Out

An old saying about those who were once sheltered from the ways of the world but miraculously blossom when exposed to the panorama of life astutely maintains, “How are you going to keep ʼem down on the farm once they’ve seen Paris?” It’s a sentiment that’s equally applicable to many other cosmopolitan, urbane locales, such as the free-wheeling, uninhibited pace of life in Amsterdam, as a gay male couple from a small Dutch town discover when they relocate to the big city to attend film school. In many ways, it’s a dream come true, providing them with an opportunity to cast off the shackles of a restrictive, closeted lifestyle in favor of something eminently more liberating. But is it really the panacea they’ve long hoped for? For Tom (Bas Keizer), it’s more than he bargained for as he struggles to cast off his conservative smalltown ways (including continuing to insist that he’s bisexual and not the out and proud gay man he’s been reluctant to openly acknowledge), while, for his partner, Ajani (Jefferson Yaw Frempong-Manson), it’s a chance to finally cut loose and truly be himself. Tom is also disappointed with his film school experience, finding it difficult to fit in as a would-be arthouse auteur among peers who are far less constrained (and less condescending) in their creativity and artistic sensibilities. Ajani, meanwhile, grows increasingly concerned that his partner is having trouble at school and not availing himself of the city’s unrestrained LGBTQ+ experience, staying stuck in his uptight ways. Over time, these conditions give rise to a disconnect between them, one that threatens the future of their relationship and the end of a dream they had long awaited to fulfill. Writer-director Dennis Alink’s latest provides viewers with an insightful look into the urban gay lifestyle in both its positive and negative attributes, not to mention how two seemingly likable characters can both be major jerks when they want to be, both with their emerging circle of friends and with each other. Shot in stunningly gorgeous black and white in quasi-documentary style, the film serves up an array of both gorgeous and “ugly” imagery, giving audiences an unfettered look at a community that clearly has two sides to it. Admittedly, the narrative at times meanders a bit too much for its own good, but it generally does a commendable job at showing rather than telling in conveying its message, making its points and presenting its story. “Out” is a film that earnestly makes clear “gay” doesn’t always equate to “happy,” but it also lets us know that the satisfaction level of our experience depends heavily on what we ultimately do – or don’t do – with it.

Loved-up “Tom” (Bas Keizer) and “Ajani” (Jefferson Yaw Frempong-Manson) live in a small Dutch community where the latter man has just come out and where the former, bisexual, has thus far kept his powder dry. Both are keen film students and hope to get to Amsterdam where they can enjoy a new life together but almost immediately they arrive, they hook up with the outgoing “Fer” (Fjodor Jozefsoon) who is an old friend and who introduces both to the nightlife and a broader gay community that one lad takes to enthusiastically whilst the other, innately less gregarious, struggles. It’s fairly clear that from now on their rural, only gay in the village, love and loyalty is going to be severely tested since opportunity, choice and mischief are on their doorstep. To add to the woes, “Tom” is discovering that his rather testy attitude to his college colleagues isn’t making him any friends there either, and after a filming trip to Berlin which he unexpectedly makes on his own, it becomes apparent that perhaps his dream isn’t going to come true. For the most part, this is a competent coming of age drama about a couple who arrive in a city glued together but whose coupledom is ill-prepared for temptation. Sadly, for me though, the last twenty minutes rather throttled any enthusiasm I had for this as stereotypes galore are reinforced, the transient nature of gay “commitment” is laid unpleasantly bare and the characterisation of “Ajani” became something that frankly turned my stomach. From a character perspective, it’s all a rather shallow exercise that clearly had an end point in mind that the story seemed contrived to hit regardless of the collateral damage to the original ones we see at the start, and though it does make some salient points about hierarchical vanity amongst gay communities, those are subsumed by a sort of concluding moral turpitude that didn’t work for me. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, but this didn’t really work for me, sorry.