Mit siebzehn (2016)
41KMit siebzehn: Directed by André Téchiné. With Sandrine Kiberlain, Kacey Mottet Klein, Corentin Fila, Alexis Loret. Damien lives with his mother Marianne, a doctor, while his father is on a tour of duty abroad. He is bullied by Thomas, whose mother is ill. The boys find themselves living together when Marianne invites Thomas to come and stay with them.
“This movie is the best-directed contemporary gay love story Iu0026#39;ve ever seen. It doesnu0026#39;t over- dramatize the stigma that all gay youth deal with when coming out to themselves and others, but it doesnu0026#39;t pretend such stigma isnu0026#39;t important. It presents attraction and love and friendship and family and desire as the complexly interwoven mess that it always is, but is so rarely seen in media. It shows love as not the solution to all your problems, but also that it doesnu0026#39;t have to be tragic. It portrays traditional families charitably, alongside gayness – they donu0026#39;t have to be natural enemies, but they have different dynamics which are usually either ignored or treated one-dimensionally. Most importantly, this film describes coming out as it really is: a profoundly individual act, and usually played out non- tendentiously and in a narrative completely unique to that individual. Most coming out films Iu0026#39;ve seen swerve into clichés and predictable outcomes. Although this filmu0026#39;s plot resolution is fairly conventional, somehow the charactersu0026#39; authenticity, uniqueness and vulnerability fulfilled the story in a deeply touching, yet unsentimental way. Bravo.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf youu0026#39;re not gay, you might think this movie is nothing special, the way some straight people I know thought Brokeback Mountain was tripe, not paying any attention to the repression central to that story. The moving qualities in this film are mostly a coming-out thing, so perhaps straight people wonu0026#39;t relate, but there are glimmers here (and in our times) of that narrative holding enough substance to speak to universal truths.”
