Out-gay filmmaker David Freyne returns to his native Kildare in Ireland for the his latest film a delightful coming-out comedy that has a more than a passing reference to his own story .
Set in 1995 a period Freyne comments was a time when so many films about being gay focused on people dying of AIDS : important stories that needed to be told, but made us all depressed. This therefore is a kind of antidote that shows a very different side to that tough time.
Dating Amber tells the story of Eddie (Fionn O’Shea who played Ned In another Irish gay film Handsome Devil) and Amber (Lola Petticrew). They are two teenagers who have the same secret : they are both gay. Not easy in the Irish countryside, particularly back then.
So they attemot to pass themselves of as straight by pretending to date each other. Even though it has serious undertones (ask any gay person how tough that rite of passage is) but Freyner’s film seeks out the joy of it all, particular when the pair discover the pleasure of discovering that we all have ‘family’ in the LGBTQ which makes some of the hard times easy to deal with and get through.
Perfect timing for such a feel-good delicious comedy when we all need to see more of the joyous side of life
Ireland deservedly has a growing reputation for its output of superb queer films right from The Crying Gamei n 1992, and Breakfast in Pluto, The Queen of Ireland, Viva, Handsome Devil, Vita and Virginia etc.etc. Dating Amber makes a great new addition to this list
ON DEMAND AND DIGITAL: November 13, 2020
