By Lucy Beltrami
This review was originally published as part of Film Inquirer’s Melbourne International Film Festival coverage in 2022
Intimate and emotional, Of an Age is a story of queer self-discovery, yearning and fatalistic love which is deeply grounded in the way it captures what it was like to be a queer person from an immigrant family in the late 90s. Director Goran Stolevski delights in soft focus and tight framing, characters faces often filling almost the entire frame as they muse on Kafka or Tori Amos, creating simultaneous feelings of intimacy and claustrophobia. As such, Melbourne becomes a prison to the characters, home to all of your oppressors and enemies, but through love you may be set free, even for just one fleeting, beautiful moment. It’s a film which is as humorous as it is heart-wrenching, and one that is deeply reverent of queer classics like Beau Travail (1999) and Happy Together (1997). With all this and an absolutely killer soundtrack, Of an Age was undoubtedly a highlight of my MIFF 2022.
Of an Age can be seen in cinemas now.
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY FILM INQUIRER 