Picture it: Normandy, 1985.

When 18-year-old David (Benjamin Voisin) rescues 16-year-old Alexis (Felix Lefebvre) from a capsized sailboat in stormy waters of the coast of France, the electricity between the boys is immediate – and not just because of the lightning in the sky. Voisin and Lefebvre have an intensely lifelike chemistry that is thoroughly sensual and almost animalistic in David’s aloof pursuit of Alexis. It’s also glaringly immature, despite the depth that Alexis feels. It’s a painfully realistic portrayal of how first true sexual attraction – perhaps love – is completely and utterly overwhelming, to the point of losing yourself to (or within) the object of your desire. It’s no coincidence that David has to literally retrieve and return Alexis’ soaked jeans to him after fishing him out of the ocean.

The contrast between what the boys bring to the relationship is stark; Alexis is nearly cherubic in his innocence and frantic desperation to be chosen, while David is extremely conformable with who he is and in going after what he wants – he’s just hot and cool, and Alexis becomes enraptured in everything having to do with him. The boys are also at different points in their lives: Alexis is handling a decision on whether to continue with school or to begin work (with plenty of input from his parents), while David has already taken over his late father’s shop with his mother. Even while they begin to form their relationship, there’s a sense that David is circling Alexis, pulling him into an orbit that he’s all too willing to fall into. After their first sexual experience together (and perhaps Alexis’ first at all) things escalate quickly; Alexis becomes completely lost within his obsessive love for David, while David enjoys his time with Alexis, but treats him as a shiny new toy that can be just as easily forgotten as it was discovered. Both boys are fully-formed and complex, and watching their building frustrations with one another come to a head is really impressive in both writing and performance.

It’s no secret that David ends up dead a little more than halfway through the movie. Alexis tells us via narration as the movie flashes back and forth between pre- and post-mortem. He’s a young writer who has a fascination with death; not exactly revolutionary, but troubling when he’s being investigated for his potential involvement in David’s death. While I think this movie does great work unearthing self-discovery through losing yourself to another person, and investigating freedom through loss, I feel that I’m obligated to point out the “Bury Your Gays” Trope happening here. (Former listeners of the podcast and readers of the blog know that this is a constant frustration of mine, still happening currently with the likes of All of Us Strangers.) Alexis needed to experience heartrending loss to then experience the personal growth that we see by the end of this movie, but I’m not convinced that the loss needed to be through death.

Summer of ‘85 is a coming-of-age movie wrapped in a warm, grainy 80’s aesthetic that has a lot to say about first love, sexual discovery, and the pursuit of what we desire (for better or for worse). If you can forgive it for being an example of the aforementioned trope, which I encourage, it’s a heartbreaker that will leave you reminiscing about falling hard and fast, and wondering about how quickly we move along – and who gets hurt along the way.

Félix Lefebvre (who reminded me, here, of a young Charlie Hunnam in "Queer as Folk" (1999)) is sixteen year old "Alex" who takes his friend's dinghy out for a sail and gets caught in a thunderstorm that capsizes his boat. Luckily for him, Benjamin Voisin ("David") is nearby and tows him ashore and into his mother's recuperative bathtub! The next six weeks are now depicted in a cleverly interwoven mix of current and recent storylines as we realise that a tragedy has occurred and that the two young men had something of a relationship during the intervening period. On the face of it - it's just a gay coming of age drama, but Levebvre has an intensity and innocence about him. His performance as the young man who falls so completely and utterly in love is heart-rending, sincere and stylishly captured by the photography - and must remind all of us of that first, inexplicable, "love" that we may well still recall to this day. To be fair, it is easy to see why he fell for the charismatic, exciting "David" - who offers him profound changes to his life, and to the rather linear options that most of us faced at 16 - job or school - but the story is more nuanced than that and though it is certainly not without some fairly substantial holes and inconsistencies, it sort of works. The Cure's "In Between Days" and an oddly effective "Sailing" from Rod Stewart provide a remarkably potent soundtrack that resonates not just the moment, but the sentiment too. Not, maybe, Ozon's finest work but I suspect we may see more roles from his young star in the future.

Francois Ozon's 'Summer of 85' is a bittersweet film, one that ultimately encourages its audience to embrace the joy and the heartache of first love, along with the ephemerality of having a life-changing presence in your life.
- Jake Watt

Read Jake's full article...
https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-summer-of-85-a-refreshingly-nuanced-coming-of-age-story