By: Trevor Chartrand The notoriously quirky Jason Schwartzman (The Overnight) stars in Between the Temples as – brace yourself – an odd-ball character. Shocking, right? In all seriousness though, Nathan Silver’s offbeat film does ultimately prove to be a relatively serviceable, if tired, indie-style dramedy. To the movie’s credit, Silver explores an otherwise formulaic narrative with a character-focused vulnerability that truly enhances the material.
Craig Johnson (director/co-writer of The Skeleton Twins) returns with another sweet story about solving personal ambiguity with wonder, caution, and experience in Netflix’s Alex Strangelove. This time, the angst takes place in high school, as Johnson evolves the “teen sex comedy” sub-genre with positive (and current) messages of sexual orientation.
Beach Rats is a good coming-of-age movie from a gay perspective, but its middle portions are the most compelling. It’s bookended by familiar emotions and the finish line is the type of gut-wrenching finale audiences expect from a sombre story like this one, but writer/director Eliza Hittman takes an interesting route to get there.