Set on France’s Normandy coast in 1985, François Ozon’s 20th film bears some similarities to a classic psychological drama of the 1990s. Can you guess which? Crucial encounters take place on a sailboat. An introverted, awkward young man falls under the homoerotic spell of a suave hottie who introduces him to life’s pleasures and holds all the cards—for a while, anyway. On the periphery flutters a pretty young woman who can’t quite put her finger on why the atmosphere feels so charged between these two. There’s mad joy, identity shifts, and the pall of dark obsession in candy-colored sunlight. 

If you named The Talented Mr. Ripley, you guessed right. But Ozon’s teenage version is spikier, younger, and nervier. It’s sexier, featuring one of the hungriest bare-chested screen kisses seen in some time. And most crucially, it moves faster. More filmmakers should follow Ozon’s lead in picking up the pace of psychological dramas and thrillers. The director’s speed lets him take viewers on a wild ride through florid moods and bruising events. 

We first meet slight, blond Alex (Félix Lefebvre) being manhandled by the police as he delivers an internal monologue: “If you don’t want to hear about a corpse I knew when it was alive, if you don’t want to know what happened to him and me and how he became a corpse … This is no story for you.” In a following sequence, the restless youngster takes a borrowed sailboat out to sea, pauses for a nap, and wakes up to a ferocious storm that capsizes the vessel. Out of the roiling waters comes a striking Adonis guiding a boat straight to desperate Alex’s rescue. It’s the first in a number of dreamlike sequences that reads surer and sharper than a reverie.

Alex’s new protector, David (Benjamin Voisin), tows him into shore and insists on inviting him home for a change of clothes. At the strangely sepulchral house, the younger boy can’t take his eyes off David, who fittingly resembles a lynx-like combination of 1980s icons Nicolas Cage and Rob Lowe. We can feel Alex become mesmerized by David’s masculine self-confidence as David confides in him about his father’s recent death, asks insinuating questions, and makes bold plans for their future friendship. Egging on David is his simpering mother (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), eager for David to make a trustworthy new pal and given to her own intrusive gestures. By the time Alex leaves the house wearing David’s borrowed pants and shirt, he’s hooked on an exciting new connection—and so are we.

Ozon hits us with the thrills of young love like a pop of drugs to a vein. David and Alex dance together wildly, fight creeps at the local fairgrounds, take daredevil motorcycle rides where their young bodies torque together, and have sex we don’t see but know is mind-blowing. Alex ups his dependency on David by working for him and maman in their boutique. In the wings, Alex’s parents are anxious about his future; a teacher at his school (Melvil Poupaud in a severely deglamorized perm) thinks he should continue his education. But the blissfully entranced Alex is focused exclusively on his new amour. And when a ditzy English au pair (Philippine Velge) with a comical French accent enters and falls under the spell of David’s hungry eyes, we see disaster approaching. A quarrel, a trauma, and the fulfillment of a strange promise lay out the film’s contours from then on.

Movies often pall when the sexy part is over, but not this one. Alex has to endure some very strange, sad events to come to terms with guilt and a sudden, terrible loss of love. (A cross-dressing sequence is weird, scary, and, in the end, bizarrely funny.) Tenderness comes from Alex’s supportive parents and from the au pair, an unexpected ally. Summer of 85 touches on many strong emotions, all with sympathy and understanding.

In a wise artistic choice, Ozon does not overdo the film’s 1980s nostalgia with now-overused Almodóvar–esque design overkill or a soundtrack grinding out the hits. He relies on a few well-chosen songs and unfussy production design and compositions, captured on 16mm film that suffuses the whole with the color and texture of a revisited memory. His restrained touch lets us focus on what really matters: this movie’s beguiling mix of infatuation, tragedy, and, finally, unforgettable love.