Wild Tigers I Have Known

Cudos to Archer, Stumpf, cast and crew! I saw this film at Sundance '06, and it was a very powerful experience. After leaving the theater, the movie stayed in my head for days in a way that most of the other films I saw at the festival didn't. This is a very beautiful, sensitive and intelligent film that fills a gap desperately in need of filling. From the opening shot until the end, this film has real style - style adeptly tempered to serve the film's meaning. The amazing audiotrack and moody cinematography juxtapose marvelously together into that haunting feeling that everyone can relate to - that terrible obsession that dominates everyone's youth experience: the Crush. But what made this film so memorable is the way in which that crush is conveyed. The film succeeds to frankly and respectfully navigate the subject of teen sexuality without ever feeling obscene. The movie comes off not so much "sexy" as it is simply beautiful, intimate and scary. The director lets each scene unfold slowly; the shots are methodical, precise and poignant; the film is lovely with an undercurrent of dread. Logan (played by the eminently watchable Malcolm Stumpf) to his credit never seems to be acting, but rather the primary characters are allowed to simply exist naturally on screen, allowing the story, cinematography and soundtrack convey the message. There are no monologues, no exaggerated displays of emotion or angst - except for one positively soaring performance by Fairuza Balk playing Logan's self-absorbed mother. There is teen drama without melodrama. Logan's just a normal small quiet boy thrust into adolescence, outcast, uncool and powerless, searching for a personal identity that will enable him to satisfy the feelings he cannot admit to having.

The heartbreak and trauma we all experience during our awkward youth stays with us and defines our lives forever. Being a gay adolescent is even more confusing. There are no role models to look up to. No compass to guide. No gay professional athletes in sports, no gay marquee actors on the silver screen, no gay politicians, no gay teachers. The majority of "queer cinema" yields only stereotypes and caricatures. The violence this lack of role models imposes upon the self image of gay teens is an abominable disgrace that future enlightened generations will look back upon in shame. This is the conflict that Logan must endure. And this is perhaps what writer-director Cam Archer is looking to rectify. In a world fixated on the fetish of youth, the young are exploited and sold empty style by a media machine that doesn't care about substance. Perhaps one day when movies like this wonderful film are shown in the multiplexes of mid-America as the normal faire de jour (and that day will most likely never come), film historians will look back to Wild Tigers as a seminal piece that had the courage to openly, realistically and artfully look at love as it is. Until that day, I will proudly display my ticket stub on my wall next to my autographed poster (thanks guys) and proclaim, "I was there when it all happened. I saw a film that had the guts to matter."

Any of us who had to deal with the awkwardness of early adolescence in Middle School will certainly be able to at least appreciate this film. Anyone who is/was gay & dealing with the same angst will be able to strongly relate to the central protagonist. This is a quiet,slow moving film that seems to channel the kindred spirits of Gus Van Sant (who, by some chance is one of the executive producers of the film),Kenneth Anger (mostly known for his experimental films with a gay theme back in the 1960's),and Derek Jarman (another openly gay film maker that we sadly lost some years back from AIDS),who like the two former,had a strong gay theme running through his films (there was almost always full frontal male nudity in his films),and was no stranger to experimenting with film (his final film 'Blue' was his most boldly experimental film that was ballyhooed by critics & audiences,resulting in it's distributor pulling out). 'Tigers' seems to be a first film for it's writer/director, as a certain level of self indulgence is obvious. Wild Tigers I Have Known would probably be a contender for a film festival that is targeted at a (mostly)gay audience, although one doesn't have to be gay to appreciate it.

Instead of making a fascinating film about the development of a "crush" in adolescence, the filmmaker has managed to create a hollow story that goes nowhere, develops none of the characters, and is apparently attempting to be poetic and arty about the subject of sex involving a boy's obsessive love for a fellow classmate.

The dullness begins with the opening credits which are so blurry that you're left wondering just what it is we're supposed to be observing. Unfortunately, that feeling never lets up even as the slim story moves forward, never letting us see or feel what the main characters are thinking or even doing. Instead, we get a series of close-ups, dull conversations, and it becomes painfully obvious that the abstract subtleties will continue in the same vein throughout without ever giving any real glimpse into the childhood fantasies gnawing at the central character. The attempt is made but it fails to involve the viewer.

None of the performances are worth commenting on--not the mother (whom we never understand or get to know), nor the boy playing the maladjusted youth. Only PATRICK WHITE shows some semblance of understanding his role as the handsome, open minded youth who doesn't mind being the target of infatuation and is open to an approach by the most unpopular kid in class. He registers the correct mixture of surprise and rejection in the cave sequence where he has been led to believe that a girl wants a sexual liaison with him. Other than his one note performance, all the others are even less impressive. The doting mother is a character that is never fleshed out by the script or the performer.

The self-conscious artistry of the whole work is wasted because there is no real story, nor is there a satisfying ending.

Summing up: A total waste of time on a subject that should be explored in a more serious, detailed and sensitive light by a good independent filmmaker.

I just watched this movie recently, and at first (while I was watching it ) I got angry and said to myself, "I can't believe I wasted my money on this". I was getting very annoyed about that. But I figured, if I had already spent my money I might as well finish it. Boy, am I glad I did. After I finished watching this movie- I realized I couldn't get it out of my head. It made me feel like going out an taking photographs. I guess it inspired something creative in me. It really does have that dream like quality but not in a good way, more like in that ugly way you feel in childhood. This movie was really good at making me feel that. I remember feeling that isolation, awkwardness. It just hit it right in the mark, the feelings it evokes. FOr anyone who has ever felt depressed, confused, ostracized during childhood---well, this movie is the closest that I have seen at really touching on those emotions, just the overall feel. I would say this movie is about a feeling. It evokes a feeling in you that you recognize all too well. And it makes you feel grateful that those childhood years are finally over. So overall, yes, I did really enjoy this movie. It's funny because I rented three movies,, and I was sure I was going to love the other two,, this one I had no idea because I had never even heard about it before--I just saw the title and it caught my eyes,,but it turns out I enjoyed this one more than the others.

My fear in seeing this movie is that it would evoke a feeling of exploitation of a child and make for a very uncomfortable viewing, or a similar feeling of sickness I felt while watching Mysterious Skin, a painful film to watch yet an excellent film. However, I was surprised, this is a visual wonder into the mind of an outcast and his sexual awakening. In fact I found myself relating and remembering my awkwardness towards sex at that age and the gray emotions of trying to understand what I was feeling, emotions and confusion not limited to sexual preference or even gender, just the desire for another and not knowing how to correctly move forward or interpret. The director does a brilliant job and the cinematography creates the mood with music, natural images and hallucinatory visions into this teenagers mind. The young actor, Malcom Stumpf, gives a perfect performance as the outcast, who does not mind that he is not liked by others or uncomfortable with who he is becoming, I hope to see more rewarding work from him in the future. Fairuza Balk turns in a great performance as his frustrated mother trying to relate and get through to her son. At times it feels as if she harbors resentment towards him, but she truly loves him as we see in a very real moment as they lay in the grass. This film was a pleasant surprise and I am glad that I did not pass it by as planned.