We are now just a few days away from the start of the 30th Annual Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. This is the longest running film festival in Austin and one of the largest LGBT film fests in the US. This year will run from Thursday Sept 7th through the 10th and there’s still badges and memberships available HERE. This year’s fest has the best film line-up I have ever seen at aGLIFF; check out the full listing in our earlier article HERE.
As we lead up to the fest I’m going to post a series of previews for films to be sure and check out. Don’t forget to get your badge and I’ll see you there.
Something Like Summer – Sunday, September 10 at 3:30 p.m.
Based on the first book of the series of popular young adult novels, Something Like Summer follows the tumultuous love life of the young gay man Benjamin Bentley. Starting when he’s in high school, he meets the handsome but deeply closeted Tim. Their brief love affair ends badly but several years later, when Ben is in a stable relationship with a flight attendant named Jace, Tim comes back around for another try at Ben’s love.
If you only see one gay romance triangle based on a YA novel (and filled with a couple of musical numbers) this year, make sure it’s Something Like Summer. Summer stays true to its young adult roots; the characters points of view embody that youthful drama. Likewise, the film might come off as a little superficial, soap operatic, and immature to more adult audiences but younger people will dig it. The film also is surprisingly risqué for the teenage set but stays on just this side of the appropriateness line.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.