‘Of an Age’ Review: A Stirrg Atralian Gay Romance – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• 10 GREAT ATRALIAN GAY FILMS
• ‘OF AN AGE’ REVIEW: SMALL-SLE GAY ATRALIAN ROMANCE STRIK BIG EROTIC SPARKS
• TAKE A FIRST LOOK AT GAY-THEMED ASIE FILM, OF AN AGE
• OF AN AGE — A STIRRG ASIE GAY ROMANCE
• MOVI FOR GAY MEN AND THOSE WHO LOVE THEM
• WHIRLWD GAY ROMANCE 'OF AN AGE' HAS A TLY MOVG TRAILER
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

10 GREAT ATRALIAN GAY FILMS

The Adventur of Priscilla, Queen of the Dert (1994)While same-sex marriage was only ma legal Atralia 2017, the untry has a fairly strong rerd on LGBT rights, and Sydney is one of the most gay-iendly ci the world. Before the 1970s, the sexualy of probable gay characters was not ma explic, for example the effemate sal assistant  Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938).

The Set (1970) is the first Atralian film wh homosexualy as a central theme, while gay men appeared sexploatn favour such as Atralia after Dark (1975) and The ABCs of Love and Sex: Atralia Style (1978), which H was for homosexualy. Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release Max 2: The Road Warrr (1981) featured a gay villa (the leather-clad Wez, enraged by the slayg of his lover), while more sympathetic homosexual characters appeared prison drama Stir (1980) and fay melodrama Mull (1988).

The 1990s were a goln era for gay Ozzie films, while the new lennium has seen a glut of low-budget gay surfer dramas, cludg the easy-on-the-eye Newstle (2008), the nihilistic Drown (2015) and the downright bizarre Tan L (2006).

‘OF AN AGE’ REVIEW: SMALL-SLE GAY ATRALIAN ROMANCE STRIK BIG EROTIC SPARKS

The Naked Bunyip (1970)Homosexualy was tnip to many of the filmmakers behd the wave of sexploatn documentari that flourished Atralia the 1970s, which often served as an exce to show tillatg shots of lbians gettg down to bs the bedroom. Not so The Naked Bunyip, the grandfather of Atralian sexploatn, which a lengthy segment is voted to a gay male dock worker, who talks ndidly about his life.

The film draws parallels between the close mascule relatnships that form unr the Atralian phenomenon of ‘mathip’ and homosexualy, while talkg heads discs the importance of crimalisg gay sex, which at the time of the documentary was a crimal offence  Atralia.

Although seldom tegorised as a gay film, viewers won’t need to dive ep for the queer subtext this vlent, male-domated world. Bond himself was gay, an early bar scene looks like a scene om William Friedk’s S&M thriller Cisg (1980), while is clear that some sort of sexual act, probably a rape, tak place between the teacher and Doc after a vlent stggle, sendg the protagonist to another spiral of spair.

TAKE A FIRST LOOK AT GAY-THEMED ASIE FILM, OF AN AGE

The Clic (1982)In this fun and bawdy bo of scy edy and sex tn aid, we dip to a day the life of a VD clic, where a laid-back doctor (Chris Haywood) and a pdish medil stunt (Simon Burke) tend to patients of all walks of life, om ank sex workers to ashamed hoewiv, om promiscuo gay men to cheatg hbands. Appalled when a motached man the wag room flirts wh him, the stunt’s homophobia be manift the dramatic scene when he realis the doctor, too, is gay, snarlg: “Those men e here and they drop their pants for you. It’s boosted hugely by a very likeable performance om Haywood as the gay doctor, who eventually manag to fe a bond of iendship wh the nservative youngster.

OF AN AGE — A STIRRG ASIE GAY ROMANCE

The Everlastg Secret Fay is one such film, an often homophobic tale of a young man who be termed to climb the social ladr and live the high life when he be the object of sire of a closeted homosexual polician. It’s an easy film to mock, and s kky scen of bondage and a (thankfully off-screen) paful-soundg sex act wh a large crab teeter to mp, and suggt the filmmaker’s opn of gay men may not be very high. But ’s wickedly entertag, Arthur Dignam is excellent as the polician, and ’s a unique film that uld not have been ma at any other time, wh sex scen too graphic for before the 1980s and an anti-gay streak too unpalatable for the 1990s.

