White Frog

This independent production is a real sleeper and should be required viewing for young gay teens. Coming out is a tricky thing and every single individual LGBT person has a different family dynamic to deal with.

In this case Harry Shrum feels he can't do it at least until he's out of the house and on his own away from strict Christian parents Joan Chen and B.D. Wong. Shrum feels he also must stay to take care of his younger brother Booboo Stewart who has Asperger's Syndrome and doesn't really socialize well.

But Shrum is killed by a hit and run driver early on in the film and the rest of the film is how his family and friends deal with his passing. The focus is on Stewart who looked up to his big brother as his protector in this world. Everyone learns about Shrum's sexual orientation after his demise and the family is hit hard.

Especially Stewart who as an Asperger's individual commits things to heart and it's hard for him to unlearn what he's been taught to think about homosexuality. Harder still to learn that Shrum's lover was his alleged heterosexual womanizer Gregg Sulkin.

In the old days what Sulkin did with peers of the female gender was use them as 'beards'. That was an expression for women who hung out with closeted gay men so no one would suspect. Sulkin also comes out and his family dynamic is quite different from Shrum's and Stewart's.

Watching this with Disney actors Stewart and Sulkin I can just see the American Family Association having yet another conniption. But both deliver fine performances.

Recommended highly for gay teen audiences.

A different take on the Autistic kid coming-of-age story. It certainly is set-up a bit differently and it goes into unusual directions, and most of the actors did really good, but I feel that the story was a bit betrayed towards its conclusion with the parents' overblown reaction and even Nick's and then his sudden courage to face a big audience and his parents' sudden change of heart afterwards. It's all too cliche Hollywood tie-in ending and even the dialogue sounds fake and message-oriented. Everybody makes up and embraces the new revelations. But despite all that I'm gonna rate it higher because I do believe it's an underseen hidden gem.

"White Frog" really surprised me as I watched it. Why? Well, because the movie had a fairly nice story, but what really impressed me was the acting in the movie.

The story is about a young boy named Nick, who has Asperger's syndrome, whose older brother dies in a tragic accident. Not fitting into the world around him, Nick struggles to get closer to the world that his older brother lived in.

There are some really nice moments to the movie, which were nicely portrayed and executed on the screen. But the great performances from the actors and actresses really helped bring this movie to life.

I can't really claim to be familiar with the acting talent of Booboo Stewart, but he really carried this movie so nicely. But it wasn't him alone, everyone in the movie were doing great jobs. And it was also particularly nice to see Joan Chen in a movie such as this.

If you enjoy drama movies that are carried by a proper and solid story, then you definitely should check out "White Frog". And this movie easily earns a 7 out of 10 stars rating from me, no doubt about it.

Nick Yung has a brother whom he adores, and he has Aspbergers. He comes from a seemingly perfect American/Oriental family, but perfection's not all it's cracked up to be.

On the death of his brother, life starts to unravel and he slowly uncovers the truth that lies just beneath the perfect veneer of his life.

Nick conquers his differences and goes on a journey to discover that not only do people keep secrets, but that uncovering those secrets can set you free and make you whole.

The acting in this film is terrific, especially from the young man who played Nick so well. It's a lovely little film that made me smile and cry in all the right places.

Well worth a viewing.

6.9 of 10. Classic indies have solid, sometimes great, stories that are carried out with a very low budget, but with a couple half-stars to keep it from complete obscurity and extended periods with actors who can't handle their characters. In this case, it's as if it was filmed, directed, and acted by an after-school special crew. Fortunately, there's a great story to integrate it all and seem natural.

Despite a rough, choppy start with abbreviated plot development, the film is highly watchable by half-way through, mixing humor and drama well. Only a few inconsistent performances and story elements to keep it from keeping you totally immersed.