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Whole New Thing
by PICTURE THIS
| List Price: |
$24.95 |
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$22.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$2.46 (9%) |
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DVD
WOLFE VIDEO
Publisher: PICTURE THIS
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Actors: Aaron Webber, Robert Joy, Rebecca Jenkins, Daniel MacIvor, Kathryn MacLellan
Aaron Webber makes an outstanding feature-film debut in WHOLE NEW THING as 13-year-old Emerson, a precocious homeschooled boy who spends most of his time, when not alone in his room, with his very liberal parents and his parents' friends. He takes naked saunas and smokes dope with his mother, Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins), and father, Rog (Robert Joy), and gives erotic back rubs to their female frien
Emerson Thorsen, 13, lives with his parents in their eco-home in the wilds of Nova Scotia. The precocious teen has completed his first book, writing and illustrating all 1000 pages of it. Meanwhile, the home-schooled youth can barely add 2 + 2, so his mother enrolls him in the local junior high. Emerson isn t happy about the move, and has trouble fitting in at the new school.
One of Emerson s new teachers is Don Grant, a 42-year old closeted gay man. Emerson initially is scornful of his teacher, but when Emerson speaks up in class, Don treats his ideas seriously. Emerson's scorn changes to respect, but soon he develops his first crush on Don. Emerson throws himself into this awakening of the heart with dangerous abandon. Don, who isn t out to the students, reacts with alarm. Eventually, Don has to learn how to curb Emerson's feelings without crushing his spirit. In the process, both student and teacher learn valuable lessons about surviving growing pains.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Unexpected Charmer in a Twisted Plot |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Mix up a stale marraige, a lonely single high school teacher (who happens to be gay), a young teenager trying to comprehend love and sexuality; then toss in some adultery, prostitution and bullying, and you have "Whole New Thing". It's all here in this 90 minute Canadian film. Aaron Webber (Emerson) is delightful as the 13 year old lead in this film. It's mostly a rather sad dramatic movie, but there are moments of laughter, plenty of angnst from all the characters, and ample twists. It's about understanding, love and seeing life from another point of view. It's put together well, and nicely acted. A movie I would watch again.
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| A good coming of age movie |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I enjoyed this movie. Emerson, the star of show, did steal the spotlight. The plot was fairly conventional. Boy knows he gay and an accomplished writer, goes to public middle school, and falls in love, for no particular reason, with his closeted gay English teacher. Don, the teacher, is horrified about having this 13-year-old trying to seduce him. Emerson's parents are thoroughly laid back about his sexuality and they are having their own marital difficulties. Emerson is a gifted writer who had been home schooled up to this time is both sophisticated and naive. He discovers that many of his classmates have taken very dim view of him. This is something that should been expected in rural Nova Scotia. The only thing keeping this from five stars is that the situation is somewhat contrived. Emerson's father is a neo-hippy, environmentalist who is trying to make some money with this energy saving gizmos. The father's wife is unfaithful and bored in the marriage and is having a very visible affair with a neighbor. The home is eclectic and cosmopolitan. There really is no resistance to Emerson's sexuality from the family. Don who is having his own difficulties with his former lover is in a terrible situation. He has no romantic feelings for the boy and he is desperately trying to keep his sex life from a not too friendly teachier in the school. I compare this movie with a similar movie, "Wild Tigers I have Known" and it is superior to that because the school situation is fully explored, although the main character seems to be more realistic. However, toward the end the movie becomes a "disease of the week" melodrama. I thought the ending was terribly unconvincing; at the end, the cast could well have held hands and sang Kumbiya. So four stars it is.
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| Not a whole NEW THING! |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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I enjoyed the movie. I understand that sexually coming out for the young man is a whole new thing for him personally, but the subject matter is NOT a Whole New Thing.
It is not a horrible movie, but I would not claim it to be one of my favorite stories about a young man having a crush on his school teacher. Worth seeing.
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| Post-gay and a nearly exceptional. Nearly. |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Honestly, this movie is more a 3.5 star film but I gave it 3, since it was too frustrating to deserve a 4. I think it does deserved to be watched once, but I don't think there's enough substance in the film to warrant repeated viewings.
The acting is fine, especially the lead. I think nearly all the other reviewers took notice of Aaron Webber's sterling performance of a precocious child dealing with his first crush. This is not a coming-out movie; Emerson is a post-gay child. He doesn't think of his sexuality in terms of labeling - it just so happens that his first crush is a male teacher.
What prevents this film from being brilliant is that it lacks both edge and ending.
Edge - The relationship between Emerson and Don began to become realling interesting when Emerson started a game of cat-and-mouse with his teacher to seduce him. Unfortunately, this begins and ends all too quickly. It seemed rather weird that Don could be so weak-willed with partners, choosing anonymous bathroom stall sex, and yet be so firm and resolute with a boy cruising him. The john that picks up an anxious Emerson at the end is a weak plot device, more painfully comical that true. It's as if the director and screenwriter wanted to end the movie with Emerson's and Don's virtue intact rather than be bold and make a statement.
Ending - By the end of the movie, I don't feel that Emerson has changed or is more self-aware. If anything, he just learns how cruel the world can be and that some adults will view him as a sexual object. Don's return to his partner, suggested in a brief shared scene, seems like a bandage to his plotline.
The film addresses a very controversial subject - the sexual desires of a minor. But, it also shies away from reality and believability in favor of weak accountability.In the hands of an edgier filmmaker, it could have been a more memorable picture.
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| Finding Self |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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WHOLE NEW THING is another fine little film from Canada, utilizing an excellent cast of Canadian actors to present a modern day conundrum about identity in a manner more sensitive than most other films addressing the subject. Director/writer (with actor Daniel MacIvor) Amnon Buchbinder has created a series of characters, seemingly disparate in age and outlook, who each has a problem coping with who they actually are, and with great skill this story interweaves these fascinating people, isolated by the frigid planes of Nova Scotia into a complex puzzle that answers far more questions about identity than is at first apparent.
Emerson (a strong debut for Aaron Webber) is the thirteen-year-old son of environmentalist/post-hippie parents Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins) and Rog (Robert Joy) whose creative look at life has provided home schooling for Emerson, encouraged his gift for writing, but now find that there are gaps in Emerson's education that suggest enrolling him in the local Middle School might mend. Kaya and Rog are in a stale marriage: each has needs the other can't appreciate. Emerson enjoys his isolation and is not eager to move into the 'mainstream' by attending school. Kaya visits the middle school and meets teacher Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor) whom she invites to her home to meet and impress Emerson. Don is a bright, lovable teacher who has failed in gay relationships, relegating his needs to visits to park restrooms. When Don comes to dinner, Emerson is impressed with Don's acceptance of Emerson's outlook and decides to give the school a chance.
Emerson, long-haired and androgynous in appearance, suffers ridicule at school but finds considerable solace in the classroom atmosphere Don Grant adapts to suit Emerson's intelligent needs. Don is 42 and Emerson is 13 and while they become friends, Emerson develops his first 'crush' on Don. And while this is happening Kaya meets young stud Denny (the always excellent Callum Keith Rennie) and begins an affair. Many moments of electric snaps occur among all of the characters (a matter of whose crisis is more threatening!) and the manner in which each of the confrontations with each character and conjoined demons occur begin to resolve the seemingly improbable results that alter the growth of each.
Part of the success of a film dealing with such subject matter is the manner in which each of the stories is told. There is no crude acting out, no pat answers, and no unnecessary 'drama' for drama's sake. This is a very honest little film that deserves the attention of a wide audience eager to understand the varying motivations of other people. Grady Harp, November 07
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