It wasn’t too long ago that queer people couldn’t walk away from a love story without seeing themselves die first. Killing off queer characters was apparently the only way to get straight audiences to understand the magnitude of their love. After films like , which also takes place over the course of just a couple of days. But here, a different, more youthful display of queer naivety spills out before us. Adam and Nikola will resonate with anyone who has had something pulled away from them without just cause. Not all relationships have an irreparable fissure. Some just cannot move forward due to forces outside of our own control. Arguably, those are even more detrimental. At least when the foundation is cracked, it makes sense when something splits.
Of An Age stunningly details how, for queer people especially, the most formative moments are often fleeting. It’s why stories of queer longing have become so wildly frequent.
There are endless tales to be told with one violently powerful feeling. Some connections have a time clock, no matter how badly we don’t want them to end. What happens if (or maybe, inevitably, when) we become stuck on them? Love—like its bedfellow, grief—can bruise you forever if you don’t know how to handle its power. Even then, sometimes you have no choice but to stay in its grip until you’re beyond black and blue, flush with red-hot rapture all over.
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