New Reviews: Summer Storm & V for Vendetta

Summer Storm
(Bavaria Film International, rated R, 98 min.)

If any genre of filmmaking is overdone, it’s the gay coming-of-age drama. Between the heavy-handed dramatics and sermonizing populating the likes of Beautiful Thing, Edge of Seventeen, The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, Dorian Blues and the myriad of what seems like hundreds of others, the genre has become ridiculously precious. A few of these movies have actually gotten it right; Beautiful Thing, for instance, told its story of young gay love with tongue planted firmly in cheek, while Two Girls in Love captured the aching of adolescent puppy love with surprising authenticity. But too often gay filmmakers attempting to revisit their youths revert to tired clichés and childish theatrics to get their points across. So when I heard that Marco Kreuzpaintner’s film Summer Storm was yet another gay coming-out flick, my first thought was, “It’s probably going to suck.” The pleasant surprise, however, is that it doesn’t. In fact, it’s quite good, and I dare say that it’s the first film of its kind to actually get it almost 100 percent right. Tobi (German superstar Robert Stradlober) is a teenager with a big secret: He’s got a serious crush on his best bud and rowing teammate Achim (Kostja Ullmann), but he’s pretty sure that Achim is straight, even though the two boys like to wrestle around together with erections before masturbating side by side. Things get complicated, however, when Achim starts dating Sandra (Miriam Morgenstern) and Sandra’s girlfriend Anke (Alicja Bachleda-Curus) takes a liking to Tobi. When the boys’ rowing team again travels to participate in an annual cup championship – this time against an all-gay team of athletic rowers – things really get confusing for Tobi as he faces serious questions of identity. Based in part on Kreuzpaintner’s own teenage experiences (he, too, was an athlete in love with his hetero buddy), the movie nails the pangs of first love and adolescent awkwardness with surprising authenticity. What makes Kreuzpaintner’s film so entertaining is its lack of melodramatic histrionics and sentimentality. Instead, the action unfolds in a somewhat languid pacing that allows for each scene to let true emotion come through in the uniformly strong performances. What’s more, though the film is about a gay teen (and yes, there is a very tastefully shot sex scene), almost anyone could relate to its tale of adolescent longing and confusion. Grade: B+

V for Vendetta
(Warner Bros., rated R, 132 min.)

Although James McTeigue’s film version of V for Vendetta is a visually spellbinding piece of movie spectacle that is sure to delight many comic book fans around the world, those wishing to see a more faithful rendering of the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd may be woefully disappointed. Written and produced by the team of Andy and Larry Wachowski (they of The Matrix trilogy and the lesbian heist flick Bound), the film is a relatively ham-handed but surprisingly entertaining film that explores issues of dictatorial politicians, personal freedom and ultimately just good old fashioned good versus evil. After cable TV intern Evey (a radiant Natalie Portman) is saved from a couple of lecherous policemen by the mysteriously masked terrorist/hero V (Hugo Weaving), she finds herself drawn unwillingly into his morally ambiguous vigilante ways; as a result, she is forced to question her own values and dedication to personal freedom. Set in the not-so-distant future after Britain has essentially taken control of the world and all the freedoms of its inhabitants, the movie attempts to make some not-so-subtle comparisons to the Bush administration and its controversial Patriot Act. Yet, while John Hurt has a rollicking good time pumping his fists and carrying on as seething Nazi-esque ruler Chancellor Sutler (gotta love that red-on-black art direction), the film lacks a true sense of menace, failing to paint a convincing portrait of a world stripped of its freedom. Which leaves McTeigue to settle for thrilling theatrics instead of any authentic emotional depth. V’s actions – as heroic as they are intended to be – seem designed more to thrill comic book fans and sci-fi geeks looking for blood and gore than for serious-minded movie-going audiences hoping for some real meat to gnaw on. Still, the film wears its inherent superficiality like a badge of honor, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the story as it unfolds. Weaving’s V is a delightfully droll creature – part Phantom of the Opera, part Musketeer, part slasher hero. The actor plays the role so gamely that his wit becomes infectious – even if the film chickens out in presenting his character in the questionable light he was originally written with. Portman, for her part, does the best she can with a role that essentially reduces her character to that of a bystander. The film’s biggest flaw, however, is the absence of its creator, Alan Moore, who so disagreed with the Wachowski boys’ vision of his story that he had his name removed from the credits. And why not? At nearly every turn, the film strips its source material of its more sinister overtones. Evey is essentially just Keanu Reeves’ Neo character as a woman with a Sinead O’Connor hairdo, and the Wachowskis’ version of Britain is really just the Matrix in real time and in color. That’s good news for Matrix fans, not-so-good news for comic book purists. Grade: B+