Teenage Kicks (2016) User Reviews

Very well acted movie, kind of bad message

[XxNighttimexX · 6/10 · 8 June 2023]

I'm going to keep this very short. I liked the movie personally but at the same time, I really didn't. It's a good movie, the actors are fantastic but the storyline doesn't end very well in my opinion. Miklòs does go through his venture to find himself, his sexuality, and confront his feelings for Dan, but it all happens at the end and seems semi-rushed. Also multiple horrid things happen in the plot that are either brushed over or too easily forgotten.

Miklòs' father beats him to get his sorrow out, I know he was mourning his son but that doesn't give him the right to beat his other child. We never see him apologizing or getting better, we're just expected to brush it off as mourning, feel bad because he is hospitalized, and still be happy when Miklós gets close to him.

Miklós' mother is verbally abusive and hits him as well, but at the end he just forgives and forgets and we're expected to see them and be happy for them as well.

And don't get me started on Dan, I love Daniel Webber, he is the only reason I watched this movie, and he acted his part well. But Dan as a character is just about the worst best friend a person in Miklós' situation or in general can have. He almost ditches him for a girl and won't let Mik explain himself, he repeatedly sets Mik's feelings aside and puts his "girlfriend's" feelings in front of Mik's, and the r/pe scene at the ending. I get it, he instantly feels bad but he still did it. He apologizes but again, he still did it. We're supposed to see him as troubled and at the very end, we're supposed to root for him and Mik to be close but he still r/ped him.

Overall, as I said it's a good movie, very well acted, and interesting but it seems to be too light on the traumatic experiences that happen.

I didn't like it.

[pub-21 · 5/10 · 8 January 2020]

Not worthy of only positive reviews. I thought it was boring with dreary plot, poorly acted, cinematography & directorship both very average. I don't recommend it and wouldn't dream of watching it again.

Daring and Evocative Experience

[david-rector-85092 · 9/10 · 16 September 2016]

Just when I thought 2016 would be pretty much a dead loss for Australian cinema, along comes 'Teenage Kicks'. Craig Boreham's screenplay and direction signal the arrival of a major talent in storytelling and filmmaking. It is refreshing to see a powerful and brave local production which explores such a collision of themes. This is not a rite of passage tale, it is a full on roller-coaster of a coming of age story with enough twists and turns to keep the viewer not only engaged but wondering how it will all play out.

While I was watching 'Teenage Kicks' I was reminded of movies like Ana Kokinos' 'Head On' (another visceral and edgy Aussie movie), Robert Redford's 'Ordinary People' and a much loved French classic from the mid 80's 'L'homme Blesse' (The Wounded Man). But I am not declaring that Teenage Kicks is derivative in any way; but it has the balls to explore such a panoply of ideas: such as lust, yearning, belonging, mateship, grief, loss, confusion, trauma and identity. The protagonist Mik; played with great presence by Miles Szanto is all at sea within his being. His burgeoning sexuality; his unfathomable loss early in the narrative and his falling in and out of the darker recesses of sexuality and liberation afford the character and the audience a very up close and personal trip through Mik's turbulent ride. I struggled at times with accepting that the lead character was still a teenager; his very defined features and gravitas on screen; whilst necessary for the dramatic content, did not seem believable for a 17 year old that he was written as.However the actor was so captivating that in the end, this was a quibble I could live with. Daniel Webber who played his best mate, was perfectly cast with a moment in time duality of still in some ways being a boy; but with a man's body and energy. Szanto and Webber had surprisingly great chemistry and there were some brilliantly staged and electric moments between them. Anni Finsterer, a seasoned stage and screen performer had some terrific moments in a role that could have been marginalised by a lesser talent.

The film is handsomely photographed and has plenty of evocative exterior sequences as well as some intimate and confronting interiors. I loved the texture to the screenplay. A film that can cohesively weave elements of culture, gender, sexuality, erotica and adolescence in one is a bona fide achievement. I found it moving, troubling,insightful and illuminating. I sincerely hope it gets more attention and an audience.

