The Gay We Were: ‘Edge of Seventeen’

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Edge of Seventeen (1999)

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The 1990s were an odd little crossroads for gay entertainment. The dominant mainstream narrative — when it paid any attention at all — trended towards the AIDS crisis and tragedy. At the same time, far from the mainstream, the cottage industry of gay romantic comedies pitched itself to a greatly underserved market. These movies barely made it to a theatrical release, and it’s fair to say that most of them weren’t great films, but they were what passed for a niche genre back then, and that makes them important. Certainly, for a child of the ’90s, they were formative in ways both good and bad. With The Gay We Were, we’re going to examine this subgenre one film at a time and examine what they said about gay entertainment and the era that once was.

This Week’s Film: Edge of Seventeen
Release Date: June 11, 1999
Directed by: David Moreton
Written by: David Moreton and Todd Stephens
Starring: Chris Stafford, Tina Holmes, Andersen Gabrych, Lea DeLaria

It’s kind of amazing that this is the fifth The Gay We Were entry, and we’re only just now getting to our first gay coming-of-age story. The closest we got was Andrew Keegan referencing his coming out in one scene in Broken Hearts Club, a moment that’s more about how handsome Timothy Olyphant looks when he’s being understanding. It’s odd because the gay-teen-comes-out story feels familiar to the point of overuse within the niche of gay entertainment, and certainly within the ’90s rom-com realm we’re covering in this series. And yet here we are, with 1999’s Edge of Seventeen, and we have our first bona fide coming-out story.

And while Edge of Seventeen has all the trappings of the coming-out story that might make it feel like a cliché— sensitive white teen, small Ohio town, quasi-girlfriend with the wrong idea, fraught parental relationship — the well-observed screenplay and evocative direction team up with a capable cast (particularly Stafford as Eric) to give the film an air of specificity and recognizability that make it stand out as one of the best of the genre.

It’s 1984 in Sandusky, Ohio, and Eric’s got one year of high school left. He’s into New Wave and the Eurythmics, he’s getting more and more adventurous with clothing and hair choices (initially to his mom’s amusement; eventually to her chagrin), and there’s a gorgeous blond guy, Rod, at his summer job who had got him feeling some kind of way.

It couldn’t be more simple a setup, but watching it play out is one pang of recognition after one another. The scene where Eric and Rod meet is a tiny masterpiece of chemistry and realism, watching the infatuation creep over Eric slowly and then all at once. The best parts of the movie are these early scenes, watching these two guys circle each other. At one point, Eric, Rod, and Eric’s quasi-girlfriend Maggie (Holmes) find themselves on the couch, Eric kissing Maggie as is his heterosexual duty, all the while one leg essentially breaks free from the rest of his body and starts pawing at Rod, whose hand drifts towards Eric’s zipper. It’s as concise, sexy, and hilarious a depiction of swirling teenage sexuality as I’ve seen.

The fact that the best parts of the movie are front-loaded feels almost intentional. The sexy parts of self-discovery followed by the harrowing moments of coming out, followed even more crucially by the uncertain first experiences that follow coming out. The best gay movies tend to demystify the traditional love story, even while enacting it. This isn’t unique to gay movies, though it does feel uniquely suited to them. The traditional love story wasn’t written for us, so it makes much more sense that a gay rom-com would examine what happens when the fairy tale (pardon the pun) is fractured.

Edge of Seventeen is smart enough to know that while Rod is the one to drag Eric into self-realization, he’s not going to be around for the heavy lifting. That Eric needs to do on his own — those early gay bar experiences, when everything seems garish and unfamiliar; the moment when you realize that your close relationship with Mom is going to change the further you come into your own. Orange Is the New Black‘s Lea DeLaria plays Eric’s summer-job boss and ends up as the closest thing he has to a mentor. As she’s shown on OITNB, DeLaria is a dynamic presence capable of a rather unexpected sensitivity. The way she gets closer to Eric after he comes out is a nice contrast to the scenes with his mother, who can’t seem to help distancing herself after he comes out to her. It’s a great scene, if only for its complexity. She loves him — tells him so — but her body language has grown stiff. It’s neither outright rejection nor outright support. So much of Edge of Seventeen is about how these coming-of-age experiences are never the triumphs or disasters we expect them to be.

More than anything, the movie is a collection of moments that feel so real. The way that loving a piece of art or band (the specificity of the Eurythmics in this case is so perfect*) can give you more confidence and motivation to be outrageous than any pep talk. The way that dancing better and more enthusiastically than your peer group will only invite scorn. The way that whippets are nostalgic even if you never did whippets, because you at least knew someone who talked about doing whippets. The way that sexy blond boys in white sweater vests with popped collars will always get exactly what they want.

It’s a shame we lost Todd Stephens, the film’s writer, to the realm of parody (he made Not Another Gay Movie). Movies as keenly observed and wise as Edge of Seventeen were rare in the realm of ’90s gay film. That kind of insight would be awfully welcome in more movies today, to be honest.

*Though it is worth noting that, despite the film’s title, no Stevie Nicks music makes its way into this movie, calling to mind another Todd Stephens-penned gay movie, Gypsy 83, which is specifically about attending the Night of a Thousand Stevies and STILL couldn’t use any Stevie songs.

[You can stream Edge of Seventeen on YouTube.]