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Inertia reigns over most of the dramatic scenes in Wild Tigers. Logan spends much time silently staring into mirrors, staring at anyone who speaks to him, or just plain staring into the camera. In his many scenes with his two friends Rodeo and Joey, they lackadaisically sit or lie about together in their bedrooms.

There is very little dialogue, and when characters do speak to each other, they rarely connect. Logan's school counselor questions him about the anti-gay harassment he suffers at school, but Logan barely responds. His school principal calls an assembly and lectures the entire school about tolerance and diversity, but the students sit mute and blank-faced.

In scene after scene, Logan silently drifts through his school environs like a stranger in a strange land. And no matter who speaks to the mopey, simmering Rodeo, he stays locked within his teen loner status and barely communicates anything back.

Wild Tigers repeatedly shows the results of people's actions without ever showing the actions themselves. In one scene, Logan sits motionless with a bloody nose, but we never see the punch that caused it. In another, Logan's mother comforts him regarding his sexual confusion, saying, "Don't worry, it gets better." But there is no scene in which she discovers he is gay or finds him cross-dressing. We don't know how she knows what she knows.

And in a scene featuring Logan and Rodeo alone together, Logan moves his foot closer to Rodeo's. Then there's a quick cut to a scene in which Logan is washing his mouth, and Rodeo says, "We have to go now." Did they have sex?

Cam Archer's radically different approach to filmmaking — especially as it pertains to gay teenage coming-of-age movies within the larger queer cinema genre — has caused quite a splash at recent film festivals all over the world. Gay audiences and reviewers tend to either laud or deride his work. His depictions of gay identity as something intensely alienated, creepy and fantasy-driven have been seen by some as dispelling gay stereotypes, but by others as advancing them.

All in all, for a film that's all about adolescent gay male sexuality, Wild Tigers is strangely asexual and nonerotic. Logan's several solo masturbations scenes are somewhat geeky and unappealing. He is not terribly attractive as either a gay or transgender teen, and Logan's delusional thinking may leave some gay viewers feeling that Archer's characterization of gay adolescence in today's world has missed the mark.

As a screenwriter, Archer creates simple, conventional gay characters and an equally simple, conventional gay-themed plot. But as a director and editor, he presents a final product that is anything but simple and conventional.

Archer stands by his method. He told Filmmaker Magazine in 2006 about Wild Tigers: "There's nothing historical here. No truths. It's about emotion, style and the search for identity. It's a film about a kid's first crush, which is a very emotional, visual experimental time, so why not let the film be something of an experiment? Aren't people sick of the same old indies, with their handheld cameras and reality TV acting? I sure am."

Thinking about Wild Tigers I Have Known is like trying to recall a dream. One recounts many disjointed visual and sonic images that somehow combine together to produce an overall emotional effect, yet one cannot make logical sense of the whole. Of course, this may be just what Archer intended.

For more on the film visit www.wildtigersfilm.com.

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