Jonas [I Am Jonas] ***½ (2018, Félix Maritaud, Nicolas Bauwens, Tommy-Lee Baïk) – Classic Movie Review 12,434

The haunting 2018 French gay-themed movie I Am Jonas takes the risky bold step of switching continuously between present and past, and succeeds perfectly, becoming as exciting as any first-rate thriller.

Writer/ director Christophe Charrier’s haunting, moving and compelling 2018 French coming of age gay-themed movie I Am Jonas takes the risky bold step of switching continuously between present and past, even though the strands of the plot unfold chronologically. It sounds a bit arty, and is fraught with danger, but, no, it succeeds perfectly, as the two key moments of Jonas’s life intertwine, reflecting each other. We have no idea where we are headed till the last 20 minutes, and the reveal is as exciting as in any first-rate thriller.

Nicolas Bauwens plays Jonas Cassetti in 1997, when he is a nice, gentle, secretive teenager on the verge of coming-out, and Félix Maritaud plays him 18 years later in 2015, when he is an attractive and impulsive thirty-something, totally lost and desperately looking for some closure and balance in his life.

The friendless 15-year-old schoolboy Jonas is befriended by a new pupil in his class, Nathan (Tommy-Lee Baïk), and the two fall in love and start a relationship. One fateful, possibly fatal, day they go to local gay bar Boys, but they are too young to be admitted. An older man says he will drive the boys to gay bar where there is no age limit, La Dolce Vita, which turns out not to exist.

It has a huge lot of flair and style, and packs an enormous amount of dark-toned drama and deep emotion into its fully, and richly satisfying 82 minutes. In the past Jonas is sweet, hopeful and quietly romantic. But in the present, Jonas, now working as a hospital porter, is battered, down and almost out. HIs kindness is gone, replaced by a disposition to get angry and engage in fights.

Félix Maritaud and Nicolas Bauwens are tremendously good as Jonas, reverberating in their shaken and stirred character, and also credibly the same person. Also excellent are Aure Atika as Nathan’s mother, heavily pregnant with Léonard in the past, and Ilian Bergala as the adult son Léonard in the present. Charrier’s writing and direction are riveting.

The film is also known as Boys (the name of the club) and Jonas (the name of the hero).

It deservedly picked up a buzz and fans as it went along. It was first released as Boys on the streaming platform Dekkoo in August 2018 and then screened as Jonas at the Festival de la fiction TV de La Rochelle in September, where it won three awards, including Best TV Movie. In November 2018, it was broadcast on French TV channel Arte, watched by more than 1,120,000 viewers. It then premiered on Netflix under the title I Am Jonas.

The cast are Félix Maritaud as Jonas Cassetti (adult), Nicolas Bauwens as Jonas Cassetti (adolescent), Tommy-Lee Baïk as Nathan, Aure Atika as Nathan’s mother, Marie Denarnaud as Jonas’ mother, Pierre Cartonnet as Jonas’ father, Ilian Bergala as Léonard, Ingrid Granziani as Caroline Rivasso (adult), Édith Saulnier as Caroline Rivasso (adolescent), and David Baiot as Samuel.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,434

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com