EXPLOSIVE AND HARD MASTERY OF RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY... WITH TOUGH AND STRONG LOVE INCLUDED.
The poster fooled me. I thought it was just another ordinary film, from any director, from any country... but what a pleasant surprise I got!
This is an Australian film that shows us the daily life of a 17-year-old boy from an immigrant family living in Sydney, where he has his best friend. The same one he's secretly in love with. Okay. Anyone would say this is something super recycled in independent cinema worldwide, and I agree. But despite that, the way this overused subject was handled is what made the difference.
Larry Clark, are you there? Did you know that the Australian director of this film, Craig Borenham, paid tribute to you here? And what a tremendous tribute!
When I saw the film, I never doubted its foundation: the brutal and raw work of controversial American director Larry Clark. It's as if his entire body of work were summed up in this film. Of course, we have a free version of his work; the sordid, uncensored social explicitness of which he's so often accused, but here it was interpreted with respect and a unique and unrepeatable cadence.
The performances were sublime! Especially that of its protagonist: Miles Szanto. It was spectacular how he shaped a 17-year-old boy, marginalized by the society around him, crippled by so much romantic misunderstanding, who wanders the city lost, without light or determination, addicted to the physical, chemical, sexual, and romantic drug that, of all his addictions, is the chemical one he handles best. Something atypical that was achieved very well in this film.
I can already imagine that casting: finding someone to portray those characteristics must have been a titanic task. It's very similar to what the great Gus Van Sant did with River Phoenix in his operatic masterpiece My Own Private Idaho (USA, 1993), where the director drew inspiration for the character of Phoenix from Henry IV. This fact seemed obvious to me.
Australia hides hidden gems, such as the more contemporary Sunflowers (2023) and this film: Teenage Kicks. This proves that Australia has a lot to tell the world, but the experimental (bordering on arthouse) cinema that the film's director created isn't for everyone. Uncomfortable, visceral, raw (sometimes even indigestible) cinema is complex to make, but above all, to understand. And even more so if filmmakers are inspired by the work of unusual directors like Clark. This type of cinema, which avoids stereotypes and clichés so common today, is exotic, but worth seeing. Because it shows reality as it is. Without embellishments or sugarcoating (the film's ending won't be pleasant for many), this film, unlike the work being honored here, tells us that, despite all the dark and bitter circumstances, there is hope. The same hope that could be seen in another fantasy film, the German-Austrian film Die Mitte der Welt (2016; interestingly, the poster is similar to that of this film), and that there will always be good.
The title of my review is taken from the song "Antídoto y Veneno" by Eddie Santiago.
