This absolute winner, based on a stage play by Jonathan Harvey and adapted by him, is a kind of enchanted, urban slice-of-life tale about a gay teen, Jamie (Glen Berry), who is in love with the boy next door, Ste (Scott Neal). Hampering Jamie's progress on the romantic front is his fear that his mother (Linda Henry) will find out, as well as concern over complicating Ste's existing problems. Beautiful Thing is a relationship movie, to be sure, but that description doesn't really describe the buoyant tone of this British television production. Democratic in its inclusive regard for each character (whether camera-pretty or not), the film--well-directed by Hettie Macdonald--is full of surprises. Chief among them is the terrific personality of Jamie's mum, a strong and independent woman who truly worries over and adores her son. But this is a movie involved in a kind of happy dialogue with itself: the tunes of Mama Cass, for instance, play a part in both the story and overall ambience, while a strategic placement of the Rodgers and Hammerstein chestnut "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" during an act of love is fun and exciting. --Tom Keogh
(15 votes)
2.
The offbeat, underachieving denizens of a southeast London apartment building get an emotional wake-up call when two of the neighbors--two teen boys--unexpectedly fall in love. Tenderhearted kitchen-sink realism from Channel Four Films, adapted from the play by Jonathan Harvey.
(15 votes)
3.
"...there's always a dreamlike spirit of emancipation threatening to break out like sunshine..." -Desson Howe, The Washington Post
A crowd-pleasing heartfelt drama of young love triumphant against all odds, Beautiful Thing is a winning combination of My Beautiful Laundrette and Romeo and Juliet and has been hailed by critics as "One of the best movies of the year" (Amy Taubin, Village Voice).
Buoyed by an irresistible soundtrack with the music of Mama Cass and The Mamas and The Papas, Beautiful Thing is a winning, old-fashioned love story with a fresh and contemporary twist for anyone who ever dared risk everything for happiness and won.
(15 votes)
4.
A grim, gritty South London housing estate makes an unlikley setting for a romantic fairy-tale, but Hetti MacDonald's gay teenage love story all but brings it off. Adapted by screenwriter Jonathan Harvey from his own stage play, Beautiful Thing tells how teenage loner Jamie falls for next-door neighbour Ste, one of the tough kids who bullies him at school. Amazingly, he finds his feelings reciprocated, and the two progress to a tender, tentative affair. Sidestepping conventional notions of working-class homophobia, the film succeeds in presenting its central relationship not as anything startlingly different, but simply as a teenage romance--with all the joy and heartbreak it implies--that happens to be between two 15-year-old guys. Problems of brutality and deprivation are acknowledged but never allowed to dominate, and under the influence of love even the harsh walkways and terraces of the estate take on a sunlit glow. --Philip Kemp
(15 votes)
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