From debut Australian filmmaker Gabiel Carruba, Sunflower is a coming-of-age story following 17-year-old Leo (Liam Mollica) as he struggles to understand and embrace his sexuality. This is made all the more difficult when he begins to be bullied and tormented by his best friend Boof (Luke J. Morgan) who is also dealing with his own sexual identity crisis.
Sunflower feels like old news. We've seen quite a few LGBTQ+ coming-of-age films and TV shows, especially recently, and many of them do a lot better at presenting the coming-out experience than Sunflower does. This film is riddled with cliché's – the main character is severely underdeveloped, and his only real trait seems to be being gay. There's not a great deal of substance to Leo as a protagonist, despite Mollica trying to add some strands of depth through his performance.
The supporting cast are mainly used as stereotype stand-ins that are given very little to do. Boof plays the archetypal bad boy that could have been a character with an interesting arc, as he too has his own journey of sexuality to explore and his lashing out at Leo could have been a very insightful subject of discussion. But this is never expanded upon.
LGBTQ+ cinema has come so far over the past decade with Call Me By Your Name, All of Us Strangers, and Unicorns, that this feels particularly insignificant. The film struggles to ever fully develop the majority of its characters and the story isn't rich enough to support and invest interest in an 80-minute runtime. Leo, as a protagonist, is never given more to do than just be gay. There's nothing else of great substance to his character, making him feel painfully one-dimensional.
What Carruba does succeed with is making a beautiful-looking film. From a cinematography standpoint, Sunflower is a stunning advertisement for the sun-drenched Melbourne suburbs. The film's score is also a highlight that helps elevate the story slightly.
Sunflower is clearly made with good intentions by Carruba and Co. Adolescence is hard, and adding a conflicting journey about your sexuality on top of that makes thing even harder. Sunflower isn't adding anything new to the conversation and plays everything way too safe when it could have been carving out its own individuality in LGBTQ+ cinema.
Sunflower will be screening as part of One Fluid Night, a film festival passionate about celebrating queer representation in film.
Sunflower will screen at One Fluid Night, 15-17 November 2024
