“TAN LINES”–a child of the sea

“Tan Lines”

A Child of the Sea

Amos Lassen

There is something about a surfer boy just as there is something alluring about the ocean. They are both beautiful, mysterious and seemingly out of reach. Or so I thought until I saw “Tan Lines”, a beautiful new coming of age film from TLA Releasing. “Tan Lines” is a combination of coming of age, gay surfer and teenaged sexuality all rolled into one fantastic movie. There is passion, love, laughs, drugs and, of course, sex. All of this is set against the beautiful backdrop of the ocean.

Midget Hollows (Jack Baxter) loves to party. He also loves to surf and he is gay (and very cute). He and his friends live the surf existence and now that school is out and summer is here, there is not much to do but surf, harass the townspeople, and smoke weed and drink. This may seem an ideal life but Midget begins to feel claustrophobic.

Cass, the older brother of Midget’s best friend. Suddenly comes home after having traveled in Europe for four years. Midget immediately is attracted to him. He is openly gay and exudes self-confidence. He is also a wonderfully graceful surfer. Midget and Cass become involved and their meetings are filled with passion. The problem is that they live in a town where secrets cannot be kept and every one knows what everyone else is doing. Midget realizes that being gay and the life style he leads are incompatible and even though he tries to imitate Cass’s confidence he sees that he can’t and wonders why Cass ran away for four years. Midget thinks that perhaps the confidence of Cass is just a cover-up for his ultimate desire to be accepted.

Midget is entrenched in his town and besides is very close to his mother which makes leave home a difficult decision yet he also feels that if he stays he cannot be himself. He also is afraid that Cass may expose his secret.

Aside from all of this, there are some rather strange happenings going on in the own.

What “Tan Lines” gives us is a look at the surfing culture in a small town and a real look at the craziness of teenage love and emotions felt for the first time. It’s a beautiful movie that has something to say and should not be missed. I predict we will be hearing a lot about it and if you are fortunate to join us at “Reel Attractions—the Arkansas GLBTQ Film Festival on June 23-24 ion Little Rock, you will have a chance o see it before anyone else. It will not be released on DVD until later.