Jonas

Hauntingly tragic story of young love and innocence broken.

Told from 2 time periods this sensitively told french movie tells of a night of tragedy that would forever leave a scar on our main protagonist Jonas. The director leaves it till the last few scenes for the viewer to put all the pieces together and then have us screaming for answers and resolutions that by the end credits we know are never going to come and we leave the movie, like all the characters, with a sense of hope, tinged with despair.

A powerful coming of age story with a French taste. Jonas (2018) is a TV movie that can beat at least thousands of other movies for the big screen. Its qualities such as depth, a good, mysterious story that slowly unfolds in front of your eyes, and of course our homo problems, that are waiting to be cleared off on a very long queue this time hit you straight in the heart without any superficiality. The characters are true to life and there isn't stereotyping but pure acting as it should be. The movie operates with flashbacks exploring the youth and current days of Jonas, now a troubled 33-year-old guy who's just been thrown out from his boyfriend, because of cheating. The missing segments start to make sense as the movie progress in a perfect aka "Weekend" cinematography. It will make you think about a few of your crushes most probably as it is a very intimate film. A must see!

Jonas is a clearly troubled 33-year-old gay man who drifts through life listlessly, seemingly haunted by something in his past. As the film opens he's being arrested for some sort of altercation in a gay bar. A sympathetic female cop recognizes him as a former classmate, and Jonas is drawn into memories of high school and meeting Nathan, the boy who would help him discover his sexuality and become his first love.

From there the plot skips between two parallel tracks as we follow his high school romance and watch his adult life disintegrate before his eyes. Soon we come to realize how strongly he clings to his past, until the two timelines meet head on and the event that has shaped his entire life is revealed.

This is a moving, emotionally charged drama, much higher quality than you'd ordinarily expect of a made-for-TV movie. The ending seems a bit rushed and abrupt - we'd like to spend a little more time exploring Jonas's feelings in both timelines after the big reveal and before the sweet-but-sad final scene - but this was likely due to TV time constraints, and in any event serves to demonstrate just how quickly life can take an unexpected turn. My only other complaint is that while the entire cast does an excellent job, Jonas, Nathan, and their classmates are way too old to be ninth graders. They could have easily been made two or three years older without changing a thing in the script; as is, it just looks wrong. The best bet for the English-speaking viewer is to simply assume there's a typo in the subtitles, the boys are really 17, and go from there.

It wasn't the happy, colourful film of teenage love I was lead to believe by the picture chosen to advertise it on Netflix, but it was a very interesting and rewarding story. I actually liked it, despite the complete lack of nudity.

The twinned stories surrounding the main character, Jonas are brought together brilliantly and I would have liked to have seen more of both, perhaps it could have been a two part film, because I think there was a lot more to say. Regardless of that it still worked very well and I thought it was directed tastefully and with care.

There were no stand out performances from anyone, because it's just not that kind of film. They are all exactly what the roles needed.

I did feel sorry for Jonas, nothing went right for him and I think that is something we can all relate to, as well as feel judged by.

I did miss one or two bits as I was on eBay looking for a Gameboy with Tetris!

Beautiful cinematography, admirable performances, bitter story, inspired storytelling, admirable performances. And a story about fall, secret and fight for survive. Almost a pretext for a touching portrait about ages and experiences of a young man in war with his past. It is one of films who could be defined as good or bad for the measure who you recognize parts of biography of yourself in its scenes. Because, at sin or virtue, it did not gives a specific story. Only embroidery of facts from past and consequances of present , without a clear connection. So, just a film who I love. First for great job of Felix Maritaud. Being subjectiv in profound sense.