From the sun-drenched beaches of Australia comes this sexy coming-of-age romance. Cute teen Midget Hollow (Jack Baxter) wanders through life riding big waves and partying with surfer boys. When Midget’s best friend’s gay brother Cass arrives on the scene, the two quickly dive head first into a clandestine sea of sexual awakening. As his lusty romance with the dark-eyed Adonis is soon discovered, Midget has to navigate between his friends’ reaction and his newfound love all while growing up during a hot summer of fun in the sun!
Glasskar 2002
Glasskår (original title)
1h 16min | Drama, Family | 15 February 2002 (Norway)
User review:
Norwegian director Berg takes an unusual approach in this film about a young teen boy: He makes an honest, artistic film with adult production values that actually speaks to kids. The content may seem a bit grown up, but it’s right where these children live! Sometime in the 1980s, Viktor (Evjen), a sharp, perceptive 13-year-old who’s afraid he will never be as cool as his big brother OK (Lauritzsen). His pals (Eidissen and Stigar) seem to feel the same, so they form a band just to get the girls’ attention, even though none of them can play an instrument. Meanwhile, Viktor knows something’s up in his family. His parents (Kokkin and Kolsrud) are not talking to him, while OK tells him secrets he finds hard to believe. Meanwhile, Viktor notices a new girl (Johansen) and gets entangled with the local thug (Rafaelsen) and his girlfriend (Gjertsen). Basically, Viktor knows far more than anyone gives him credit for. And he cooler than all of them put together!
While the filmmaking itself is profoundly un-flashy, Berg captures the story beautifully. This is rich, meaningful cinema–thoroughly entertaining in its use of humour and unexpected adventures to keep us engaged, and then deepening it with a fairly intense examination of family communication (what the film is really about, as opposed to more obvious themes). Why do adults lie and keep the truth from children? Sometimes this is a little heavy-handed, but it’s never sentimental at all, and Berg gets terrific, natural, edgy performances from the entire cast. Evjen is especially good, making Viktor a very intriguing character we like instantly and then learn to respect (he becomes a bit too saintly at the end, but never mind). It’s rare to find a film about children made with this level of integrity and truthfulness; so keep an eye out for it.
Hidden Kisses 2016
Baisers cachés (original title)
1h 27min | Drama | TV Movie 1 January 2016
Storyline:
Nathan, 16, lives alone with his father Stephane. A newcomer in high school, he is invited to a party and falls in love with Louis, a boy in his class. They find themselves out of sight and kiss each other, but someone takes a picture of them. Soon, the photo is published on Facebook and a storm overtakes their lives as they face bullying and rejection.
Hohenfeuer 1985
Höhenfeuer (original title)
1h 59min | Drama | 30 January 1986 (West Germany)
Storyline
A year on an Alpine farm: an older couple have two children, Belli, who wanted to be a teacher, and the younger Franzi, deaf, and although he works like a man, child-like. Belli teaches him. In his work, he can become frustrated, so when he throws an expensive mower over a cliff in a fit of pique, his father banishes him to the outskirts of the farm, where he uses pubescent energy to break rocks and build walls and cairns. (It’s the tradition of the father’s family, called “The Irascibles” by neighbors, to spend puberty doing this.) Belli visits him and they begin sleeping together. By winter, the boy is back in the house and Belli is pregnant. Soon her parents must know.
Les aiguilles rouges 2006
1h 33min | Drama | 10 May 2006 (France)
Storyline:
September 1960: on a purely punitive basis, eight scouts must climb the solid mass of Brévent to 2500 meters of altitude. The so beautiful and so majestic mountain which draws up face them very quickly reveals dangerous. All the techniques of orientation learned at the scouts will do nothing there. The teenagers find themselves delivered to themselves. Lost in the abrupt throats, the eight boys are confronted cold, with the hunger and the fear. A tension starts to reign between these young people of different origins and of which concerns divergent: some worry for Algeria, for a brother left to the combat, or a family threatened of expulsion in metropolis, still the girls worry to like others. The group divides then to find an exit, but one of them disappears in water frozen from a torrent. While young people try to protect itself in a closed down refuge, the others will seek the helps..
Out Now 2005
20min | Short, Drama | 24 April 2005 (Germany)
Storyline:
Tom, 16, lives in a small town in Bavaria and is about to admit his homosexuality to society. Being mobbed and threatened in school and after some exiting experiences he overcomes his own barriers and makes his dream come true: getting into contact with others. The Story tells us from Tom, he is gay, he is chatting with other gay boys over the internet, but he would never admit it in front of others. By coincident he finds out, that Nikias – one of the cool guys in school, who mob Tom – likes to have sexual contact with boys as well. To be more accurate: Tom finds Nikias having sex with another guy on a couch. And on top of that, there is this very cute boy from the candy shop…
This Boy’s Life 1993
R | 1h 55min | Biography, Drama | 23 April 1993 (USA)
Storyline:
The story about the relationship between a rebellious 1950s teenager and his abusive stepfather, based on the memoirs of writer and literature Professor Tobias Wolff.