Filled wh quotable l and gags (not least the monstroly polilly rrect “the only bang you’re ever gonna get” eback that Bernatte serv a homophobic woman), the film was adapted to a hugely succsful mil that toured worldwi. The Sum of Us is based on David Stevens’ play about a blokey gay guy who liv at home wh his lovg widowed father. For much of s length, the film feels very post-gay; Isaac (Ewen Llie), our antihero, a moody Greek Atralian who unearths some unpalatable fay secrets when he returns to Greece followg the unexpected ath of his father, is certaly not fed by his homosexualy.

MOVI FOR GAY MEN AND THOSE WHO LOVE THEM

Monster Pi (2013)This lovable gay teen drama transcends s low budget and a uple of wonky supportg performanc to emerge as a highly wng tale of first love. The plot self is a gay staple: Mike (Tristan Barr) velops a csh on William (Lus Lehan), the new boy at school, and the two are assigned to work on a project together, a vio reimagg of Romeo and Juliet. While the fal 20 mut veer to melodrama, overall this is the bt of the recent spate of Atralian gay teen dramas, and the neart thg to an Antipoan Betiful Thg.

Gayby Baby (2015)Over three years the makg, Maya Newell’s sensive and often very funny documentary follows four gay upl wh children, and the everyday challeng they face, some of which have nothg to do wh their sexualy. Matt’s birth mother is the member of a homophobic church, and he qutns her beliefs at every opportuny, while Graham, an adopted 11-year-old who n’t read, fac new challeng when his dads move to Fiji wh him and enurage him to keep their sexualy a secret owg to s nservative society. It’s staggerg that homosexual acts between men were only ma legal throughout Atralia 1994, the same year The Adventur Of Priscilla, Queen Of the Dert explod joyfully to cemas the world over.

WHIRLWD GAY ROMANCE 'OF AN AGE' HAS A TLY MOVG TRAILER

Wh such a hateful swamp of nservative legislators, was left to the movie dtry to fight for equal rights love, marriage and child ctody law, hence why, nearly all of the movi here, the gay relatnship is a ‘problem’ for wir society and the participants endure abe, vlence or hate. Bizarrely, the film’s trailer seems to take a stand agast homosexualy, the narrator proclaimg that Tony is tryg “to pe om tangled, unnatural passns” and that “his relatnship is acceptable this age when moral standards are nfed”. It’s nontg to thk of how Atralia fell love wh a tr of outrageo drag queens prancg their glor way across the outback, parts of the untry that had the world’s tought penalti for gay sex.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

One Tassie polician om the time, Robert Archer, even lled for homosexuals to be “tracked down and wiped out” by police. One of the most explic Asie films to ga a mastream release, this sexual melodrama starrg Alex Dimrias as Ari, a gay Greek Atralian teenager Melbourne, pulled no punch when me to nudy, vlence and culture clash. An spirg do about the 2006 World Cup of Gay Rugby fal between the San Francis Fog and the Sydney Convicts, narrated by former NRL great Ian Roberts, one of the few Asie field sportsmen to have e out.

The tournament is lled The Bgham Cup after Mark Bgham, a gay gby player who died a hero after helpg to storm the ckp of Uned 93 on 9/11, preventg the plane om beg a terrorists’ weapon. A gay Greek Atralian photographer (Ewen Llie) journeys to Europe to stter his dad’s ash, but unvers a sister fay curse which leads him to the seedit backwaters Greece, Paris and Budapt. There have been plenty of high school g-out films, but none as raw or emotnally-charged as this (very) low-budget ’90s tale of two awkward teenagers clumsily workg out their feelgs for each other and pg wh their (very) dysfunctnal fai and latent homophobia.

Viewg today durg another viral panmic brgs home how cel some policians at the time were for blamg the homosexual muny for the so-lled ‘gay plague’. It follows the te story of Gerrard Conley (Lus Hedg), who was forced by his parents to enrol a gay nversn urse n by a sadistic therapist (Edgerton). In the tradn of an earlier gay die movie, Weekend, which unfold over the urse of jt a uple of days, this new picture prov that enomy n be a virtue.

TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

Kolya remas more fixated on their day together than Adam, who has tablished a new life Canada, where gay marriage was legal several years before the laws changed the U. Gay-themed films om Down Unr are notable rari but ually end up beg classics: Thk Priscilla, Queen of the Dert, All About E, or Head On. But grty, gay g-of-age dramas om the Great Southern Land are somethg to behold and worth puttg your viewg que.

Jog siarly-themed movi like ‘Head On’ and ‘Holdg the Man’, Stolevski’s sophomore feature is sted to bee a classic of Atralian queer cema.