It seems almost any gay director make at least one coming-of-age drama. Problem is many of them are surprisingly unrelatable. Sometimes it's too tragedy ridden melodrama, sometimes it's too pink tinted image of what the director wished but never really had in reality.
'I love you more' is much calmer, gentler drama. Especially the psychology of the teenage character in his first love, with all his idealism, anxiety, moodiness and blind drive, is depicted fairly realistically. Now as a grown-up, I find him incredibly annoying, but I can't deny I definitely shared a lot of the characters when I was about his age.
It's not a perfect product. Ben's life and surrounding lacks the nitty gritty of real life, sceneries are all a bit too majestic every time, parents (especially mom) shows the patience of a saint... Overall everything is shimmering in a sort of golden light of late summer evening. I think it's the director looking back his childhood and his motherland with nostalgia... But at times I wished to see just a bit more rawness.
Nevertheless I still think 'I love you more' is a positive addition to the extensive list of gay coming of age films, if nothing else than for the relatable depiction of the teenage psychology.
