Category: Adolescence

An all-star cast leads the moving family drama White Frog

White Frog tells the story of an extraordinary teenager on a journey to the universal power of family, friendship and love.

18-year-old Chaz Young (Harry Shum Jr.) is the perfect son – the most popular kid in school, headed for Stanford, and unconditionally adored by his upwardly mobile parents, Oliver (BD Wong) and Irene (Joan Chen). 15-year-old Nick (Booboo Stewart) lives in his older brother’s shadow, brilliant but isolated by his Asperger’s Syndrome. At home, Chaz keeps the peace between his father and mother while running interference for Nick, who is barely acknowledged by the conservative Oliver. In return, Nick completely idolizes Chaz as his hero and window to the world.

When Chaz dies in a tragic car accident, the family spirals into disarray. Nick soon becomes obsessed with cracking Chaz’s email password so that he can somehow stay connected to him. Violent behavior at home sends Nick to his psychiatrist, Dr. King (Amy Hill) who challenges him to cope with life through her alternative approach to therapy. With the first glimmers of self-determination, Nick tentatively reaches out to Chaz’s school friends to try making sense of his untimely death and keep his brother’s memory alive. In doing so, Nick quickly realizes that his brother had a secret life.

Chaz’s circle includes Doug (Tyler Posey), Ajit (Manish Dayal), Cameron (Justin Martin), and Randy (Gregg Sulkin). Nick becomes a regular at Randy’s guest house with his brother’s friends, gathering each Friday night for high stakes poker games that Chaz regularly won. Nick then wonders what Chaz did with all that money. He discovers “The Firehouse,” run by Ms. Lee (Talulah Riley), a center for underprivileged kids where Chaz first worked when he was ordered to do community service after being caught gambling at school. Learning that his brother donated over $20,000 in poker winnings to keep “The Firehouse” running, Nick starts volunteering and discovers a world outside his family’s bubble.

While Nick makes friends for the first time ever, one mystery remains: Nick still cannot crack Chaz’s email password and looks to Randy for answers. The truth of his brother’s life will change his own forever.

A powerful, moving film from prolific queer writer-director Quentin Lee, White Frog is now available on Dekkoo. Watch the trailer below.

New This Week – 4/17/20

‘Twilight’ star Booboo Stewart stars as a Chinese-American teen with Asperger’s syndrome who begins investigating the secret life of his late older brother. Joan Chen, BD Wong and “Glee” star Harry Shum Jr. co-star in this moving family drama from writer-director Quentin Lee. ‘White Frog’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo.

Fourteen-year-old J goes by the pronoun ‘They’ and is exploring their gender identity while taking hormone blockers to postpone puberty. After two years of medication and therapy, J has to make a decision about whether or not to transition. Stream ‘They’ now on Dekkoo!

International Chrysis was a New York “show girl” and drag queen. Surreal herself, Chrysis was one of Salvador Dali’s inner circle, a woman from the waist up, a man from the waist down. The movie penetrates Chrysis’ hidden world of transsexual and drag queens, hormones, drugs and prostitution, a dark world she lights up with humor, wit and glamour. ‘Split: Portrait of a Drag Queen’ is available now on Dekkoo.

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Coming Next Week: Two men fall in love in a run-down town of Siberia, Russia.

Five guys discover the meaning of love, sex and friendship in the gay series Kuntergrau

In the German series Kuntergrau, coming out is part of the past while sex and love is mundane. A group of five gay friends between seventeen and twenty-four years old deal with everyday problems and experience the meaning of love, sex, and friendship.

The show focuses on Leopold (Marcel Meyer) who does not want to identify himself through his sexuality and Noah (Daniel Printz), whose BDSM fetish challenges his ex-boyfriend, Jan (Fabian Freistühler), to the point where their relationship begins to break. Along with them are the promiscuous Marcel (Moustafa Tarraf), who works as a banker and is learning to live day-by-day as HIV positive. Last but not least, Lukas (Daniel Kosic) moves from the country to the big city to get away from his controlling parents… somewhat unsuccessfully.

