Johnnie Allen, a bleach-blond twink who looks about 15 (Jeppe Forsgaard, right, in his first movie role), is in Copenhagen, Denmark, waiting for his first CIA assignment.
I don't believe that for a second. This kid should be auditioning for the role of "gay best friend" in his high school drama club's production of "Musical Rom-Com."
Johnnie meets the older, bigger, but still twink-like Danish boy Sander (Jonas Kyed, who has been acting since 2015, mostly in film school shorts like Flagermusen et Vogteren, about two best friends who pretend to be superheroes until one dies of cancer).
Johnnie is deeply closeted due to his homophobic parents and job with the homophobic Trump Admnistration, and Sander has hidden his gay feelings ever since his junior high boyfriend rejected him and he attempted suicide. So they hit it off as...um...friends.
After about 40 minutes of hitting it off as...um...friends, Johnnie gets his assignment: transport an American double agent named Petrenko from Denmark to Belgium. Sounds dangerous, so of course he invites Sander along.
Finally the international espionage begins: they pick up the spy. Then Sander overhears him talking on the phone -- in English,so he doesn't understand it well, but it's clear that Petrenko is dead, and they're hauling a Russian agent named Kolya (Danny Baertelsen, a "business developer, mentor, speaker, private pilot," and apparently an actor).
Uh-oh, what do they do now? An attempt to arrest him goes wrong -- thee's a shootout, and he steals their car and gets away!
Another shootout, Sander is injured, and the espionage plotline vanishes very quickly, without much resolution. They spend the rest of the movie coming out to each other, having sex, telling Sander's parents that they are boyfriends, and arguing over whether to tell Johnnie's Bible-thumping mother.
You can't help but like this movie. The actors are so enthusiatic -- about acting, about life, about being gay. It's fun watching them and thinking "Was I ever that young? Was anybody?"
Still, I wish there was more espionage and less falling-in-love montage. Some more plot twists, some more tense situations, maybe a kidnapping and nick-of-time rescue,with Sander displaying a knack for capers and deciding to join the team. Instead of the climactic scene being "Why can't we tell your parents?"
Heterosexism: Johnnie and Sander are the only characters with more than three lines of dialogue, so no. Kolya is homophobic, but he's a bad guy, so...
Beefcake: Chests and butts (neither actor is a gym rat), discussions of penises (Sander's is bigger).
Other Sights: Beautiful location shots in Odense (filling in for Copenhagen), rural Denmark, and northern Germany.
Famous Actors: None. This is the only credit for most of the cast.
In the original novel, which appeared in 2018, Johnnie is a 20-year old college student studying in Denmark ("They call it Danmark," he comments inanely, "Which is why they are called Danes." He meets and falls in love with Sander, who "is not what he seems." Is he the spy? That would make a little more sense. Not much, but a little.
And now you know why Johnny is so darn blond.