For some people i can expect that this wouldn't be so perfect to them , but damn this is perfect to me. i can say that i've cried about 3 times while watching this specially at the end , which is satisfying compared with other German gay movies i have seen such as : summer storm , land of storms , free fall , sasha , beach rats .... as if Germans have this kind of love or relationship issues , but that one broke the rule . i loved how the story began with his childhood and then he met Gino and fell in love with him , oh poor pim . also want to add that i liked the song at the end very much . i really got attached to that movie .

Belgian/Flemish films are not shown too often, but it is always interesting to broaden mental outlook and obtain information about different cultures and approaches. Noordzee, Texas includes multiple topics uncommon in most films: gay coming of age, life in the middle of nowhere governed by winds, dunes and tides, irresponsible way of living in a closed community, for example. Life is monotonous, with any arrival or departure creating an event, but children grow and adults exist, and all this may have unexpected solutions and perspectives. Performances are good, realistic (particularly Jelle Florizoone as Pim, Eva Van Der Gucht (as Yvette, Nina Marie Kortekaas as Sabrina), but due to the complexity and versatility of elements, the plot is not seamless, the balance between slow and fast scenes is odd sometimes. Anyway, strong 7 points from me, with a recommendation to watch - unless you are conservative or homophobic.

This film disappointed me because the language used is some very clean and un-natural "dixi-antwerps". As the film plays at the sea side, it makes the accent even more unrealistic.The movie is based on a novel and it feels like the dialogs have been taken literally which doesn't take into account how much more tolerant written language is compared to spoken.Further, it feels like the scenes chosen drop a bit out of context, with little introduction as to why the characters feel towards one another like they do.All in all, I found it mechanical and I didn't manage to feel with the characters.

A wonderful film about growing up gay and straight: discovering who you are, what love might mean, and learning to deal through trial and error with the world around you.Set in a lower class neighborhood near the Belgian coast sometime around 1960, the story follows a boy, Pim, and two slightly older neighbor children Gino and Sabrina, from about the age of six or eight until their late teens.Neglected by a mother who dreams of being swept off to romantic places, the younger boy is more or less adopted by the mother of the two neighbor children. The film resonates with an affectionate realism that does not treat kids as wholly innocent or without personal resources. It deals on every level with knowing who you are, and then dealing honestly with yourself and with others. In the course of the film, the children discard childhood fantasies in favor of a reality that provides scope for realizing their dreams.The cast is outstanding. The performances of Ben Van den Heuvel and Jelle Florizoone (PIm); Nathan Naenen and Mathias Vergels (Gino); Noor Ben Tahouet, and Nina Marie Koortekaas (Sabrina) as the young / teen aged children are incredible, especially given the age of the actors. Eva van der Gucht and Katelijne Damen play the mothers, in difficult roles - the one flighty and negligent, the other tired and without illusions.The cinematography is superb. It catches both the poetic beauty of the coastal dunes and wet lands as well as the drab reality of lower class neighborhoods in Belgium, with a color sensitivity that is at once realistic and emotive.The movie could have easily settled into maudlin sentimentality or romantic excess, but steered a course through difficult subjects with a mixture of restraint and realistic optimism. Following the showing, every person I talked with found the movie exceptional. Highly recommended.