Summer Storm (2004)

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I'm sure I wouldn't give this movie all them stars if I saw it today. But I know exactly why I did back then.I don't remember what age I was exactly. What I do remember is the loneliness of the closet. I remember changing channel as my older brother went into the living room for a minute. I remember living in shame. I remember quivering as I watched Tobi struggling and finally come out. I think I cried.I'm not sure it was the first gay-themed movie I watched but it definitely wasn't the only one that had this tremendous effect on me ( The two first ones that pop into my head are Brokeback Mountain & Shelter, bot leaving me weeping a while after the end). I could go on with movies that got me feeling so sad yet so full of hope as I was. Or about the ones that I saw or re-watched more recently - as I continue to grow older and more confident with my gayness - that got me thinking and feeling joyful all the while being less normative than a whole of coming-out/coming-of-age gay/bi-themed movies. Oh; that could be a good movie list "Non-normative movies and shows for sad gay kids"! I'll get to it soon.

In the film world, where financing and audience size are often key factors, it is rather tricky to create something on the topic of coming out as gay - particularly with youngsters involved and erotic scenes/undertones. All this requires a piety balance, and, in my opinion, the director/co-writer Marco Kreuzpaintner and his colleague have succeeded in this. Solid script, development of characters, versatile scenes, and skillful performances starting from Robert Stadlober as Tobi have made Sommersturm smooth to follow, hopefully also for them who dislike gays or feel pity for the girls unable to get cute boys as they are (being) taken by other boys... Well, this Queerschlag gay youth rowing team seemed slightly odd to be, but apparently it was a way to bring this gay topic into light and contribute to funny moments in the film; as implicated above, for the boy-girl relations you feel sorry.All in all, a brave yet decent film, without slipping into unnecessary sensation or preaching. Definitely not for conservatives or religious persons.

There have been many very positive adjectives used to described this film, and truly, I cannot disagree with any of them -- except words like "moving." I never FELT much, except for the feeling that I was sitting in school and being lectured to by a movie rather than a real live instructor. For me it was something of a "docu-drama" that put me in the position of a somewhat detached observer of an academic exercise illustrating -- with little or no excitement, the problems surrounding growing up gay.I watch movies hoping to get emotionally involved in an interesting story. I could not get to that point with this movie.

This German film was very well done. Kudos to it's young Director Marco Kreuzpaintner for making a film with an emotionally serious underlying message and wrapping it all up in a cute entertaining well crafted package. Summer Storm is about THE summer that champion rower Tobi (Robert Stadlober) comes to the terms with his homosexuality and the temporary upheaval that it creates for him and all those around him. The metaphor of the Summer Storm that swoops in and turns everything upside down was a smart idea. Summer Storm reminded me a lot of the French film Wild Reeds Directed by Andre Techine which is more like a Summer Hurricane but hey to each his own. For some people the experience is a storm, for others a hurricane and for some maybe even a super nova.