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Edge Of Seventeen

By TotallyOz, in Theater, Movies, Art and Literature

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TotallyOz

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Edge Of Seventeen

Overall, gay films usually fall into one of two basic types super-sad tragedies or ultra-camp comedies. While straight people get a wide varieties of genres, Hollywood seems to want films about the gay community to either deal with AIDS, homophobia, or silly drag queens.

This is what makes Edge of Seventeen stand out. It's neither of the usual tropes it's just a movie about teenagers where the central character happens to be gay. It's structured like St. Elmo's Fire in the sense that there is no logical starting or ending point. It's just a bit of time in the lives of these people in the midwest dealing with shit that teenagers deal with.

That it resembles St. Elmo's Fire shouldn't be a total shock, since it's set in the early 80s whatever year Bronski Beat had their 15 minutes of fame. You can tell through various winks and nods that the people who made this flick watched every single John Hughes film from the era.

The main characters are Eric and Maggie, two seventeen-year-olds who have lived next door to each other forever. She considers him her boyfriend; he considers her his best friend.

She clearly has no gaydar at all, since Eric dresses like a cross between Ducky from Pretty In Pink and the bass player for Flock Of Seagulls and has her put lipstick, eyeliner and a multitude of haircare products on him before they go out anywhere.

Maggie can sort of be forgiven this, given that Eric does kiss her and does tell her he loves her. You get a sense that maybe both of these kids know what's going on here, but don't want to look the obvious straight in the face. Or, they may simply be very naïve and need to wait for life to happen before they figure things out. That the film lets you interpret it either way makes for interesting thought and discussion when the end credits roll.

The two of them get a job at a rib shack in a theme park over the summer where the manager is lesbian named Angie (played perfectly by Lea DeLaria), and there is an out and proud college dude working alongside them.

Both Angie and the college dude named Rod immediately figure out that Eric is gay, but mostly keep their mouths shut about it. Rod waits until the last day the park is open for the summer, and then seduces Eric into mutual oral sex.

This is when we get our second sign that this is not a typical Hollywood movie, because the sex is as explicit as you can get without being actual porn.

Eric wakes up the next day convinced he's in love with Rod. But when he reaches out to Rod a few days later, he finds out that Rod only wanted to do him because he'd never been with a guy before and that shit turns him on.

Meanwhile, Maggie is upset that Eric isn't trying to bone her so that night, when she and Eric go to a house party, she starts flirting heavily with one of the dickweed jocks there. Eric, realizing he should feel jealous, storms out; but instead of going home, he heads to the only gay bar in the area.

Inside he finds out that Angie's new job is managing the bar, and even though he's ridiculously underage, she lets him in and gets him drunk.

Another college age guy then chats him up, and they end up in the guy's car with the dude giving Eric his first rim job leading to this hilarious exchange of dialogue:

Shouldn't you wear a condom?

For my tongue?

It should come as no shock that this guy, like Rod, only wanted some sex and refuses to even talk to Eric or give him his number once the rimming has been completed. Eric freaks the fuck out and heads over the Maggie's place, where he tells her what's been going on.

She's still not completely sold on him being gay despite the fact that he's been with two dudes and has never even touched her boobs. They agree to continue dating.

The next weekend, he invites her on a date to Angie's gay bar. Maggie takes so much time getting ready in order to impress/seduce Eric that she shows up about an hour late, at which point Eric is making out with another douchecanoodle college dude on the dance floor.

Maggie freaks the fuck out on Eric and says she never wants to see him again. This causes Eric to be so upset that he actually finds Rod's college dorm room and throws himself at Rod.

Rod lets him in, but makes it clear it's only because Eric has never been fucked up the ass and his fetish with virgin territory remains strong. As you would expect, once he's done fucking Eric, he blows him off.

Eric then tracks Maggie down and tells her about this. And she is like, Dudes just want sex, figure it out. And he's like, I want love. And she's like, Well, if you want love, you should fuck me instead of getting fucked by meathead college dudes.

So, he finally fucks her and both of them are shocked when he's completely unimpressed with pussy. That's when she tells him to eat shit and die and never talk to her again.

Then, he goes back to the gay bar and starts dancing with a bunch of guys. Has he decided to find love with dudes, or has he decided just to be a gay slut? The movie doesn't tell us. It just ends.

What makes the film fascinating, beyond the fact that there isn't really a comparable gay film, is that it all seems very real. While neither Eric nor Maggie make particularly intelligent decisions, they seem like the kind of fucked-up decisions real teens would make.

And, that's a trope straight teens have been able to see in countless movies, so it's nice to see it in a film not directed at straight teens.

The one downside is that the film is so explicit that I doubt most teens were able to actually see it when it came out.

cc boytoy.com 2013

Guest hitoallusa

Guest hitoallusa

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Oh my if there is another world out there I hope sex only happens between two lovers...^_^

Guest hitoallusa

Guest hitoallusa

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Better my hubby.... ^_^

You could consider that whomever you are having sex with at the moment is your lover...

Guest DJ69Cruiser

Guest DJ69Cruiser

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I just watched the trailer for this movie. Looks as though I should give it a view.

BTW, TotallyOz, your movie reviews are really well structured ... I enjoy reading them.

DJ

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