Fnn O'Shea and Lola Petticrew play a pair of closeted gay teens who pretend to date each other 'Datg Amber,' a edy-drama om Irish wrer-director David Freyne.
Contents:
- INSDIE AMBER LIU'S DATG STAT: GAY & GENR TALKS
- IS AMBER LIU GAY? THE SGER OPENS UP HER PAST
- DATING AMBER: A MATCH MA IN GAY HEAVEN
- DATG AMBER REVIEW – GAY TEENAGERS' PRETEND LOVE FAILS TO BLOSSOM
INSDIE AMBER LIU'S DATG STAT: GAY & GENR TALKS
Gay, straight, bi, whatever, don’t matter. Wh the first openly gay idols like Holland to MRSHLL, more stars are fally challengg the nservative K-pop scene by publicly embracg their te inti and steppg up as LGBT role mols Published: 9:00am, 6 Jul, 2020 Updated: 9:00am, 6 Jul, 2020 Ren, G-Dragon and Holland are three K-pop stars willg to let their te lours she.
And one of the thgs she is open and hont about is her genr and don’t intify as gay or an LGBTIQ muny member.
IS AMBER LIU GAY? THE SGER OPENS UP HER PAST
One of the qutns that fans want to know is this: is Amber Liu gay? But due to her unnventnal appearance, many viewers have wonred if the sger was gay or lbian. It’s important to note that South Korea is still a relatively nservative untry and not many K-pop idols are openly gay.
No, Amber Liu is not gay. Wrten and directed by David Freyne, the Irish edy follows Eddie (Fnn O’Shea), a closeted gay teen trag for a t exam to jo the army and follow his father’s footsteps.
After homophobic tntg om his small town classmat leads to a disastro attempt at provg his heterosexualy, Eddie is approached by Amber (Lola Petticrew), a fellow closeted outst who is also tired of beg tormented at school. But even she’s not ready to be out yet (although unmentned, the film’s mid-’90s settg means Ireland had only jt officially crimalized beg gay) and Eddie’s iendship blossoms as the two start fake datg orr to throw off their bulli.
DATING AMBER: A MATCH MA IN GAY HEAVEN
She said, “If every gay man that I know personally Hollywood me out tomorrow, then this would be a nonissue a month.
Admtedly, might seem strange to make nnectns between the livg ad and the homosexual experience, but also suggts that Freyne has an tertg way of perceivg the world we live , and nsirg ’s a time where the very ncept of isolatn has bee que a leral burn for all, that should be more than enough reason to prove his voice serv to be of the ClosetLets face , there’s no worse place to be than high school when g to terms wh your sexualy. And now, wh the Smartphone revolutn allowg those shameful moments to be publicised across the globe wh the tap of a fger, that awkward chapter our liv still prov to be jt as thls as ever was, remdg that somehow everythg and nothg has changed sce the 90’s and the only logil way to survive , is to blend plan of attack seems to be workg for Eddie (Fnn O’Shea), a gay teenager growg up small-town Ireland whose recent attempts at flyg unr-the-radar have been jt enough to keep schoolyard spicns at bay. Grapplg wh the nial that’s kept him a fortable prisoner for too long, Eddie agre to the ia to further exercise his false inty, but soon gets tangled the sign of their master plan and the excg eedom of livg life outsi the closet starts to take Samuel Goldwyn FilmsWhile this kd of nundm would ually support somethg the realms of tradnal satire, every moment of glee that Eddie and Amber experience is almost always pated wh a sha of latent anxiety, and we slowly beg to learn that this is a story that uld only be told through the ey of someone who’s alt wh the misfortun of gay adolcence firsthand.
Between nvcg the parents of their newfound puppy love or ristg the urge to ‘shift’ at a gay bar after one too many swigs om a whisky bottle, the youngsters start to realise that there’s still plenty of hoops to jump through, but ’s precisely those suatns that tapult them to some much-need moments of clary and ultimately strengthen the ti of their is of the EssenceIf a show like Rupl’s Drag Race n manage to hold the same viewer ratgs as a live bate between Tmp and Bin, would be easy to assume that we’re livg very different tim pared to those, say, twenty years ago – which is precisely one of the thgs that mak Datg Amber standout.
DATG AMBER REVIEW – GAY TEENAGERS' PRETEND LOVE FAILS TO BLOSSOM
This is a posive shift, no doubt, but as filmmakers start to tackle stori outsi the realms of ‘g out’, there’s also a danger fettg about the hard work took to get this Samuel Goldwyn FilmsInspired by Freyne’s own experience growg up as a gay teenager, we unrstand the emotnal foundatns of his story as those stggl om the past are brought to the surface.
The director never shi away om explorg the heteronormative behavur rponsible for g such damagg gre of sexual reprsn at the time and even go outsi the realms of homosexualy to show . On the other hand, ’s easier for Amber to take ntrol of the future she wants for herself, bee her mother’s parentg skills are slightly subdued om the lgerg grief of losg her Samuel Goldwyn FilmsBee the primary narrative is spl between Eddie and Amber, reveals the var obstacl that both homosexual mal and femal were faced wh and emphasis how much those old-fashned expectatns of one’s genr have sce been bunked today’s social climate.