8/10 - a small indie gay film that leaves quite the impression

Sexually confused young man is comfortable with frequenting a gay bar, having gay friends and being sexual with other boys--but when his concerned mother wants to know "what's going on", he realizes he's stuck in the closet. Lots of great '80s alternative music on the soundtrack gives this low-budget opus a little pep, no matter how extraneous, but the high school lead seems to have open access to bars, cars, girls and boys that hardly seems convincing (never mind that the actor looks too old to be still be living out of a locker). We get no insight into his school life except that he's admired by girls, and the mother character is a bland cliché (she waits up all night for her son to get home sitting straight-back in a living room chair--and later, when there's confronting to be done, she plays the piano). Movies like this are well-intentioned, but are usually (and, in this case, painfully) hetero-friendly, as if nobody involved did any more research than take a quick trip down to the local Manhole. *1/2 from ****

"Edge.." takes on a huge challenge as it takes the audience on an compromised guided tour of homosexuality in bloom while maintaining its entertainment value. The film features some excellent acting by some very unfamiliar faces and strikes an appropriate balance between gay sex and gay love. Kudos.