WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN

John Anderson

March 2, 2007

WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN (unrated).

The gay adolescent is a metaphor, not to be too blunt about it, the outsider among misfits, the croissant in the bread box. It's a status explored with considerable nerve - and a great eye - by young writer-director Cam Archer, who uses disjointed imagery, textures and clashing sound to create something seamlessly odd and poignantly pubescent.

In his hero, Logan (Malcolm Stumpf), we find a too-pretty boy who longs for hunky Rodeo (Patrick White), the one male at school who doesn't make his life miserable; Logan's longing and Rodeo's tolerance for it make for a curious balance of character, especially since Logan seems perfectly at ease with himself while bringing out the worst in everyone else.

Quasi-experimental and out of the school of such youth-anxiety dramas as David Gordon Green's "George Washington," Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation" and even Jem Cohen's "Chain," "Wild Tigers" shows Archer's aim is true. With Fairuza Balk, Tom Gilroy, Kim Dickens.