunter
Lea DeLaria ... Angie
John Eby ... Dad
Antonio Carriero ... Andy
Jason Scheingross ... Steve Hunter
Tony Maietta ... Gregg
Jeff Fryer ... Jonathan
Kevin Joseph Kelly ... Chuckie (as Kevin J. Kelly)
Mark Gates ... Foodtown
Stevie Reese Desmond ... Ruby Rogers
Barbie Marie ... Frieda
Craig H. Shepherd ... Irate Customer (as Craig Shepherd)


Runtime: 99 min | Australia:103 min
Country: USA
Language: English

"Edge of Seventeen" is more about sex and less about love than most coming-out movies; its young hero, Eric, seems to aim directly for gay bars and empty promiscuity without going through intermediate stages of self-discovery, idealism or the qualities encompassed in the code word pride. He cheerfully wants to become a slut. This doesn't make him unusual; the libido is stronger than the intelligence in many teenagers. He'll grow up eventually.

The movie is set in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1984, and said to be based in part on the memories of its writer, Todd Stephens. It was an era when flamboyantly gay pop acts were highly visible, and the film cites Boy George and Bronski Beat. It's about a summer of sexual initiation for Eric (Chris Stafford), a spacy teenager who seems a little dazed a lot of the time; later he'll learn to mask his cluelessness with cool detachment.

Eric gets a summer job in the restaurant of an amusement park. Also on the staff: his best friend Maggie (Tina Holmes), a lesbian manager named Angie (Lea DeLaria) and a blond guy named, inevitably, Rod (Anderson Gabrych), who wants to seduce him. Eric doesn't have the usual tumultuous struggle against his emerging gay identity; Rod smiles at him, Eric gets the idea and in a relatively short while they're sharing quality time in the meat locker. It's obvious to Angie, and even in an unacknowledged way to Maggie, that they're an item.

We see a little of Eric's homelife. His dad (John Eby) is a salt-of-the-earth type, and his mom (Stephanie McVay), a much more fully developed character, is a former musician who put her career on hold for marriage and motherhood, but takes pride in the new age compositions Eric pieces together on his electronic keyboard. As Eric's hairstyle morphs from mop-top to David Bowie and his eyeliner consumption goes up, she begins to worry--especially when he starts staying out all night and (although not enough is made of this) coming home drunk.

Rod turns out to be a disappointment as a first love; he quickly disappears back into "the gay dorm at OSU." He makes a poor role model. "Don't call me again," he tells the lonely Eric on the phone one night. Depressed, Eric heads for the Universal Fruit and Nut Co., Sandusky's only gay bar, where the manager is, inevitably, Angie from the summer restaurant job. Angie welcomes him joyfully, reassures him there is life after coming out and introduces him to three aging queens, one in drag, who become his buddies.

It is enormously helpful of Angie not to card Eric, whom she knows is four years under age, since the gay bar will play such a central role in the plot. Soon Eric has his second sexual experience, a quickie in the parking lot with another guy who likes him only for his body. "Uh, wouldn't you like my phone number?" Eric offers. Depressed by his experiences as a mindless sex object, he turns for consolation to Maggie, who helps him find out if he likes straight sex (he doesn't). Maggie, Eric's mother, and Angie the manager are the most fully realized characters in the movie, which doesn't offer a single positively drawn male homosexual.


Watching the movie, I thought, yes, for a lot of people straight and gay, the initiation to sexuality is like this: awkward physical couplings, loneliness, misunderstanding, angst and then finally you grow interested in the person attached to the sexual organs and not the other way around. "Edge of Seventeen" may be more realistic, if less encouraging, than a more sensitive gay coming-out story like the recent British film "Get Real." It deals with physical details with almost startling frankness and doesn't sentimentalize.

If it seems to introduce Eric directly into the world of gay cliches (drag queens and strangers in the night), perhaps in Sandusky in 1984 that was the only visible gay culture, and more substantial relationships were low profile. My hope for Eric is not merely that he grows comfortable with his sexuality, but that he becomes a more interesting conversationalist, hopefully before I see him in another movie.



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OST: 'Edge of Seventeen'
by Various Artists












Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Selections
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