Summer Storm.

Summer Storm * Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner * Starring Robert Stadlober * Here Films

A German coming-out movie with charm to bum, Summer Storm (Sommersturm) boasts an athletic setting that will appeal both to queer jocks and to admirers who always speculated about what really happens at training camp. Tobi (Robert Stadlober) is the star of his Bavarian rowing team, and he's excited about heading out to the country to compete in the big regatta, particularly since it will mean spending a lot of time with his cute best buddy, Achim (Kostja Ullmann). Even though the two of them enjoy the occasional side-by-side masturbation in the boathouse, it's clear that Achim has fallen for Sandra (Miriam Morgenstem) whose best friend, Anke (Alicja Bachleda-Curus), has a thing for Tobi.

Having the girls along changes the dynamic of the summer--and of Tobi and Achim's friendship--but not nearly as much as the all-gay rowing team that winds up in the neighboring camp. While the reactions of Tobi's teammates to the queer rowers range from disinterest to disgust. Tobi himself comes to terms with his sexuality over the course of the summer, particularly after a sweetly torrid dockside liaison with Leo (Marion Kittel). While director and cowriter Marco Kreuzpaintner breaks no new ground here--viewers might find themselves reminded of Christina Ricci's sneering comments regarding movies about 'that summer that changed everything" in The Opposite of Sex--Summer Storm boasts energetic young actors, beautiful locations and cinematography, and an interesting mix of queer characters, from campy queens to tattooed jocks. Like Beautiful Thing Edge of Seventeen, Nico and Dani, Cote d'Azur, and many of its other antecedents, Summer Storm will give older gay men a wistful glance of what might have been while providing younger guys a title to rent on the sly from the video store down the street when they're feeling brave enough to confront the truth about themselves.