Pure Male Matter - Blu-ray

Movie: Michael (Nicholas Braun) and Matty (Hunter Cope) have been best friends since childhood and have been through all the ups and downs of high school life together. So it's also clear that since they finally want to lose their virginity, they break up on the same night with their girlfriends, with whom just nothing wants to go. Because by prom at the latest, their virginity should be a thing of the past. But this friendship pact takes an unexpected turn when Matty announces to his best friend that he is gay. At first, Michael has trouble coming to terms with this drastic change. But then he realizes that this changes absolutely nothing about his friendship with Matty. And so he wants to help his buddy find a suitable candidate for the first time. But the new situation is not as easy for their friendship as the two had imagined. And the fact that Michael then also falls in love with Matty's ex-girlfriend Em (Dakota Johnson) doesn't make things any easier...

Pure Man Thing starts out like a typical teen comedy of the post-American Pie era. Here, hormone-driven high school students talk nonstop about sex and genitalia, and the fear quickly arises that this is just another raunchy farce. But already the scene in which it is shown how differently Michael's and Matty's breakups with their girlfriends go, can dispel this fear at least a little bit. And at the latest from the moment Matty comes out, the film transforms into a charming and refreshingly light-hearted coming-of-age comedy about friendship, finding sexual identity and dealing with big changes.

While there are still the one or other gag of the somewhat raunchier kind and some small scenes already overshoot the mark. But overall, director Chris Nelson tells a really nice story with his second feature film that skillfully avoids many common and obvious clichés. Instead, his production relies on amusing dialogue and likeable characters whose behavior is all too human in many moments. Especially the drawing of the friendship between Matty and Michael is very successful. It's clear that Michael wants to stand by his best buddy and at first says that nothing will change for him. But little by little he realizes that Matty's confession has changed a lot and that he has a harder time dealing with these changes than he thought before.

The fact that Matty's homosexuality still plays the central role on the surface, but that it's really about mastering the difficult threshold to adulthood and finding one's place in life in general, lifts Reine Männersache clearly above the level of many other high school comedies. Certainly, those who expect truly sophisticated auteur cinema here and are quickly offended by very direct language will find little to warm to in this charming comedy. But if you generally have a soft spot for likeable buddy stories and entertaining teen comedies, you definitely shouldn't miss this home movie premiere. Absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The Blu-ray's picture pleases with a very coherent color scheme and a high level of image sharpness, with hardly any noticeable drop-off in quality even in darker scenes. As is actually the norm for a comedy of this nature, the audio is primarily driven by the dialogue and soundtrack. While the surround channels are called upon from time to time, true multi-channel fireworks should not be expected. Good!

Extras: The bonus material of the Blu-ray is unfortunately completely without subtitle options, so a good knowledge of English is mandatory here. Things kick off with a very sympathetic and interesting audio commentary by director Chris Nelson and screenwriter Alan Yang, who talk about autobiographical influences, the soundtrack and shooting in Vancouver, among other things. After a very lively beginning, there are some lengthy pauses in the second half of the film, so the commentary is well worth listening to, especially in the first thirty minutes.

Other extras include seven cut scenes (approx. 8:42 min.), which include an alternate ending, a short but decent making of (approx. 10:59 min.), and a featurette about the shooting of the prom scene (approx. 7:32 min.). Good!

Conclusion: Purely Male is a charming and thoroughly funny comedy about friendship, finding sexual identity, and dealing with big changes. Even though director Chris Nelson definitely uses standard teen comedy humor here and there, he always manages to avoid overused clichés and enriches his film with moments that seem very authentic. The Blu-ray presents the film in good picture and sound quality, the bonus material is worth listening to and watching, but doesn't have any subtitle options. Overall, it's all enough for a more than satisfied: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp