‘THREE MONTHS’ is an Amazon coming-of-age comedy-drama set in 2011 about a straight acting gay teenager in South Florida, Caleb (Troye Sivan, an Australian singer), who’s about to graduate from high school.
He works as a clerk-vendor in a grocery store where his best friend is a street-smart Asian girl, Dara (Briane Tju), who happens to be having an illicit lesbian affair with their married boss, Suzanne (Judy Greer).
His father died when he was small while his Jewish mom remarried to an Orthodox guy and they cannot accept that he is gay, so he is given away to his loving grandmother, Valerie (Ellen Burstyn), who raised him with her longtime black partner, Benny (Louis Gossett Jr.)
He had just slept with a foreign guy, who later informs him that he’s been diagnosed as HIV positive.
Realizing that the one-night stand might have exposed him to the guy’s virus, he goes to a local clinic where he is told that the waiting time for all the definitive tests on his condition can be determined is an agonizing three months.
During this period, he has to be tested regularly to make sure he is clear and not HIV positive.
While attending a support group meeting in the clinic for gay teenagers, he meets an Indian American guy, Estha (Viveik Kalra), who’s also enduring the same frightening three-month wait that he is going through.
Friendship blooms between them and it’s obvious that they’re both attracted to each other.
Their romance starts with flirting through text messages then they get to date each other. Caleb is the talky, communicative one while Estha is the silent, cautious one.
But they cannot consummate their love because of their condition and, also, Estha’s traditional Indian parents do not know he is gay.
What’s nice about the movie is that writer-director Jared Frieder, in his directorial debut, makes sure that their romantic affair is never overplayed for sentiment.
Sivan and Kalra have a somewhat winsome presence so you will root for them in their interracial LGBTQ romance.
Both are very relatable and sympathetic in their appealing vulnerability, but those who prefer a happy ending should just watch the ending of “Love, Simon” and its ferris wheel scene.
This one has a bittersweet conclusion that is more realistic.
Sivan gives an endearing portrayal of Caleb. He can be sarcastic and cynical at times, but you know it’s just part of his defense mechanism.
He drives a big tandem bicycle and we know he uses it because he inherited it from his dad.
We don’t know if Sivan is really gay but he can easily be a hetero heartthrob who can knock 'em dead with his boyishly charming appeal in more conventional roles.
Kalka gives great support as Estha. He is a British-Indian actor who played the lead in “Blinded by the Light”, a tribute to the music of Bruce Springsteen.
Also outstanding is Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn as Caleb’s accepting and supportive grandma. She was also outstanding in a supporting role in the recent “Pieces of a Woman”.
