Home Movie Reviews ‘Of an Age’ Review: Goran Stolevski’s Portrait of Passion Is Best When It Embraces Intimacy

The second film from the filmmaker behind ‘You Won’t Be Alone’ is a loving look at connection that mostly transcends its self-imposed limitations.

Image via Focus Features

Though one’s own experiences have always informed art, cinema has recently been home to some great works of personal reflection. In the romantic drama Of an Age, the second feature from writer-director Goran Stolevski, we are taken once more into such an experience, albeit one that feels less like a literally autobiographical story than one that is built around feeling. The particulars of the events are not nearly as important as the mercurial emotions that authentically inform them. Be it when going on a car ride or navigating an awkward party, Stolevski seems interested in the quieter moments of a passionate love that operates under the surface of the everyday. As such, it is a work that can hold the audience at a bit of distance as much of the film is defined by what is left unsaid. At the same time, every frame is infused with a sense of uncertainty and desire that feels unshakably personal as it plays out. While not as enthralling as his prior feature, You Won’t Be Alone, it carries with it a similar sense of care for bringing out the connection in a world frequently shaped by isolation.

In this case, the world is Australia where Stolevski himself emigrated as a child after being born in North Macedonia. We see it through the eyes of the young Kol (Elias Anton) who is trying to figure out both who he is and who he wants to be in his life. Taking place across two chapters, one taking place in 1999 when he is 17 and the other years later when he has returned home as an adult, it begins with humorous chaos. While practicing his dancing, Kol gets a panicked call from his ballroom partner and friend Ebony (Hattie Hook) who has woken up on a beach with no idea of how she got there. She is more than a bit rattled and the two yell at each other over the phone as they try to piece together where she is in time to make it to an important competition they have.

Kol then gets assistance from Ebony’s brother Adam (Thom Green) who picks him up to go get her. It marks the moment where everything slows way down and the film settles into a relaxed, yet restrained, rhythm. Often playfully funny before becoming more tragic in its trajectory, it is about the two opening up to the other over the course of a day before each goes their separate ways. Like similar stories shaped by impending departure, it finds a greater melancholy in how finite these moments of love are.

Image via Focus Features

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More than anything, this is felt in the charismatic and caring Adam. From the moment that Green pulls up into the story, he pushes the film into a new gear that feels more patient and poetic. The mischievous twinkle we see in his eye whenever Adam steals a glance at Kol carries just as much passion as the moments when a somberness sneaks across his face. As the two begin to talk while going on the drive, all the urgency felt just a second earlier melts away. This is not a criticism as it actually captures the purpose of the film adopting this pacing. Kol went from facing fear alone, even throwing up on the side of the road, to discovering something foundational to himself in the arms of another. He is nervous as he finds himself drawn to someone in a way he never has been before in his life up until now.

His own sexuality is something he hasn’t ever been able to explore as we get small hints of how some family members will diminish him even for existing. When he is with Adam, who is openly gay and frank about his desires, it is as if we are seeing Kol be himself for the first time. There is still a hesitancy to the humor the two share together. However, the gentle way that Stolevski teases out their passion through close-ups captures the growing emotions playing out on this drive that is then crossed with fleeting glimpses of the passing scenery that feels more alive as a result. Though the car is a confined space that visually boxes them in, when they are alone together there it is the most free either character is in the entire film.

Image via Focus Features

Just as all this is playing out, there is a persistent feeling that the story is holding itself back. Much of this is by design as it shows how the duo is unable to be open with each other when around others. From the moment they pick up Ebony, for example, the energy of the experience changes drastically as you see how the tentative flirtation is no longer present as each must close themselves off. At the same time, there is a persistent feeling that something is missing in how the story grows. An overbearing score will try to bridge the gap that is created, but that can only go so far when the particulars of their relationship are less than fully realized. While much of this could be understood through the lens of how each of them desires something more that might not come to pass, it was still crying out for more depth.

The performances from both Anton and Green do a lot to elevate the material, especially when we leap into the near future to observe how each of their characters has changed, though it can’t solely fall on their shoulders. Even in a slice-of-life story like this there have to be some more layers to it. When the slice is then a little thin in parts, it holds back the film from having the greater resonance that it is grasping at. Thankfully, these hangups fade away when we see the two make eye contact across the room with all the space and time between them getting reduced to nothing. There will always be much to the film that is too distant, but the moments where Stolevski pulls us in closer make its portrait of passion resonate where it counts.

Rating: B

Of an Age is in theaters now.