EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (Strand) Starring: Chris Stafford, Tina Holmes, Andersen Gabrych, Stephanie McVay, Lea DeLaria. Screenplay: Todd Stephens. Producers: David Moreton and Todd Stephens. Director: David Moreton. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, sexual situations, adult themes) Running Time: 100 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Perhaps it's an indication of how far we have come, but gay coming-of-age films are becoming as formula-bound and potentially trite as straight coming-of-age films. Confused younger protagonist, experienced older object of desire, confrontations with friends and/or family who just don't understand...we have been there, and we have done that. To paraphrase my colleague Mike D'Angelo, we have to ask ourselves whether we would care about the people or the situation if the central romantic entaglements were heterosexual, and often the answer is no. Gay or straight, "I was never the same after that summer" films often go nowhere new or interesting.
EDGE OF SEVENTEEN does try to take us somewhere new, exploring an angle most gay-themed films only view as an afterthought: how friends and family respond to a startling coming-out. Writer Todd Stephens' semi-autobiographical story centers on Eric Hunter (Chris Stafford), approaching his senior year of high school in Sandusky, Ohio circa 1984 with only the typical 17-year-old concerns: working a summer job (here at a lakeside amusement park), figuring out college plans, deciding which skinny tie goes with his dyed hair, and hanging out with his best female friend Maggie (Tina Holmes). Then an amusement park co-worker named Rod (Andersen Gabrych) catches Eric's eye in an unexpected way, turning his simple Middle American life upside-down.
In some ways, EDGE OF SEVENTEEN is quite a conventional independent film examining gay subject matter. The narrative eventually spends a lot of time in Sandusky's only gay bar as Eric begins hanging out with the friends of his lesbian amusement park supervisor (comic Lea DeLaria), with the predictable exchanges of catty barbs ensuing. Fortunately, even those scenes are sparked by the unaffected, appealing work of Stafford in the lead role. His goofy innocence and teen-Jim Carrey grin generate surprising sympathy in Eric's predicament as he begins exploring his sexuality in secret. The technical credits may be predictably shaky and the supporting performances uneven (Gabrych is somewhat wooden as Eric's first love), but EDGE OF SEVENTEEN manages to hold some interest in its story even when it's not revolutionary...and it is amusing to hear the Bronski Beat again.
The really good news in EDGE OF SEVENTEEN also turns out, ultimately, to be the bad news. The film's best two best performances emerge when Stafford and director David Moreton begin to address the confusion of those who don't know how to react when a loved one announces that he's gay. Stephanie McVay has one marvelous scene as Eric's mother, trying to reconcile her feelings about "gay people" with the notion that her son is one. Even better is Tina Holmes as Maggie, whose tries to support Eric even as she deals with her own unrequited crush on him. As sensitively as the filmmakers handle Eric's various experimentations, none of them bear quite the emotional impact of the responses of these two women to Eric's sexual orientation.
In general, EDGE OF SEVENTEEN feels neither revelatory nor redundant, merely unfolding with a simple honesty that makes it feel blandly familiar. The strength of two young performers -- particularly Holmes, an actress to watch for -- elevates the film a bit above its like-themed kin, but not as much as a different focus might have done. Perhaps Stephens was too close to the experience of his own coming-out to recognize that the strength of his story was on the periphery. If he had run with that unique angle, he might have been on to a really good film instead of a slightly-above-average story of how someone was never the same after that summer.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 Sandusky nights: 6.
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