Jongens ("Boys") (2014)
June 12, 2016 10:02 PM - Subscribe
A sexually awakening gay teen athlete finds himself in a budding relationship with his mutually attracted relay race teammate.
From Wikipedia:
"The movie was first aired... on NPO Zapp, a Dutch channel for children and young teens. The movie was a success so film distributor ABC Cinemien/ABC Distribution eventually decided to release the movie in Dutch theatres. This release was also a success so the film was sold to US, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Poland, France and Germany."
Hollywood Reporter review
Rotten Tomatoes
From Wikipedia:
"The movie was first aired... on NPO Zapp, a Dutch channel for children and young teens. The movie was a success so film distributor ABC Cinemien/ABC Distribution eventually decided to release the movie in Dutch theatres. This release was also a success so the film was sold to US, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Poland, France and Germany."
Hollywood Reporter review
Rotten Tomatoes
Yeah, the supporting characters didn't get much time at all. If the movie were longer they could have given the story of the girl with a crush on Seig more of an arc, too. But the main story is so well-acted and directed, and so completely adorable, that it's easy to recommend this as an uplifting queer romance. So good.
posted by mediareport at 8:11 AM on June 17, 2016
posted by mediareport at 8:11 AM on June 17, 2016
I totally agree. Watching Sieg just stare at Marc, at the beginning, because he has feelings and he doesn't know what to do with them, yep, I've been there. It captured the essence of it all so well. I wish it was a longer movie.
One thing that I didn't think about until later is how this is actually a nice queer romance. For a long time I was pretty sour on LGBTQ romances because the conflict tends to revolve around straight people being just horrible in all sorts of ways that are unfortunately realistic and hit too close to home for me to want to watch and re-live. This movie, though, just went out and made a cute romance, because figuring yourself out when you are a teenage boy is hard enough and makes for a compelling story all on its own.
posted by selenized at 1:23 PM on June 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
One thing that I didn't think about until later is how this is actually a nice queer romance. For a long time I was pretty sour on LGBTQ romances because the conflict tends to revolve around straight people being just horrible in all sorts of ways that are unfortunately realistic and hit too close to home for me to want to watch and re-live. This movie, though, just went out and made a cute romance, because figuring yourself out when you are a teenage boy is hard enough and makes for a compelling story all on its own.
posted by selenized at 1:23 PM on June 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
I have teenagers right now and I really enjoyed this movie for using what appeared to be actual teenagers in the main roles. They have that same unfinished, in-between look my 15-year-old and his friends have, where one minute they look like men, the next minute like boys; one minute they're so beautiful you can't stand it, and the next minute they look like they were assembled from leftover parts.
Like selenized, I also enjoyed the way it was mostly just teenagers exploring and figuring things out without an undue amount of angst, or using horrible things happening to gay people to build plot. European movies seem to be less concerned about plot dramatics, which can make some European movies painfully slow for me. Or they can be pleasantly slow-paced and sweet, like this one.
posted by not that girl at 6:43 AM on June 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Like selenized, I also enjoyed the way it was mostly just teenagers exploring and figuring things out without an undue amount of angst, or using horrible things happening to gay people to build plot. European movies seem to be less concerned about plot dramatics, which can make some European movies painfully slow for me. Or they can be pleasantly slow-paced and sweet, like this one.
posted by not that girl at 6:43 AM on June 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
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Though for all the build-up in the family drama with the rebellious brother, it was kind of odd to have that wrap up off camera. Or is the secret message that all you need is a really good relay race to mend all family problems?
posted by selenized at 2:17 PM on June 13, 2016