Jongens
Director: Mischa Kamp
Writer: Chris Westendorp, Jaap-Peter Enderle
Cast: Gijs Blom, Ko Zandvliet, Jonas Smulders, Ton Kas, Stijn Taverne, Myron Wouts, Lotte Razoux Schultz, Rachelle Verdel
Part of: identities Festival
Seen on: 12.6.2015

Plot:
Sieger (Gijs Blom) is on the tracking team and when they get two new members, they have good chances to qualify for the nationals. As they start training for the relay, Sieger finds himself drawn to team member Marc (Ko Zandvliet), who is unpredictable, exciting and warm. He’d much rather spend time with him than try to pick up girls with his best friend Stef (Stijn Taverne), although he does like Jessica (Lotte Razoux Schultz). And he’d definitely rather hang with Marc than try to soften things between his father (Ton Kas) and his brother Eddy (Jonas Smulders).

Jongens tells a predictable, but extremely nice story in a good way, even if it sometimes did have its lengths. I enjoyed it.

Jongens’ runtime is pretty short (not even 90 minutes) and as I generally liked the characters and the story, it is entirely possible that the lengths that I felt came from the fact that the cinema’s temperature hovered around 45 degrees. Celsius. I have rarely sweated as much in my entire life and that will make any movie feel long. That is, of course, not the film’s problem, but I can’t help that it colors my judgment a little.

In any case it was a film I liked a lot. As I said, coming out stories like this are not necessarily rare, but the film tells it well. And it does add some flourishes that are a little more original. For one, I appreciated that it was a film that casually featured unusual families: Sieg’s mother died and his father struggles with keeping the family and himself together. Marc’s parents waited with their wedding until quite recently, although they already had two children – Marc’s little sister is around 8 years old, I’d say. These things happen all the time, families like that exist seemingly everywhere but the movie screen (or if they are seen, it’s usually because it’s all about how unusual that kind of thing is) – and it was nice to see.

I also really liked Marc (which is not to say that I didn’t like Sieg as well, but he was a little less vibrant than Marc). I could understand that Sieg would be fascinated by and fall for him. He is friendly, easy-going and fun, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t emotionally invested. He’s open about his feelings and when Sieg ditches him without so much as a call, he has no problem with showing how hurt he is (tremendous acting by Ko Zandvliet, by the way, who broke my heart with a single glance). He might be laid-back but that doesn’t mean that you can treat him any way you like or that he doesn’t want a commitment.

Another nice note was Stef’s reaction, Sieg’s best friend, to the realization that something is going on between Marc and Sieg. It hit all the right notes of awkwardness that you’d expect from a teenage boy who realizes that his best friend might be gay and who wants to show that he doesn’t mind, even though he doesn’t yet know what that might mean for their relationship.

It was these moments, the emotionality and the characters’ relationships, that elevated the film beyond its run of the mill story and made the film.

Summarizing: Very nice.