ron

Of an Age

“I bet you’re a good boy.” Met the right person at the right time. Felt bold enough to finally send a message on that app. Bumped into someone and spilled your coffee on them. It can happen to anyone at anytime, but rarely when you’re looking for it. Romance. But often, for gay people, there’s a singular experience. Perhaps not the only experience, but a defining one. A flame that burned so bright when you close your eyes you can still see it, and it still tethers you, back. Back there. Back to when you didn’t know who you were and thought being yourself would get you hurt. Whether that experience was good or not, it defines us in unique, sometimes odd, sometimes pathetic ways. Flying nearly 30hrs to the wedding of someone you vaguely know because there’s a chance that you may lock eyes with the first, and perhaps the only, man that ever made you feel seen is definitely one of the more pathetic ways. But Goran treats the characters’ stories and their choices with such tender loving care. This film is deeply empathetic. Kol and Adam’s immediate connection and yearning for one another left me breathless. Reminiscent of howWeekendand End of the Century’sportrayals of “missed connection” romance effected me. With Century and Of And Age specifically, there’s this ache, or longing, to retreat ceaselessly in the past to relive that one defining moment or into fantasy to imagine what could have been. In Of An Age it’s the former as Kol who, despite having his own life thousands of miles away, is trapped in the past. Anchored to that one fleeting moment when he finally saw what happiness as a gay man could look like. That his life in those intermediary years between now and then have been so defined by that is…sad yes, but understandable too. It’s a melancholic longing unique to the queer experience and I always find myself intensely impacted when I see it portrayed well on screen. Sensational. “My beautiful boy.”

nathansnook

Of an Age

Starts off wildly strong. Shots up-close. A panic. No room to breathe. At first, I thought it was going to be a thriller and that thrill, in its passion, turns into this slow burn desire. This yearning. This understanding. And, finally, a becoming. We get talks of Wong Kar Wai and Borges. What's not to like? The chemistry between both male leads are a delight. An Aussie boy once told me he only ever talked to boys with good banter, and boy did this have a lot. There were some pacing issues in the 3/4 of the film, but all can be forgiven given how wonderful both leads are.