EDGE OF SEVENTEEN
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, 2003, Four Day Weekend Theater, Downtown Fort Worth

Capitalizing on pop culture's love affair with all things '80s, director David Moreton's 1998 film follows a closeted high-school junior named Eric (Chris Stafford), who's seduced by the cotton-candy allure of new wave music and the sexual ambivalence it seemed to glamorize. Grunt work wiping tables at the local amusement-park eatery never seemed more tolerable than when it was alongside an openly gay college hunk like Rod (Andersen Gabrych). Flirtation leads to experimentation and eventually liberation, but with plenty of other -ations in between, including alienation and discrimination.

Eric's first dabblings with flamboyant haircuts, dye jobs, outrageous outfits and (gasp!) Bronski Beat tunes alarm his parents and confuse his girlfriend (Stephanie McVay), but that's nothing compared with his first night in the local gay bar. Fortunately, his former boss, a motherly, wiseacre lesbian named Angie (the infectiously charming Lea DeLaria) is on hand to guide him past some -- but not all -- of the pitfalls. Eric discovers that coming out is fraught with hurdles: callous partners, unfaithful lovers, confused parents and, most painfully, hurt girlfriends.

Seventeen devotes a good portion of the story to how Eric's burgeoning sexuality affects his high-school sweetie, and it's these moments that will probably strike closest to the bone for closeted gays who "passed" for straight with the help of an often unwitting partner. But the film's greatest trait is that Eric manages to emerge from the gantlet angst-free. Although the experience is hardly candy-coated, Stafford's strong-willed hero holds his head high, avoiding self-loathing and, most important, self-destruction. Edge of Seventeen is rated R for profanity, nudity, adult subject matter and sexual situations. Running time: 100 min.

INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR AND STARS

Edge of Seventeen screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, 2003 at the Four Day Weekend Theater, 312 Houston St. in downtown Fort Worth. Tickets are $5 with all proceeds going to eQ Alliance, TCU's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered student group.