Sam (Joshua Peter Laurenzi) and Julien (Paul Foster) are high school best friends in Memphis who fall somewhere between the nerds and the losers. Sam has an abusive father (Mark Pergolizzi) and a cold-hearted mother (Lee Ann Roberts). Julien's parent is a single mom (Emily Fry) who provides him with an abundance of love. Both have girlfriends and neither has a job. Sam struggles against his father, his oblivious girlfriend, and thoughts of suicide clash while his affection deepens for Julien. He constantly writes in a journal he will not let anyone see and hopes to take guitar lessons. Julien haunts coffee shops and daydreams.
Both have come to realize something is missing from their lives, and this sense of loss is diminished only when they are together. Julien is a moody boy, and his girlfriend Arielle (Alex Booth) has just about had it with him. The only bright light in his life is his friendship with Sam. They go together to the café, show each other their secret places, and wrestle on the grass. It's obvious they're in love. But these are teenagers--and they're just not ready. Then one night Julien shows Sam a poem he's written called "Blue Citrus Hearts" and it's about his crush on his best friend. Sam and Julien struggle through this film, trying to communicate with themselves, with friends, and finally with each other--discovering what they fear most, that they are gay. The film ends a bit too quickly.
This is a bittersweet tale of two boys in love. It's a slowly paced, heartfelt, gritty, honest little movie that has the power to move you profoundly. Sometimes there is arthouse pretentiousness that is appropriate here, revealing a deceptively simple story with complex emotional issues. The teenage boys from extraordinarily opposite homes find their way through friendship and sexuality while dealing with the complexities of high school, teenage romance, angst, fitting in, the desire for popularity, and the need to be understood and alone. They are unremarkable, ordinary boys learning to cope with emotions they fear and possibly can't understand.
Experimental in style, with lines of poetry scratched into film stock, sometimes jarring editing and a non-linear story, it is a distinctly non-Hollywood experience. It has a freshness and an originality missing from most films today. The soundtrack is strong, and the local music certainly adds flavor to the movie, although it is too loud. It's basically a noisy film. The actors are pimply high school students, not 25 year-olds playing high school students. Another important statement it makes is in the new millenium it is still not OK to be gay. It may be fashionable to accept homosexuality on TV and in movies, but in the real world gay men are still shunned, still legislated against, and still murdered because of their sexual orientation. Viewers comments are mixed--some love it and some do not. Morgan Jon Fox wrote the screenplay and directed.
