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Summer Storm
Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner
Written by Thomas Bahmann
Starring Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann, Alicja Bachleda-Curus, Miriam Morgenstern, Marlon Kittel.
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While the queerest film of the summer is most certainly The Aristocrats-- where else could you hear jokes about rimming, fisting, ass-fucking, cunt-licking, cock sucking, sex with kids, sex with shit, piss, and just plain old homo and het screwing?-- admittedly, The Aristocrats was not for everyone. For one thing, it was 27 comedians telling the same joke again and again. And as fabulous as it was, it boiled down to an intellectual meditation on why and how we laugh-- dispensing with plot, pretty scenery, or cute boys.

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Luckily, for more traditional gay moviegoers, there are some other choices-- Summer Storm, for instance. Although these two films are screening primarily at independent theaters, and opening late-summer and early-fall depending on the city, they are well worth searching for and viewing. Undoubtedly they will be released on DVD within the next four months as well.

Summer Storm ("Sommersturm"), directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner and written by Thomas Bahmann, is a sweet, coming-of-age story about best friends Tobi (Robert Stadlober) and Achim (Kostja Ullmann) who are on a crew team attending a national competition where, it turns out, the major rival team is a queer crew club from Berlin. While the straight and gay teams have the usual social conflicts-- Tobi's and Achim's team go through the usual teenage-boy reflexive "oooh fags!" response-- the real heat of the drama is that, no surprise, Tobi is really gay and in love with his best friend, who is apparently clueless, despite the fact that they exchange long smoldering looks and jerk-off together. Furthermore Achim is involved with Anke (Alicja Bachleda-Curus), and the sweet Sandra (Miriam Morgenstern) has the hots for Tobi.

The usual complications ensue-- this is, after all, a fairly traditional European/American "coming out" movie-- and Tobi finally makes the leap and has sex with the sexy Leo (Marlon Kittel), who is on the other team. I mean, the other crew team. It is Achim who is on the other team, sexually speaking, and he is less-than-pleased when Tobi confesses his love and lust for him, and won't even consider continuing their masturbatory games, perhaps because Tobi now wants to include some touching and kissing. Needless to say, as they do in German, this is too much sturm und drang, and fights break out, a summer storm forces them all out of the woods and into a youth hostel, and you can color in the details later without even worrying about staying within the lines.

All in all, this is pretty much Gay Teenage Boy Finds Himself 101, but the pleasure of the film, aside from the cute teenagers and the hot-and-heavy smooching, is that it takes the emotions of its characters very seriously, and never condescends. When you look at a show like the American Queer as Folk or films such as But, I'm a Cheerleader or Party Monster, or for that matter even Monster, there is an emotional distancing and a deeply imbedded patronizing that both informs and ultimately undercuts the films. Summer Storm is simple, even at points simplistic, but it is direct and honest and doesn't fuck with our expectations or our sense of decency. You can't ask for much more than that.

Author Profile:  Michael Bronski
	Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	Email:	mabronski@aol.com