Phillip Bartell's "Crush" is a terrific, breezy, sweet short film that debuted at film festivals in 2000. Brett Chukerman is perfect as the Robbie -- the slightly alarmed, innocent, closeted young gay teenager spending the summer with his grandmother in a small town. When just-becoming-a-teenager Tina (the endearing and dead-on Ema Tuennerman) develops a crush on the piano-playing, sitcom-loving Robbie, you know it's got to end badly -- especially because they both have a crush on the same boy-band/teen actor! It's tenderhearted-teen-girl-gets-crush-on-closeted-gay-cutie, but the film is so wonderfully nuanced and manages to nail the closeted life right on the head that you don't care that it's got to end with some broken hearts. But don't worry: Bartell isn't cruel enough to let either our hero or heroine sit forlornly in the park! Love (and friendship) wins out in the end. Pay special note to the terrific soundtrack by Boris Worister, the bashful performance by Weston Mueller as hunk-a-licious Tim, and Jack Rogers as the clueless cute Casey. Bartell promises to turn "Crush" into a feature-length film, but it's perfect JUST AS IT IS!
