SXSW Review: Riveting And Insightful Documentary 'Tab Hunter Confidential' Reveals The True Story Of A Hollywood Star

Tab Hunter was a teen idol in the mid 20th century: he starred in dozens of films, appeared on countless magazine covers and recorded the #1 pop song "Young Love" in 1957. Yet the entire time he was in the public eye, Hunter closely guarded his private identity as a gay man, even while engaging in fairly public relationships with "close friends" like Anthony Perkins (the tabloid Confidential threatened to expose his involvement in a "limp wristed pajama party" at the time). "Tab Hunter Confidential" is so enjoyable principally through many interviews with Hunter himself, who makes clear that he wasn't a stereotypical tortured, self-loathing homosexual. He was an amazingly well adjusted, clean-cut kid who followed his gut and loved who he wanted to love; his behavior was quietly groundbreaking.

At the start of this documentary, which is based in part on a book of the same name that Hunter wrote with Eddie Muller, he seems reluctant...