I Am Jonas

Hauntingly tragic story of young love and innocence broken.

Told from 2 time periods this sensitively told french movie tells of a night of tragedy that would forever leave a scar on our main protagonist Jonas. The director leaves it till the last few scenes for the viewer to put all the pieces together and then have us screaming for answers and resolutions that by the end credits we know are never going to come and we leave the movie, like all the characters, with a sense of hope, tinged with despair.

A powerful coming of age story with a French taste. Jonas (2018) is a TV movie that can beat at least thousands of other movies for the big screen. Its qualities such as depth, a good, mysterious story that slowly unfolds in front of your eyes, and of course our homo problems, that are waiting to be cleared off on a very long queue this time hit you straight in the heart without any superficiality. The characters are true to life and there isn't stereotyping but pure acting as it should be. The movie operates with flashbacks exploring the youth and current days of Jonas, now a troubled 33-year-old guy who's just been thrown out from his boyfriend, because of cheating. The missing segments start to make sense as the movie progress in a perfect aka "Weekend" cinematography. It will make you think about a few of your crushes most probably as it is a very intimate film. A must see!

The texture of the film kinda reminds me of Halt and Catch Fire. Jonas's seek for reconciliation with himself parallels with his search for his lover. Actually I don't think they went as far as lovers, and they were more like teenage crush, but his hallucination of Nathan is still poignant. It's more about how an incident in your teenage years, how some people at that time, are going to determine your emotional reaction to subsequent events in those years leading to your adulthood, even to your middle age. They are haunting you at the most nonchalant or irrelevant moment of your life.

"TV movie" conjures up all manner of negative judgements for me. I may need to revisit that because if I'd "gone with my head" on this, I wouldn't have watched this and I'd have missed out sorely.

This is quality. A really interesting story that touches you. Superb direction and all of the actors are so natural that I wanted more, so much more.

That moment when the two timelines get linked was a 'whoa' moment for me.

I must single out Félix Maritaud as Jonas for some fantastic acting but to a greater extent Nicolas Bauwens as young Jonas. He's effortless in the role. I hope to see him in many more films.

This is a movie that I wish I hadn't seen, for the simple reason that I wish I could get to enjoy it all over again for the first time!

Other reviewers have pointed out flaws in this film. 9th grade is clearly inappropriate, and the new boy sequence is a worn-out cliche. In several respects, this film could have been more imaginatively conceived. However in a time when we are ever more concerned with mental health issues and their root causes, this film is an interesting exploration of deep trauma affecting psychological health in later life. I am not sure if Jonas wins through in the end, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Nonetheless, a moving story. For anyone who thinks that anti-gay sentiment in schools is a thing of the past, think again.