Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. Yes, it's another gay film in the continuing series where we watch confused middle-class white teenage boys about 17 or 18 realize that they are "different" and then finally come out of the closet with more angst per frame then you can possibly imagine.

I shouldn't bitch. "Edge of 17" is pretty joyous for all it's typical angst. I found myself smiling throughout the viewing. I was as happy as a clam by the time the credits rolled. It has yet another cute, fey, thin, teenaged white boy falling in and out of bed with other more hunky white boys. But it does this to the backdrop of the 80's new romance/ new wave movement, so that's fun. Too bad the protagonist Eric (Chris Stafford) doesn't seem to have a friend in the world except for one girl (Tina Holmes) who is obviously head over heels for him (and, of course, he doesn't see it). She looks like the bastard child of k.d. lang and Wynona Ryder, so it's fun to see how she and Stafford are going to keep their big white, WASP noses from bumping while they kiss. Stafford does look awesome in his 80's drag though, like all those fey boys at Duran Duran concerts in 1985. He's a cutie.

Eric fucks around a lot trying to figure out who he is. (Hint: if you take it up the ass, you are gay). I will give the film this much, it is sexually bold for a "coming out" movie. It gets pretty steamy. Of course, it's about as erotically charged as a visit to the dentist. If your idea of sexy is watching a Duranie try to mug his way through his first anal sex romp, then this is the film for you! It's just so damn hard to feel sorry for the guy when he's so dang cute. I get tired of wanting to scream at the screen, "Goddammit, I can make you happy! I wouldn't treat you like shit like all these young attractive Neanderthals you keep fucking!" 

"Edge of 17" is a fun film in the continuing series of "coming out" films that we gay people insist on making over and over again. It does have 3 things going for it though:

1. Lesbo Lea Delaria as a funny "mom" to all the gay boys and girls in town. She's the comedian who begins her routine by saying, "I'm Lea Delaria and I'm a biiiggggg bulldyke."

2. Delaria owns the local gay bar and we get a real feel of what it is like in those little gay bars that dot our landscape in the little towns across America. The film is set in Sandusky, Ohio and the bar couldn't be more like the ones we from small towns have frequented many times in our gay, gay lives. It's fun to see a real small town bar portrayed accurately on the screen.

3. It doesn't proclaim to have easy answers or platitudes at it's ending. The story is left out there hanging a bit because the real truth of the telling is that it really doesn't matter if mom or friends accept you. What matters is that you accept yourself. Eric learns this and it is sweet. His coming out scene to his mother is perfect. Every note correct.

But the film ends wrong. When Eric finally accepts himself, he goes to Lea's bar (The Universal Fruit and Nut Company) and she sings the standard "Blue Skies" as the film's final moment. Why? This is set in the mid 80's and has new romance music as it's motif. Couldn't director David Moreton find an appropriate new wave tune to wrap up the film? If I directed the damn thing, Eric alone and joyous would sway out onto the street and have a happy little dance party to "Breakout" by Swing Out Sister or "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves. That's my idea of a happy ending.

Of course, by this time as well, he'd have figured out that what he needs is an older, more mature, more loving gay man for a partner.

Note: Twiggy has a cameo.

Written by Todd Stephens.

Music by Tom Bailey, I assume of the Thompson Twins. The music of Eurythmics and Bronski Beat are important to the film. oddly, the song "Edge of 17" by Stevie Nicks is not used in the film.

The film won some awards at gay and lesbian film festivals.

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