Dating Amber

A great little movie about the very scary coming of age experience and process of finding oneself. It has everything from the awkward educational sex video at school, the inevitable crush on a teacher, as well as inappropriate hand jobs in a movie theatre. But at the heart of the story is the initially platonic relationship between two confused teenagers, that turns into a mutually supportive friendship, making sure that emotional uncertainties about sexual orientation are resolved rather than become an inhibition.

This lovely film captures just how closeted gay teenagers feel in a small town. It's bitter sweet but also beautiful. I love it.

Really loved this gentle film and a twist on a trope that is normally dominated by heterosexual narratives. Both the young actors are great with an excellent supporting cast. There's a beautiful use of a U2 song that I found surprising and definitely sprung on the tears. Would recommend.

It is about high school kids dealing with the difficulties of growing up, particularly sexuality and including being bullied at school. The novelty of this story is that a lesbian girl and a reluctant gay boy decide to hush their heckler friends by starting a relationship. They visit each others families, they show PDA at school, but deep down have an agreement that it is just for show and after graduation each will go their own way.

The story is for the most part handled very well. As has become the custom for scripts with high school characters there is a bit over-emphasis on sex and sex-related discussions. I doubt this is representative of the average Irish high school. Still much of it is done to inject humor into a story which otherwise has very serious implications.

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library, we were entertained. The Irish humor is quite different from American humor.

In a semi-autobiographical film set in 1995 Ireland, 2 high school seniors date each other (and exhibit public displays of affection) to ward off suspicions of being gay. Amber is confident, and plans to use her entrepreneurial savings to go to London and join the punk scene. Eddie is resisting identifying as gay, and has internalized his army-commander father's desire for him to follow his footsteps. While only pretending, the two actually develop a form of affection for each other. However, trips to nearby Dublin, where they find a gay scene and Amber a girlfriend, cause trouble for the duo.

Beyond the action at school, there are the dynamics of both families. By seeing this film at a digital film festival, I was able to re-watch parts to figure out certain scenes, or catch scenes that went over my head on the 1st viewing. But there are inconsistencies of note: Even if Eddie can do only one pull-up, he rides his bike everywhere, so he can't be as unfit as he is made out to be. While Amber tells Eddie of his gay mannerisms, he is nowhere near obvious in doing so. Meanwhile, at different times, Amber is either straight-curious or dick-averse. Offsetting this are other touching snippets, and amusing revelations at the family dinner table by Eddie's younger brother, about Eddie's rumored sexual activities from school gossip.

There are echoes of other teen movies, like Risky Business, Moonlight, and American Graffiti. This is a reasonable combination story of both coming out and coming of age.