A Different Look at Adolescent Males
Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 09/28/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Teenage Angst"
A Different Look at Adolescent Males
Amos Lassen
There is something about boys' boarding schools that gay men love just as it is with prisons. We know that many young men have their first same-sex experiences in boarding schools and that is obviously what makes dramas about these schools so enticing. Picture This Entertainment has acquired the rights to "Teenage Angst", winner of the Silver Bear at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival and it is now ours to view in the comfort of our homes.
"Teenage Angst" is the story of youth abused power as it carefully examines what happens when young men need to belong to a group but do not understand the consequences of acceptance.
Four young male students from wealthy families at a beautiful picturesque boarding school in Germany form a clique which maintains sexually charged rituals and rites. They try to break lose from their rich existence and at night they sneak away to party, swim naked and play games that become increasingly dangerous. As always happens, the boys with stronger wills rise above the weaker boys and as can be expected, bad things begin to happen.
Here is a modern take on motiveless violence, of teens searching to find themselves and the discovery that the youth have desires as well as depressions. The story is not pretty but it is enlightening and shows what goes on in the mind of many teens. In this case the boys are able to act upon what enters their minds. The film is directed by Thomas Stuber and is an auspicious first full length film debit.
On the same disc is included a homoerotic short film by French director Pascal-Alex Vincent, "Baby Shark" which was nominated for the Palme D'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Here is another tale of teens gone astray and it looks at what happens from three different perspectives. In the first, a misguided young boy asks a heterosexual couple to allow him to become sexually indulged. The second is about a young male/female couple that is forced to content with a young man who has attached himself to the male of the couple and the third is about a young man who makes advances n his identical twin brother's girlfriend.
Both film gives us a look at a different aspect of youth and opens our eyes to aspects of adolescence not known to everyone.
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Worthless. Don't bother
William A. Poe | Silver Spring, MD USA | 03/28/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I couldn't get through this piece of crap. If watching rape, torture and other acts of cruelty does it for you, well, that is sad. But if so, look for a movie that has better production values - and certainly better looking actors."