Dream On (2013)

This is a rather disappointing British gay coming of age drama that runs just a bit too much to stereotype for me. Paul (Bradley Cross) is a bit under the thumb when he goes on holiday with his rather bossy mother "Denise" (Janet Bamford) to a North Wales campsite. There he runs into the more savvy "George" (Joe Gosling). What now ensues sees the lads gradually drawn together, in spite of the ever domineering mother. It's clearly been made on a shoestring budget, and that reflects across both the embarrassingly basic production and the frequently quite ripe writing. What is does do, by pitching the two together quite suddenly in this rather unglamorous location, is give us a genuine roughness to the story. It is basic, but honest and faintly endearing as the two begin to realise it's not the girls that they really want. It's still worth a watch. It takes a swipe at Mrs. Thatcher's 1980s Britain - not the most welcoming for gay people of any age - and though the humour misses more (for me, anyway) than it hits, it has a story to tell.