Coy and repetitive

[jromanbaker · 4/10 · 15 December 2020]

Miles Szanto gives an adequate performance in this film that has the unfortunate title of ' Teenage Kicks ', and it sounds like a title from a 1950's exploitation flick; the type of film usually banned in the UK and surely too in Australia. One reviewer compares it to ' L'Homme Blesse ' written by Herve Guibert and made by the great Patrice Chereau. I suggest that ' lost ' film should be viewed again to see what I may have missed, and unlike this film it was made by a great and controlled director who was more focussed than the director who made this. Frankly ' Teenage Kicks ' is a mess. Szanto is too old to be a 17 year old, and the fact that he is conflicted over his very confused homosexuality bored me to tears. It is has one unfortunate line in it when he tries to kiss his ' best ' friend, and after the friend hits him the angry friend says, ' f...K you, Mic '. Unfortunate given the circumstances. For those who get turned on easily there is a lot of male bottom showing, and bouts of simulated masturbation that just ended up coy and repetitive. I had absolutely no sympathy for this ' elderly ' 17 year old and his confusions. There is one scene ( brief ) of homosexual fulfilment and many scenes of rather ugly sexuality. The description of two slugs having sex was genuinely enlightening, but the rest was not. There is a male rape in the film that would have astonished the slugs especially as the rapist seems sorry afterwards!!! The film ' Sauvage ' came to mind, but not to this film's benefit. 4 for the attempt to make the Australians aware of complexities about homosexuality, and saddened it does not (for me ) succeed.

A heavy but compelling movie, with an excellent leading actor.

[johannes2000-1 · 9/10 · 24 January 2019]

The title "Teenage kicks" seems a strange choice for the kind of movie that this is, it sounds cheap and suggestive, something like a Larry Clark movie, while in fact it's an extremely serious, sincere and touching movie that really grabs you by the throat. It's about Mik, a young Australian boy from immigrant background, who has a very strained relationship with his parents, which deteriorates even more when his older brother is killed by a traffic-accident for which the father holds Mik responsible. Mik also has to cope with the fact that his best friend Dan, for whom Mik has a secret crush, gets involved with a girl, so Mik feels suddenly excluded and alone, and he starts a chaotic quest for recognition and affection.

It's basically a coming-of-age story: dealing with guilt, with confusing sexual feelings, and with conflicts among family and friends. Actor Miles Szanto is excellent and totally convincing as the tormented Mik. In spite of Mik's at times bad choices and his impulsive tantrums, you team up with him from the start and at many points in the movie his forlornness breaks your heart. There are harsh moments, but also moments of haunting beauty, like the sexual encounter that Mik has with an anonymous guy, where he for the first time experiences the glory of sexual fulfillment. It's a lot to divulge, but Boreham brings it all with great feeling and compassion.

In the end I would have liked to see some sort of positive conclusion or catharsis for Mik, especially concerning the relationship with his father. Well, maybe Boreham didn't intend any conclusions, it's simply life, where conclusions are not guaranteed.

Anyway: highly recommended.

Fantastic Aussie film, well worth watching

[huguespt · 10/10 · 20 May 2017]

Now this is a movie that makes me proud to be an Aussie. I can not fault any actor in this movie from the main characters to support characters, even location shoots and cinematography. It is s a superb script, well written and directed however even with a great story and director if the cast were mediocre, so would the movie be however the actors in this gave 100%, one would wonder how they can score higher in their art. Special mentions to the two main characters, Miles Szanto and Daniel Webber, again I mention just two however all cast deserve a big 10 stars for their part as the whole movie rolls on with no pregnant pauses because of the support cast. Also the location people deserve a 10 as well. No this does not have wild and spectacular CGI but it needs none of it. It is a raw and gritty movie of the turbulence of Milos and his best friend Dan who is pulled into a world spiraling out of control and with little skill or worldly knowledge to deal with his best mate's issue. It is sad, happy and just a fantastic movie made so also because Aussie film makers find it hard to get funding and for a movie with Gay tendencies, even harder. I think I have given one 10 and that was because it deserved a higher ranking which I stated so in my write up, this deserves better than a 10. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Great Film - Great Australian Film great drama.

[douglasbrook-1 · 8/10 · 24 August 2017]

Great Acting. Great Script. Clever Editing. Great Direction - Great film! So moving. Brings up all the feelings of being a teenager and being hit by life when you are young and inexperienced. Loved the Sydney atmosphere. The Actors are all perfect. Perfectly nuanced and realised. I really loved this film although it was sad and hard to watch sometimes. Excellent drama.

Awesome

[biancashandellrivera · 10/10 · 8 April 2021]

I could not stop watching it. The story line was incredible, the acting remarkable and very true to the reality of a struggling 17 year old trying to find where he fits in the world.

Very good, but a reshoot

[thiago_halliwell · 10/10 · 15 January 2021]

Just on the related section here there is DROWNING (2009), exactly the same movie, with the same main actor but all the other ones were replaced