‘Of An Age’ Movie: A Sexy, Messy Look At Gay Man’s First Love

It takes lower than 24 hours for 2 younger males to expertise a wildly intimate, life-changing connection in Goran Stolevski’s new queer drama, “Of an Age.”

Whether such a whirlwind romance will be sustained, after all, is debatable. Still, Stolevski hopes audiences will come away from his movie feeling grateful for the “sexy, beautiful, transporting” moments in their very own lives, irrespective of how fleeting they might be.

“If you ran into someone else who understood this part of you [as a young LGBTQ person], the intensity of that connection had an electricity, a poignancy and a sexiness to it that, I think, is specific to the queer experience,” the Macedonian-born, Australian-raised screenwriter and director instructed HuffPost. “I wanted to dwell on that without making it unrealistic or inauthentic in any way.”

In theaters Friday, “Of an Age” follows Kol (performed by Elias Anton), a 17-year-old Serbian immigrant and up to date highschool grad dwelling in Melbourne, Australia, circa 1999. The movie opens as he’s coping with an surprising disaster on the morning he’s set to participate in a ballroom dance competitors together with his greatest good friend, Ebony (Hattie Hook).

Watch the trailer for “Of an Age” under.

With his contest look drawing close to, Kol reluctantly reaches out to Ebony’s brazenly homosexual brother, Adam (Thom Green), for help. Though Kol identifies as straight, he can’t assist however really feel uneasy within the confident Adam’s presence, particularly after his new pal peels off his shirt to chill himself off on a balmy summer time day.

By night, Kol and Adam are sharing a steamy embrace within the again seat of a automotive. After their night time of frenzied ardour, the pair go their separate methods, solely to reconnect as grown males a few decade later following a shocking, if relatable, sequence of occasions.

As a wistful tackle a younger queer particular person’s sexual awakening, “Of an Age” has already been in comparison with 2017’s “Call Me by Your Name.” Stolevski, nevertheless, cites 1995’s “Before Sunrise,” which starred Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, as his predominant cinematic inspiration.

And although he additionally attracts closely from his personal post-adolescent experiences, the filmmaker confused that his film is meant as an “emotional autobiography” versus a literal one.

“I’m not that interested in my teenage years,” he said. “But I wanted to capture the loneliness I had as a gay kid in the 1990s, before technology made it easier to connect with people.”

He went on to note, “The rush of romance is one thing, but I was looking at it from the perspective of someone older with a different life experience. What you think love is when you’re younger is sweet, but it can also lead to a lot of trouble later on. I wanted to investigate it in that way without minimizing the rush.”

Stolevski also had ample praise for both Anton and Green, and believes those who value textured performances over the presence of A-list stars will find themselves pleasantly surprised.

“With Anton especially, it was just recognizing a kid with a capacity to convey pain in a certain way,” he said. “He had life experience in his eyes that had parallels to my own. He doesn’t think about being vulnerable or unguarded, it just comes out of him.” As for Green: “Like Fred Astaire, he can make a hat rack feel alive.”

Stolevski won’t have much creative downtime after “Of an Age” opens this week. On Monday, Deadline reported that his next film, “Housekeeping for Beginners,” had been picked up for international distribution. The movie takes place in the present day and follows Dita (Anamaria Marinca), a queer woman who runs a safe house for young LGBTQ people just outside of Skopje, Macedonia.

“It’s about what makes a family and how conventional things aren’t always the best,” Stolevski said. “I’m not sure it ever is going to be just easy for queer people in the world, or if it is, it’s so far away from those of us living in this time and place. [But] I make movies hoping people 50 years from now will still watch them. I love that we can put aside demographics and connect that way.”