Product Description

And so begins the story of Midget Hollows - teenager, surfer, partier , pervert. Midget and his friends live the quintessential surf existence: by consuming as much weed and booze as they can find. Beneath the surface of this hedonistic lifestyle, Midget starts to feel the claustrophobia of small town life. Cass, the older brother of Midget's best friend, arrives back in town. Midget is instantly attracted to his confidence, his openness about his homosexuality, and his graceful surfing skills. Midget and Cass embark on a passionate affair, but it isn't long before the relationship feels the strains of secrecy. Midget finds that his sexuality and the culture he inhabits might not be so compatible. A "gay surf movie", a "coming of age" story, or a punk's view of teenage sexuality, Tan Lines is a wild ride of passion, love, laughs, sex and drugs set against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27797 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-07-09
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dolby, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Synopsis
Follows the trials and tribulations of a young man struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality and the impact it will have on his family and small town community.

Review
"This is what Home & Away should be about" --BENT Magazine

Review
"Cheeky sarcasm and sweaty sex, plus terrific characters played by a fit young cast - what's not to love" --Shadowsonthewall.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Expect the unexpected...
Tan Lines is billed as a gay coming-of-age surfer film. Like me, you would probably expect plenty of sun-drenched beaches, cute surfing buddies, lingering hands massaging sun tan lotion into bronzed bodies. Perhaps if this had been a Hollywood film, it might have been. As an independent film, set in Australia, it is anything but.

The basic plot is that our (magnetic) lead, Midget, is a 16 year old surfer, who (inexplicably) sleeps in the same bed as his wastrel mother, and has never left his home town. His best friend's gay older brother, Cass, returns from a four year absence, and Midget is instantly drawn to him. Some elements of the typical coming of age movie are present (e.g. the initial hesitant steps, the obstacle of the apparently small-minded/homophobic best friends, several sex scenes with rear nudity only) - but this is largely where the similarity ends.

Filmed in quasi-documentary style (sense of viewer detachment from the characters / slow-moving in parts / lots of close up camera angles) there is no palpable beginning-middle-end to the film. Questions are left unanswered, motivations remain unclear, and conclusions are not reached. Indeed, this may well be one intention behind the film: an attempt to replicate the lives of small town friends who have little prospect of achieving anything of significance with their lives. Added to this, are the innumerable oddities that will surprise the viewer with their sheer unexpectedness - the bizarre 'job' that Midget has to earn money, the old, grey-haired friends who seem to be playing strip-bowls in the middle of the night, and so on.

Those looking for a tender love story full of cute surfer-guys will be disappointed. In fact, Midget is the only one of the cast who is remotely attractive. However, he does steal the film, with his sheer on-screen presence and hormonal magnetism, which more than makes up the aesthetic quotient. Ultimately this indie film is directed more towards small-town life than towards 'coming of age', and consequently there is no rollercoaster ride of emotions (or in fact any real attempt to connect with the viewer on an emotional level). If I were rating it as a gay coming of age movie, it would probably receive 2 stars. But as an interesting, insightful work into contemporary small-town youth, it probably deserves the awarded 4 stars for originality.

what a pile of pants
I should have taken notice of the first reviewer.This "film" is absolute
rubbish from beginning to end.Acting is non existent,plot nowhere to be seen
even the sun seems to have forsaken Aussie land.Gay interest movie ? dont make me laugh please. Was it made by some A level equivalent students that had been given a camera and a note book to write down the script as they went along?...give it a miss please!

OMG
this film was absolutely awful and i am astounded that i managed to even give it a rating! the sotry line was awful and nothing really happened. Whether it was meant to reflect the reality of gay life is not the point because it was absolutely boring and pointless. The inclusion of the main gay character having oral sex with a female was extremely weird and at times no needed. I urge you don't watch this film!