The lives of these five men soon become intertwined and what results is a story that encapsulates what it means to be a young gay man in a big city.

Watch the series trailer below. The first two seasons of Kuntergrau are available now on Dekkoo!

New This Week – 4/3/20

Pedro, a 70-year-old gay nurse, is taking care of Daniela, his ailing transgender friend. In order to find her a vacant hospital bed, he decides to help an arrested and wounded criminal to escape. ‘Greta’ is now streaming on Dekkoo!

While Montreal is in the throes of a string of kidnappings targeting young boys, ten-year-old Felix is finishing his school year in the seemingly quiet suburb where he lives. A sensitive boy with a vivid imagination, Felix is afraid of everything. Little by little, his imaginary demons begin to mirror those of the truly disturbing world around him. Stream ‘Demons’ now on Dekkoo!

Jimmy Park is visiting home for the first time in years and has nothing to show for his time living overseas in Seoul. But old tensions come to a head when he confronts his homophobic sister at a family dinner. ‘Zero One’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo!

In this inspiring animated short film, a young man comes out to his father while preparing his favorite traditional dish. Watch ‘The Fish Curry’ on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A soulfully melancholy reflection on the extreme isolation of the refugee experience.

New This Week – 3/20/20

Xolani, a lonely factory worker, travels to the rural mountains with the men of his community to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best-kept secret, Xolani’s entire existence begins to unravel. ‘The Wound’ is now playing on Dekkoo!

Inspired by true events, ‘Lúbtha’ follows the story of a teenager dealing with his sexuality whilst having to grow up in early 90s Northern Ireland. ‘Lúbtha’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

Dallas is a succesful executive with a beautiful wife. Austin is his gay younger brother. Each thinks the other “has it so good.” When they switch places due to a strange twist of fate they both discover not everything is always as it seems. Stream ‘My Brother’s Shoes’ now on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: A powerful love story, elegantly told.

Make Way for Cubby

Mark (writer-director Mark Blane), the protagonist and anti-hero of the new dark comedy Cubby, is a misanthropic 26-year-old gay man who has been living in his mother’s garage in Indiana. An illustrator who works almost exclusively on sexually explicit-and BDSM-themed-artwork, Mark is stuck in a state of arrested development. He’s pretty much the last person you would expect to find a job working with children… but that’s exactly what happens. When he lies about getting a job opportunity in New York City, he ends up taking a rel job babysitting for 6-year-old Milo (Joseph Seuffert), a new best friend who fully accepts Mark, but does little to help him meet the challenges of everyday life.

Falling behind on rent, and running out of anti-anxiety pills, Mark finally discovers the inspiration he needs, in the form of an imaginary-friend-superhero named Leather-Man (Christian Patrick), who appears to him with the help of a psychedelic cupcake. As a sexy metaphor for discipline and control, Leather-Man helps Mark onto the path for success, but not before Mark’s babysitting adventures turn from empowering, to risky and ultimately transformative.

Featuring a sensational supporting performance from Patricia Richardson (Home Improvement), Cubby is a demented, yet completely charming comedy that marks the arrival of an original new cinematic voice in writer-director-star Mark Blane.

Watch the trailer for Cubby below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 3/6/20

This dark comedy from writer-director-star Mark Blane concerns a self-involved gay man who becomes a nanny for a well-to-do couple…a job for which he’s completely unqualified. As he begins to bond with his precocious new charge, he also starts having delusions involving a BDSM superhero named Leather-Man, brought on by a psychedelic cupcake. ‘Cubby’ is available to stream exclusively on Dekkoo!

Jasper, a 20 something playboy with little empathy, has a date in a rather obscure motel Petit Ami with Vincent, a mysterious older man. For Jasper just another day on the job, until he discovers Vincent’s secret. Watch ‘Petit Ami’ now on Dekkoo!

