Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18040 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-09-26
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Synopsis
The tale of a high school student in the small town of Sandusky, Ohio circa 1984 (a year when 80's pop-culture was in it's prime) who comes to terms with his homosexuality much to the astonishment of his long-time girlfriend. EDGE OF SEVENTEEN presents a sincere look at managing personal relationships as a gay teenager. Winner of the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Feature, Best Actor (Stafford), and Best Screenplay at the 1998 L.A. Outfest, and the Audience Best Feature Award at the 1998 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

Customer Reviews

Remarkably good.
Not really into coming-out movies or gay flicks - but the story of a young guy coming out in the early 1980s is so close to being my own story that I decided to give this film a go.

The budget for the movie clearly wasn't vast, but the cast and crew do a very convincing job of transporting the viewer back to the start of The Decade That Taste Forgot. The soundtrack, clothing (my god, to think what was in my own wardrobe back then. Oh the horror!), the set dressing - all spot on.

Chris Stafford as Eric is remarkably good, the character adapting according to his surroundings (the nice but painfully ordinary family home, the slightly OTT gay bar crowd) so effectively this could almost be a documentary. The supporting cast, particularly Stephanie McVey as Eric's mother, do a great job, never overwhelming Stafford's understated yet involving performance.

The 'wooden acting' accusation made in a few reviews is likely to be aimed at Anderson Gabrych, who plays Eric's initial love interest. Compared to Stafford's nuanced performance, Gabrych appears ill at ease, clumsy and so two-dimensional that he would have trouble out-acting a sheet of plywood. Mercifully, Gabrych occupies no more than 15 mins of screen time in total - tune him out by concentrating on Stafford's efforts in their shared scenes.

Sad to report, Chris Stafford left the acting profession not long after the film. He has now graduated as a lawyer.

This is that rarest of things: a good gay movie. Well acted, tightly written, evocative of its era and for those of us who were there and can rememebr it, it's like a trip back two decades. Go on, buy the thing!

Touching coming of age drama
I took a bit of a chance on this one, and was pleasantly surprised. From a fairly straightforward plot (teenage boy coming to terms with his sexuality), Chris Stafford as Eric is a very touching and sensitive lead, while the supporting cast do an able job of "supporting", with the strongest praise undoubtedly going to Lea DeLaria as Uber-Dyke Angie, "easing the passage" as it were(!) of Eric in his journey into finding himself. The 80's soundtrack and appalling fashions of the eighties give this film a real period and nostalgic feel.

One I would definitely recommend
This is a film that I would recommend to everyone that wants to see a romance with a twist. Though I didn't grow up on the eighties, being a mere fetus back then, I could understand and empathise with Eric and what he was going through. I loved this film and I thought that it captured young love beautifully and the difficulty (which I can only imagine) of being gay in the community of the eighties. This film is a must see if you are doing something like culture studies or something like that. It's great to watch and funny to see what people wore back then. If you remember that era, then you will cringe to think that you might have been wearing the sort of clothes that they wore in the film, or you might remember this with fondnes. Either way it's a nostalgic view at an era that has passed, but coming round again. Really great and fantastic to watch