What does cinema mean to you? To me it means emotions and stories, told with moving images, with music and with words. And, in my opinion, for cinema to be at its greatest it needs to brave and vulnerable.
Center of My World is exactly that: brave and vulnerable. And intimate. And true.
Its is the story of Phil, a standard teenager, who is just a little gayer than the rest. But him being gay is really not an important part of the story.
He struggles with his family, with deeply hidden secrets of the past and their effects in the present, which may break his family apart. And he falls in love for the first time. That's really it.
And while watching this in the cinema some people laughed at the film. Because it shows how love is, unironically and over-the-top. It dives deep into Phil's emotions and shows us not only the center of his world, but maybe even the center of THE world (hence the original German title "The Center of the World"). And most people can not let themselves dive into these depths.
And if you want to experience this small gem of a movie, you have to make yourself vulnerable, too. Leave your irony at home, just watch this movie as you are - naked and vulnerable.
Then you may see what cinema can do, what cinema is for.