At the oldest-running queer theatre in the world, Toronto’s most cerebral drag queen and “tragicomedienne” Pearle Harbour prepares to take the stage for her new show “Battle Cry: Songs Of Warfare & Gaiety”. ‘Battle Cry’ is now available to stream on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: The Dekkoo-original series ‘Stranger Hearts’!

Short Film Spotlight: Play It Like a Man

It’s summertime in the Landes. Looking to cure their boredom, fifteen-year-old footballers Loris and Thomas (Simon Boutin and Matthieu Lucci) by engaging in what they assume will be some largely harmless trouble-making.

When they end up stealing the mobile phone of their coach (Samuel Theis), they discover clandestine photos of young naked footballers in the shower. Loris seems to be the main subject of this voyeurism. Cut to the quick, the teenager goes to his trainer’s place to seek revenge… and things get way, way out of hand.

An edgy twenty-one-minute thriller from French writer-director Laurent Lunetta (who worked as the art director on the acclaimed Stranger by the Lake), Play It Like a Man is a riveting short work that isn’t afraid to tackle taboo subjects.

Watch this short excerpt from Play It Like a Man below. The film is available now on Dekkoo.

New This Week – 2/28/20

In this funny, bittersweet romantic comedy from Sweden, perpetual list-maker Anton falls in love with David, but things start to go awry when Anton realizes that his dreams in life might be in direct opposition to David’s. ‘Top 3’ is now available on Dekkoo!

Nathan, a conservative English teacher, tells his best friend Zach about a one-night stand with a hot Latin man who loves to talk dirty in this short comedy. Watch ‘Dirty Talk’ now on Dekkoo!

Over the course of forty-eight hours during a music festival, a recovering drug addict attempts to rekindle his relationship; but with little money, he is forced to engage in a dangerous deal with a former lover-turned-drug-pusher to fund the weekend. Stream ‘The Low End’ on Dekkoo!

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Coming next week: “THE LOVE CHILD OF LADY BIRD AND NAPOLEON DYNAMITE” — Terry Mesnard, FRESH TOMATO REVIEW

Cinema Spotlight: Spa Night

Writer-director Andrew Ahn’s remarkably assured feature-length debut is a portrait of forbidden sexual awakening set in the nocturnal world of spas and karaoke bars in Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

David Cho (Joe Seo, who won the Special Jury Award at Sundance for his breakthrough performance), a timid 18-year-old living with his financially-struggling immigrant parents, chances upon a secret spot for cruising when he takes a part-time job at an allmale spa, and begins to realize hidden inner desires that threaten his life as a dutiful son and student.

Effervescent and atmospheric, this one-of-a-kind coming-of-age story makes the steamy spa a liminal place between dream and reality, and desire and disillusionment.

Joe Seo (David) and Youn Ho Cho (Jin) in Andrew Ahn's SPA NIGHT

“Spa Night is an intensely personal film,” said Ahn. “I knew very early in the screenwriting process that I had to draw from my own life experiences in order to find the honesty I wanted to show on screen. As the son of Korean-American immigrants, I have felt the conflict between my parents’ expectations and my own personal desires. In Spa Night, I wanted to explore what it means to be a part of a Korean-American family. As Spa Night progressed into production, the film became even more personal for me. We shot on location in Koreatown, Los Angeles — at restaurants I have eaten at, spas I have visited, and streets I have walked down. As I directed scenes, I saw my family in this fictional family I had created.”

“My main character David speaks in a mix of Korean and English to his parents, the same mix I use when I speak to my parents. With Spa Night, I want to open up American independent cinema to include stories about immigrant communities told in languages other than English. It is important that our cinema culture reflect the diversity of the American experience. By telling this story, I am attempting to validate the immigrant experience and acknowledge my parents’ sacrifice to leave their home country and start a new life in America. Spa Night is my way of fulfilling my parents’ hopes and dreams.”

Watch the trailer for Spa Night below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.