The Way He Looks (2014)

Film: The Way He Looks (2014)
Stars: Ghilherme Lobo, Fabio Audi, Tess Amorim, Eucir de Souza, Isabela Guasco, Selma Egrei
Director: Daniel Ribeiro
Oscar History: No nominations, though it was Brazil's official entry into the race.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I frequently, as a gay man, have to see films that I normally wouldn't, simply because there is so little gay cinema in the world that it feels like a public service or jury duty.  Go to Latter Days and pretend it's a good movie even though it's rife with cliches and is about as deep as a contact lens, just so that studios don't totally give up on us as an audience.  The movies of independent gay cinema, like admittedly a solid chunk of independent cinema, are very hit-and-miss.  For all of its Sundance glamour, independent film can be just as dreadful as your late August blockbuster, it just looks like something that should be thought-provoking and interesting.  However, The Way He Looks genuinely had a glow about it-it had that Oscar-prestige that at least means I'm not walking into something that's a total calamity (wait, no, The Judge-that doesn't mean much), and I was proven correct.  The film, while never treading particularly new ground, is still a fine coming-of-age film that celebrates the moving aspect of discovering love and friendship during your late teen years.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie follows Leo (Lobo), a young blind teenager who is sheltered by his parents and whose only companion is his best friend Giovanna (Amorim).  Their platonic (at least on Leo's side-you can tell Giovanna has a bit of a thing for him) friendship is interrupted when a new boy movies to town named Gabriel (Audi) who shakes up their dynamic.  Assigned together on a project for school, the boys start to bond, making Giovanna (who seems to have a crush on both of the boys) jealous.  At a party, Gabriel kisses Leo, who clearly is in love with him, and then pretends not to have done it.  This progresses as you would guess, with Gabriel eventually confessing that he wanted to kiss Leo and the two of them holding hands in the school parking lot in the most adorable movie scene I've witnessed in a while.

The film's plot is simple, and unlike other films that would have had you tackle prejudice about Leo being blind and gay, we don't have to deal with that, which is refreshing.  We see no troubled parents, no callous outings-the only coming out scene happens with Giovanna, and she reacts by ignoring it happened, and then coming back in best friend mode, realizing that she has been crushing on a gay guy.  As a result, we get a much richer back story and more fully realized side characters.  Someone like, say Karina (Guasco) the requisite "pretty girl" who becomes Gabriel's beard of sorts after the kiss, is treated with a three-dimensional hand that you rarely see in a movie.  She's not mean, she's not oblivious to anyone, and she's not the type who is going to be mad at Gabriel when she figures out the truth.  Honestly, while there's nothing ground-breaking here, it's actually Karina, a side character who completely shoots the "pretty girl" trope to hell, who actually comes the closest (bravo to Isabela Guasco for making what could have been a wallpaper role play for the audience).

The film also deals with young sexuality in a real way, with sex never seeming like the only drive, but in fact the random smelling of a jumper or a quick stolen glance in the shower.  So many films today will focus solely on adult goals in relationships, forgetting that when you're a teenager, it's not just about the sex or even the kiss-it's about the quick and jolting intimacy of a first time.  As a result we see characters that grow just a little, but don't need a full crescendo for the audience to be happy.

All-in-all, while the film is nowhere near original and stays almost completely within the box, it's still a fun movie with a lot to offer.  It's a good afternoon film, watching with the windows open and sun shining through, because you're going to be hard-pressed not to be smiling throughout.