Summer Storm (Sommersturm) Reviews

Don't let the trailer mislead you. Summer Storm is not some sort of supersexy European art film. It's kids being kids, and you've outgrown summer camp.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Summer Storm is a contemporary teen summer romance with a modern sexual twist -- though in many ways, it's just the same old malarkey.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

For a small coming-of-age film, this picture is remarkably well photographed and acted. But the single-mindedness with which it seems determined to have almost everyone rowing in the same sexual direction finally becomes a bit oppressive.

| Original Score: 2.5/4

... is always a pleasure to watch but too often crosses the line of the believable for the quick laugh. Enjoy it for its gaily frolicking tone.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Summer Storm is another of those soft-core, simple-minded stories about a geeky young gay man (Robert Stadlober as Tobi) struggling with his sexuality over the course of a long, hot, sexed-up summer.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

A tonally inconsistent coming-out story that wavers between earnest drama and dopey teen sex comedy.

| Original Score: 1.5/4

Hey, Toby, I know what you did last summer: you went gay!

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

The slo-mo opening, accompanied by sappy music, tells you everything you need to know about Summer Storm, an uninspired gay coming-of-age import from Germany.

| Original Score: 1/4

Someone should tell the poor guy that being gay doesn't have to mean being this lame.

Full Review | Original Score: C-

'Coming out' films are now rituals, patterned like dances, and Marco Kreuzpaintner's Summer Storm hits its generic marks.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

While it has little in it that hasn't been covered by other coming-out movies, it's pleasant enough.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

Humor, toned bods, a mellow soundtrack and far too much predictability are the highlights and lowlight of Summer Storm.

| Original Score: 2/4

Its coming-of-age yarn goes nowhere beyond inevitably out of a closet.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

There are at least a couple of disparate movies fighting for control in Summer Storm.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Kreuzpaintner junks up this simple gay coming-of-age story with too many subplots and sitcomlike situations.

| Original Score: 2.5/4

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

It's sunny and frothy, with odd laugh-out-loud moments.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A lovely wallow in the sweaty pains and joys of mostly gay adolescent love.

Full Review

Beautifully shot, with natural acting and sensitive storytelling that honestly grapples with difficult themes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Kreutzpainter limns his multifarious characters with an amiable, unforced humor and an authentic feel for the ways in which good kids respond to peer pressure with less-than-admirable behavior.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

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