Teenage Kicks ***½ (2016, Miles Szanto, Daniel Webber) – Classic Movie Review 12,463

Craig Boreham’s searing 2016 Australian drama film Teenage Kicks stars Miles Szanto as dazed and confused late-teenager Mik Varga, the son of Hungarian immigrants to Australia, whose world is rocked by the sudden death of his older brother. 

Writer-director Craig Boreham’s searing 2016 Australian drama film Teenage Kicks stars Miles Szanto as dazed and confused late-teenage boy Mik [Miklós] Varga, the son of Hungarian immigrants to Sydney, Australia, whose world is rocked by the sudden death of his older brother.

After being indirectly responsible for the accidental death of his older brother Tomi (Nadim Kobeissi) in a road accident, Mik finds himself struggling to come to terms with his attraction to his buddy Dan (Daniel Webber). Dan reveals that he has a new girlfriend, Phaedra (Charlotte Best), and keeps dragging her along with them, apparently putting an end to their plans to run away together.

She seems sympathetic and kind to him, and brings him round to her side, but then comes on to him, kind of seducing him. He tries to warn Dan that he loves her more than she loves him, and eventually declares his love for Dan, with violent results.

Mik is torn between loyalty to his migrant family and his own desires, and does not seem to belong anywhere. He seems to have one loyal friend in his brother’s heavily pregnant girlfriend, who he promises to look after, while she gives him his brother’s stuff, including a T-shirt he loved but she hated and wouldn’t let him wear. Mik, of course, looks great in it. He gets picked up by a couple of Sydney gay guys, who befriend him, but their blatant sexuality isn’t what he’s after, and their female druggie friend gets him trying drugs, which isn’t really what he’s after either. Nor is the casual pick-up in the woods with a man he remeets later, as a nice hospital worker.

The cast also includes Shari Sebbens as Annuska, Charlotte Best as Phaedra, Tony Poli and Anni Finsterer as Miklós’s parents Viktor and Illona, and Ian Roberts as Dan’s father Jack. Mik turns out to be the son of his uncle, and he’s caught in the family collateral damage of his mother’s affair with his uncle. Neither the uncle or the father seem to have much time for him, and the mother is treating him appallingly in the wake of his brother’s death. What a mess, eh?

Teenage Kicks (2016, Daniel Webber).

This astonishingly complex film covers an amazing amount of ground in just 98 minutes, exploring burgeoning sexuality, friendship, guilt, secrets, drug use, family tragedy, cultural and familial loyalty, and sexual and social identity. You’d think that Boreham would lose control of the material, but he’s totally on top of in, absolutely in charge.

Needless to say, it is very strong stuff, way out of the comfort zone, and all the actors go for it full on. Miles Szanto is tremendous, in a very difficult exposed role. The other actors are good too. Boreham is even able to wrap up this story successfully, with not so much a conclusion or resolution, as a satisfying temporary ending in this chapter of Mik’s story, and Dan’s. It’s a chapter ending, not the ending of the story. And that’s absolutely fine. Mik has resolved a few of his issues, moved on, and found his place and purpose, at lest for now. Mik is an extremely likeable character, but unloved, yet lost and found. Craig Boreham could easily revisit Mik’s story, and tell us how he is getting on. It would be nice to know. He deserves a good life. He deserves to be happy.

The film premiered on 11 June 2016 at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival.

It deserved way more attention and awards than it got. May it just isn’t that kind of movie. Awards are pretty worthless anyway, though they can help careers. Szanto won the award for Best Performance in a Male Role at the 2017 Iris Prize festival. Composer David Barber received an AACTA Award nomination for Best Original Music Score at the 6th AACTA Awards, and Boreham received an Australian Directors’ Guild nomination for Best Direction in a Feature Film.

It was six years till Craig Boreham’s next film, the equally astonishing Lonesome (2022).

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,463

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