Category: Adolescence
Short Film Spotlight: Sleepover
An eight-minute short film from Swedish director Jimi Vall Peterson, Sleepover follows Emil and Adam, two seemingly straight young men who have been friends since junior high. After a night together at the movies, Emil decides he is going to crash at Adam’s apartment.
The two young men end up sharing a double bed. In the middle of the night, Emil awakens and his unspoken feelings for Adam start to become clear. But is he willing to test the boundaries of their friendship?
A simple, but well-executed short film Sleepover perfectly captures those youthful pangs of unrequited love.
Sleepover is now available on Dekkoo.
A married man falls for a much younger guy in the South Korean drama The Poet and the Boy
The Poet and the Boy follows an aimless, seemingly straight poet in his late 30s who has spent all his life on the same island, mostly living off the hard work and careful planning of his more responsible wife.
Spending most of his time daydreaming, he longs to express himself creatively, but his poetry lacks passion and depth – something that the other members of his writers group are quick to point out.
One day, the poet meets a teenage boy working at a donut shop and develops romantic feelings he has never had before. Suddenly, his life and work begins to improve. He’s finally found his muse while falling helplessly in love with another man for the first time. But when he discovers that his wife is pregnant, he is faced with a very difficult decision.
The feature-length debut of South Korean filmmaker Kim Yang-hee, The Poet and the Boy tackles marriage, creativity and longing in a refreshingly honest manner.
Watch the trailer for The Poet and the Boy below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
A popular teen romance series gets the feature-length film treatment with Gameboys: The Movie
Young love is is never smooth, but when you add the pandemic into it, problems seem to pop up at every turn. Based on the popular “Boys Love” series, Gameboys: The Movie follows the story of two young gamers turned lovers as they try desperately to keep their relationship alive despite myriad obstacles.
Cairo (Elijah Canlas) has moved in with Gavreel (Kokoy de Santos). As their relationship is in a new and uncertain phase, Cairo is hesitant to do anything physical… no matter how much Gavreel tries to initiate it.
As the boys try to make the best of the situation, Gavreel’s ex-boyfriend, Terrence, shows up. And then Cairo’s gaming buddy, Wesley. And then Gavreel’s conservative Aunt Susan insists on staying for a few days. While the quartet of lovesick boys enjoy their time cooped up with one another, they have to tiptoe around Aunt Susan’s intolerant ways.
After defying distance, nosy friends and family and even COVID, will the two boys be able to prove that their love for one another is strong enough to withstand fate and circumstance?
Watch the trailer for Gameboys: The Movie below. This sexy and heartfelt new romance is now available on Dekkoo.
The powerful gay drama The Last Match celebrates it’s 10th anniversary this year
Originally released in 2013, The Last Match centers on an intense love affair between two seemingly straight young men.
Reiner and Yosvani are best friends and soccer mates. Handsome Reinier, in order to support his mother, his wife and their baby turns to sex work. Meanwhile, the shy Yosvani is reluctantly engaged to a girl and lives with her and her bombastic loan shark father.
After a furtive kiss at a nightclub, the two young men quickly fall hard for one another. And as their love intensifies, the challenge is not with them but with their unforgiving Havana neighborhood… a place from which they desperately want to escape.
The two leads are charismatic and unforgettable as the super-charged lovers in this powerful drama from director Antonio Hens.
Celebrating it’s 10-year anniversary this year, The Last Match is now available on Dekkoo.
A family struggles with coming out in this heartwarming comedy-drama set in 1973 Cape Cod
Set in 1973, Wild About Harry follows Harry Goodhart (Tate Donovan), a British widower who relocates to Cape Cod with his two teen daughters to start a new furniture business. As daughters Madeline and Daisy (Danielle Savre and Skye McCole Bartusiak) adjust to their new lives, Harry struggles to withhold a deep secret – his new business partner, Theodore (Adam Pascal), is more than just that.
Trying to fit in with the cool kids at school, the girls sneak into a nearby gay club. There, Madeline discovers the truth about her father. The secrets that each keep slowly threaten to tear the family apart – especially when word gets out about the new family in town.
Set during a time when American society was redefining its national identity as well as its personal views, Wild About Harry perfectly captures the look and the language of the period in which it’s set. Alternately funny and heartbreaking, the film tells a parallel love story, richly painted on a canvas of small town suspicion, traditional family values and the rapidly changing sexual identity of America in an era of unrest and progressive change.
Watch the trailer for Wild About Harry below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
Two former friends rekindle their affections in the romantic drama I Miss You When I See You
An old-fashioned gay romance from Simon Chung, the director behind End of Love and Speechless, I Miss You When I See You stars Hong Kong actors Jun Li and Ji-Lok Mak Bryant as Kevin and Jamie, former best friends from high school.
Their emotional attachment and growing love for one another were cut abruptly short by Kevin’s departure to Australia with his mother.
Twelve years later, Jamie tracks down Kevin in Australia. The reunion with his best friend reminds Kevin – suffering from depression – of his youthful ambitions. He decides to return to Hong Kong to be closer to Jamie.
Meanwhile, Jamie, who is in a steady relationship with his girlfriend, finds his feelings for Kevin reawakened and growing stronger.
Inevitably, both men must make a choice between society’s expectations… or following their hearts.
Watch the trailer for I Miss You When I See You below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
Short Film Spotlight: Sparrow
Written and directed by Welby Ings, Sparrow is a visually inventive 15-minute short film from New Zealand which follows an unusual young boy who believes he can fly.
Adorned with a set of homemade wings, he finds himself a frequent target of bullying at school. When he discovers the truth behind a family myth involving his war veteran grandfather, he finally discovers the strength to stand up to his abusers.
Visually stunning and deeply moving, Sparrow earned acclaim and awards at countless film festivals all around the globe when it was originally released in 2016.
Welby Ings recently made his feature-length debut with a boxing drama called Punch, which has also been earning a great deal of buzz at festivals over the past year and is expected to be released in the US in 2023.
Watch the trailer for Sparrow below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
Alan Cumming and Garrett Dillahunt star in the emotional period piece Any Day Now
From writer-director Travis Fine, Any Day Now is a fact-based drama starring Alan Cumming and Garrett Dillahunt. Set in the late-1970s, the film follows a gay couple who take in a child with down syndrome, played by Isaac Levya.
Once their new living arrangement is discovered by the local authorities, the men find that they must fight their way through an unjust and incredibly discriminatory legal system to adopt the child they have come to love as their own.
A deeply moving drama which takes a look at a difficult time in history, Any Day Now earned rave reviews from critics and won audience awards at over ten film festivals when it first made the rounds in 2012, including Tribeca where it premiered. Alan Cumming was also given Best Actor awards from Outfest, Seattle, Key West and Napa Valley film festivals.
Watch the trailer for Any Day Now below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
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