Three Months

Content

Premise: A boy finds out that his one night stand is HIV positive, and his test result comes out in three months. 'Three months' documents his daily life and emotional state of those three months. When I read the plot summary, my first thought was 'is this gonna be another tear-jerker soap opera?'. It's my personal analysis, and it may be wrong; however, LGBQ awareness movies tend to be emotional, melancholy, and grey. 'Three months' does not scream the message, but it's still strong and powerful. The movie is not preachy about HIV awareness or does not describe Caleb as a sad misunderstood teenager.

Form

This is all possible because of how director Frieder chooses to tell the story in a composed way. There are not many scenes showing emotions of characters too directly. The lines are witty and short, and they do not overdo it. Writers really keep it simple but genuine and honest. It hits harder after the movie than during the movie. Emotions linger and resonate like afterglow. Photography, colors, and editing are very modern and young. Summery pictures and pastel colors allude to Florida and youth. Sivan's acting is something. He's so sincere that Caleb feels like a real person. I'm not sure he's a skilled actor, but I could tell that Sivan is telling his story in the movie.

Overall, quite a pleasant movie and refreshing for the subject matter it covers, to a fault almost. It's nice to see a movie about HIV that isn't all doom and gloom - at the same time, the film feels weirdly low-stakes as it tends to undercut any narrative tension by always trying to downplay the seriousness. The film's central theme - waiting - isn't a very dynamic action, and so the movie just kind of plods along, from scene to scene. Some supporting characters feel underdeveloped, and so some of the dramatic moments later in the film feel unearned. As a comedy, however, it works well - no particularly outrageous scenes, just a steady stream of chuckles. The central love story is lovely, with some nice chemistry between Caleb and Estha.

Troye Sivan shines in the comedic moments of the film and seems very comfortable on screen, although he struggles just a bit with some of the story's more serious scenes. He really makes the character his own - it helps that he's pretty. All supporting performances are serviceable, Brianna Tju and Viveik Kalra play their roles well. A delightful debut by writer/director Jared Frieder!

I recommend watching it - it's nice, simple, touching, amusing, heartfelt, and we get so few queer films like it.

Sometimes charisma is everything. And Troye Sivan has that in bundles. He is just so suited for the screen, and a good actor too. A great singer for sure.

The film was very pleasant to watch. I truly enjoyed it, plus the bonus of seeing the great Ellen Burstein and Louis Gossett jr. - great cast.

I hope to see more of Troye in films, as well as music. He is such a huge talent.

Go see this movie. You will enjoy it.

Not sure what happened but it's like half a movie... like they couldn't be bothered to finish it off properly. Shame as what it does it does pretty well and the acting it top notch. Sort of doesn't know what to do with itself after solid early premise. So the experience is a fade out to black and feeling a little short changed. The drama the dialogue the storyboard lacks purpose and definition by the third act. Troy's Sivian show real premise throughout and holds what is provided together with gusto and confidence. The soundtrack is also classy lofi and non pretentious. I get that the movie probably didn't want to get to gritty, too dramatic, too generic or predictable but it ends up feeling too light weight for me by the end.

I like the attitude and people living in a non discriminated environment. Problems not change how we live but attitude does. I love the spirit of this movie and we are all equal, treasure the time when you are young.