Shed My Skin

Anyone who has seen 10 coming-of-age films in his life will have had at least 5 déjà-vus. Many stories are very similar and this TV production is also very didactic and problematizes pretty much everything that can be found and unfortunately dives deep into the cliché box. Milan, the main character, is not even particularly likeable, but who of the other characters is? The attempt to show a realistic picture of being gay in the provinces here may sound familiar to some, but the film was made in 2015, not 1985, so it seems a bit dated and might be good material to teach a school class, but for a grown gay man like me, it's something of a yawn. Have we really not moved on socially yet?

I'm so happy to see this kind of representation about discovering yourself and understanding what identifying as "gay" means. Throughout the whole movie I saw myself going through those same moments of rage, seeking acceptance in the arms of strangers and grieving for everything I cannot provide to my own family. Great movie, indeed! Oh, and the soundtrack! Superb! I wish more people would see this one. My only remark is that the ending is not as powerful as the whole movie, but that's okay because the movie is not about the ending but about Milan's self-discovery journey along with his family.

"Shed My Skin", or "Aus der Haut", is an excellent movie, number 2,799 in my personal digital library.

I give "Shed My Skin" an IMDb rating of 8.0.

However, after reading the reviews of "Shed My Skin" in IMDb, I must wonder if I viewed the same film as the two fellow reviewers currently listed as of this writing. So, being a reasonable fellow, I enlisted the attendance of two native Germans originally from Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, to sit with me in my second viewing in order to critique my critique and thereby keep me honest. Incidentally, both of these fellows graduated from Heidelberg University with multiple advanced graduate degrees, and both of these fellows are probably still employed by The Federal Intelligence Service or in German the Bundesnachrichtendienst ( BND), the foreign intelligence agency of Germany equivalent to the CIA, directly subordinated to the German Chancellor's Office in Berlin, and therefore I must assume that they are not idiots. But they are gay, and they have been a couple together from their gymnasium days in Saxony-Anhalt.

As a retired career U.S. Navy intelligence officer age 94, I never inquire too closely into the current employment status of former and or current intelligence officers from any country.

I asked this pair to view this film after determining that neither had seen or even knew about "Aus der Haut" before my invitation, but I suspected that the story contained within this movie mirrored their own personal history during their gymnasium studies, given that they are of the same age and I knew that they have been together since those tender years. As it turned out, I was right. In spades.

In a nutshell, both of my young visiting friends and the young movie protagonists had the same unequal social-economic status as adolescents, both had enlightened and ultimately supportive families consisting of one or two parents, both were bright and creative, and both of these completely decent and wholly honorable guys were then struggling with the problems attending their being gay and being in love. With each other. Although, as in the movie, both dealt with these matters in very different ways, indeed.

Over a long evening the three of us ended up viewing "Shed My Skin" twice, focusing on casting, script, action staging, directing, and the usual technical aspects of successful moving-making. At the end of which my friends wanted to assign an IMDb rating of 10 to the movie, but out of prudent moderation and my personal recognition that they were unduly enthused by seeing what they saw as a cinema-graphic retelling of their personal teenage lives, I demurred with an IMDb rating of 8.

Parenthetically, I am fluent in German, as well as in several other languages, and both of my guests are fluent in English, as well as in many other languages, so we all agreed that the downloaded subtitles were quite adequate. And the three of us all agreed that the other two IMDb reviewers needed to have their heads examined.

May I be permitted to respectfully recommend that you see "Shed My Skin" or "Aus der Haut"?

For countries where homosexuality is still taboo, a lot of families can relate to this esp teenagers whose going through this phase of life. Parents can learn a lot from this movie on how to handle manage lgbt children esp if they're still confuse about thier sexuality. This was like a modern Prayers for Bobby movie minus the suicide part.

The movie show the true story about difficults of many actually youngs.