Welcome to the Holidays. I need something to cheer me up, so I check Amazon Prime for some indy schlock, and Days of the Bagnold Summer appears: A teen spends his summer listening to heavy metal music and trying to get along with his librarian mother. What the heck is a "bagnold"? Maybe British rhyming slang for "old bag"? And, more importantly, is the teenager gay?
There is no synopsis on Wikipedia and just a minimal one on IMDB, but at least IMDB clears up the Bagnold mystery: It's Mom and son's last name. So the head-scratcher title turns out to be perfectly inane.
Another states that Mom and son have a "chalk and cheese relationship." Never heard of it, and I've been to England five times.
A couple of reviews just state "a sweet and tender coming of age story." Coming-of-age stories usually involve a boy meeting the Girl of His Dreams, but the top cast list doesn't include any teenage girls, or teenage boys for that matter. After Mom and Son, it lists: Elliot Speller-Gillott (little boy), Tamsin Grieg (middle-aged woman), Ony Uhiara (middle-aged woman), Rob Brydon (middle-aged man), and Paul Michael Bradley, who plays Teen Server.
Wait -- the photo for Elliot Speller-Gillot on IMDB is outdated. He's now grown up, old enough to play an androgynous Oscar Wildean type in Love Charlotte 81. Maybe he's the boyfriend.
No, this is actually from an article on "100 Reasons Why You Should Love Charlotte." #81 is: She's Elliot Speller Gillot "if you glue on Empie's hair and nose."
I'm really down a rabbit hole of interlocking obscure references here. I'm not going to bother looking up Charlotte, or Empie. Let's go on to see if the Teenager, played by Earl Cave, is gay.
One article states that Earl Cave is the son of Nick Cave!!! , but gives no further details, like who the heck is Nick Cave? The Daily Star tells us that Earl is the son of a "very famous Dad," but when I try to access the article, I get text blocked by pop-ups asking me to accept cookies, then asking me to subscribe. On to Google.
The first reference I hit tells me that Nick Cave is the androgynous, Oscar Wildean author of The Death of Bunny Munroe and lead singer of the band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
That sounds way too obscure. There must be another Nick Cave, a famous actor or director.
Maybe it's the Nick Cave who is starring as H.G. Wells in The Electric Life of Louis Wain? But it's a minor role.
Skip that for now. I'll just look up Earl Cave, the Teen. One problem: Google Images tells me that the guy in the top photo is Earl Cave, but he's too old to play a teenager.
Also this boy in drag, who looks like he could be the son of the Oscar Wildean author Nick Cave.
And this person, who doesn't look like either of the others.
I've been conducting research for an hour, and I'm still no closer to figuring out if this movie is about a gay teen. There is no trailer on Amazon Prime, and the one on IMDB doesn't work.
Finally, success! Youtube has a trailer: frazzled Mom, surly teen, laundry, tattoo, hair-cutting, yelling, suicide attempt, arguing at the airport, arguing at the beach, arguing at a diner, yoga class, Mom on a date with a man, cooking class....
Ulp....Teen sitting on the couch beside a Girl, Teen on a date with a Girl. She must be very far down on the cast list, but she's there, the Girl of His Dreams.
An hour and 12 minutes to determine that this movie is gay-free. And I didn't even find any beefcake.
Welcome to the Holidays.