93min/Rated R
Prose (Story): Two good-looking, athletic, very popular high school boys - friends since childhood - find their lives and friendship changed forever one night when too much alcohol lets inhibitions slide into unfamiliar territory.
Don's (Review): Writer/directr Keith Behrman takes a very well-known and overused trope - a pair of teenage boys, long-term friends, who finally give in to years of suppressed temptation one drunken night in the dark - and gives it a fresh spin on a couple of levels that elevate what might otherwise have been the same old story. Josh Wiggins stars as Franky Winter, a popular teen who's already seen his share of drama when his father recently left him and his mother after falling in love with another man and coming out. Franky's mother Carly (Maria Bello), the divorce still too fresh, is racked with anger and pain over what she feels like an entire marriage that was a lie, while Franky just feels like he doesn't know his father (Kyle McLachlan) anymore - and isn't sure he wants to do. It's something that goes undiscussed with Franky's best friend since childhood, Ballas Kohl (Darren Mann, who has amazing screen presence), even though the two boys' parents had all been friends for years; Ballas has his own at-home issues via his younger sister Tash (Taylor Hickson, in the film's breakout performance), who has become drawn and sullen - even self-destructive - having gone back to school after a traumatic incident left both her mind and reputation damaged. Franky and Ballas pursue girls, liquor, and high-rankings on the school's swim team ... until a little too much alcohol one night leads to some late fumbling in the dark - and soon a confused Franky is "outed" to his girlfriend and the school, causing a chain reaction of events that grow increasingly tense as the reaction to Franky's supposed "gayness" get ugly. I have to admit I was completely distracted, for like the first half of the film, by what was (to me) Josh Wiggins's startling similarity, in looks, to Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry. It made it difficult for me to remember that Franky's character was supposed to be straight, with a girlfriend, and while totally my fault it sort of kept me from sinking into the story completely for the longest. That said, one of the ways in which Behrman changed things up here, in his script, I hesitate to mention because it's a bit of a spoiler, but suffice to say that all hearts go out to Franky when he is "outed" ... even though he, let's just say, wasn't the one who deserved to be. As Franky finds himself shut more and more out of not just Ballas's life but also the swim team and even by his peers at school, he finds himself hanging out with Ballas's sister Tash, the two building a friendship that threatens Ballas's need to eradicate Franky from his life even more. Things get more and more tense, escalating, and here the film travels into more well-worn territory as far as what abuses and prejudice the newly-outed boy - who doesn't feel he's gay, nor wants to be (aye, there's the rub) - has to endure, while even trying to figure things out himself. The entire cast is great, Wiggins conveying Franky's pain yet also anger for being wronged by someone he thought he could trust - Darren Mann brilliant as a quiet pot about to boil over at all times, he's so unaccepting of it all (but especially of himself) - and Taylor Hickson as the broken Tash, trying to find where she belongs again, when she's not sure she even belongs at all, anymore. Well-done; not quite as emotional a viewing experience as I had thought it'd be, but still plenty of heart ... and wow do the three young leads in it - along with the couple out-of-the-box touches in Berhman's script - make it worth a watch. 3.5/5 stars
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