Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

This documentary shows the everyday experiences of the “muxes,” a group of homosexual, cross-dressing, and transsexual persons, who live their identities through a series of performative acts in the town of Juchitán. In doing so, they transgress the traditional roles and expectations that a patriarchal society has for both their men and women. Furthermore, their actions are presented in the film as everyday acts of defiance towards heteronormative patterns—that is, manners of interpreting the sexed body that have come to be considered acceptable by patriarchal societies. On the sun-baked Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico lies the town of Juchitan, whose population of indigenous Zapotecs have for centuries warded off numerous invasions to preserve their identity. Today, Juchitan has an additional, more notorious, identity, as a "queer paradise" famous for its Muxes, effeminate homosexual men whose socially defined role within the Zapotec culture pre-dates the advent of gay libe...

Touted as a wild ride thorough the world of Hollywood decadence as seen through the eyes of pumped-up, cross-dressing Tinseltown reject Beverly Johnson; this film was so bad that I can't even begin to start writing. Full of cringe, over the top everything, this is a good example of cringe with a paper thin plot that doesn't offer much, some good eye candy and weird Hollywood impersonators to add so called comedy to the whole film. It was bad on all accounts. Beverly Jackson, a buff, masculine guy in obviously absurd drag is a wannabe actor who is denied a role in an upcoming musical at the Pride Playhouse: this sets off the idea of revenge that is supposed to be the main line of the plot. But we have a few other side stories that take majority of the plot. There is a young gay man Shane who works at the theatre who gets dumped by his boyfriend for a hotter guy. He is also doing auditions for a lot of wannabe's who can pretend to be Hollywood impersonators for Shane and Beve...

This random show on BRAVO tv came long time back. So watching it now feels very very dated. But sometimes these brainless shows can add some fun in an otherwise boring life. Clearly, not to be taken seriously and only for entertainment purposes. The makers come up with the most randomest reasons on why it is great to be queer and you just sit back relax and chuckle on absurdity of it all. This is list of reason they give. 19. So Many Ways To Be Gay 18. You're Hilarious 17. Showtunes 16. Fag Hags 15. Lesbians Look Great on TV 14. Scaring Straight People 13. Parades 12. Mommie Dearest 11. You Have The Best Names 10. Acting Gay Pays Off 9. LUGs (Lesbians Until Graduation) 8. Gaydar Has a Real Estate Function 7. Oscar Loves Gay Characters 6. Disco 5. You Get To See Everybody Naked 4. Cowboys 3. No Divorce 2. You Invented Everything 1. Cher We just see views and thoughts of some queer celebrities and comedians on this list (which personally I do think it is quite funny). At just about 5...

This documentary reminded me so much of the whole Matthew Shepard story in the US. Somehow I wasn't familiar with this story that happened in France in 2002. Three French skinheads happened upon Francois Chenu, a 29-year-old gay man and beat him viciously to death. With no explaining voiceover, this French documentary plunges us into the grief of Francois' father, mother, and sister "730 days after the murder." They are still having a hard time coming to terms with the loss of Francois and the violent and senseless way in which he died. The documentary arrives at essential truths about suffering and loss through abstract means. At a coffee shop, François’s sister relives the day she told her parents about her brother’s death. But the mother corrects her, probably with a hint of bitterness that suggests resentment for not having learned of her son’s death first or, more likely, an attempt to compensate for the fact that she will never know the full extent of what her s...

Considered by many porn connoisseurs to be a genre-defining classic, the epic film BuckleRoos, a softcore porn flick about a pair of gay rodeo cowboys who discover love thanks to a magical belt buckle and a mysterious man in black, is the subject of this documentary. This documentary covers the 17 day behind the scenes look of making of this film. Now, I am not sure why anyone would come up with a behind the scenes documentary of a porn film, and even more bizarre is the fact that people like me end up watching it. What's wrong with me? It starts with the director recounting how and his co-director came up with the idea and agreed to make the film. They walk us through process of short listing their lead actors, the places film was shot, focusing more on the various sex scenes and what went into making those. The film ends up with how successful this porn eventually became leading it to win many awards. I personally have not seen it, but I can see the crew, the directors, the produ...

WTF was this film? A trailer trash campy film that has no reason to exist. In its 75ish minute run time, its just sequences of our leading man having dreams, meeting men and then engaging in some sex. Unless there is a hidden, very deep philosophical meaning to all this, this film was an absolute waste of time (minus some good looking twinkly men and their penises) Channel lives with his boyfriend in Olympia, Washington. In his dreams he is ordered by a drag queen to visit Chicago and visit drag bars. Despite opposition by his boyfriend, Channel follows his dreams to the Windy City where he wastes no time in whoring himself out for living accommodations. He visits drag bar and there he gets into some kind pf trance where his past mystery life collides with present. But now it's too late, and a vengeful apparition named "Ant" has already taken control of Chanel's body and mind. At the house he is staying, he meets another guy and the trio start a journey of sorts follo...

A film that Strats off a bit light hearted and funny showing us every characters witty homo/hetero scale, it soon end sup becoming a provocative drama about a very unhappy gay man, who is so frustrated falling for wrong men and being single that he volunteers to be the experimental subject of a new pill destined to change gay men to straight. Tim, a single man in his 30s is surrounded by some very loving co-workers but is still always single and desperately looking for love. He has a crush on the new office hire Matt, who it turns out has a girlfriend. Best Tim gets is the occasional quickies with his straight bet friend Don, bisexual and married. His best friend from school is Joey, who means well , is always happy and content and goes partying, wants to take Tim out to live a little but that not Tim's scene and all he wants is to find love. Then there is a girl Sally who has always loved Tim but knows she can never have him. So when a company announces this new experimental drug,...

Don't let this film title fool you. There is absolutely no flirting going on here - neither with Anthony or with anyone else. The first 15 minuted itself is a weird sexual and torture perversion, without giving you any context at all, and I was like am I watching a wrong movie or something? And when the film finally starts, it gos into some other zone which is even worse. In the beginning we see Anthony in some garage Locke and being abused and then some guy comes and rescues Anthony and together they abuse the other guy (totally random with no context). Net we know, Anthony lives together with Donna and her gay brother. When Donna's father die, they decide to go on a road trip. They meet few people and sex encounters with few male hookers. And they also end up meeting one of the guys form the original gang. That guy and Anthony have hot torrid sex in a public bathroom. Anthony falls for this guy and decides to stay with him. Donna decides to leave them both and drive away from...

Every single gay man is familiar with Bathhouses. They may or may not have visited one, but they know of it. The bathhouse - a place where gay men can go to relax, kick off their shoes (and clothes) and enjoy each other's company. The idea of this film is to take you into this world of towel clad men, back room sex and the search for that ever elusive perfect boyfriend (don't ask why anyone would think of getting a boyfriend here). We are introduced to a famous Bathhouse and its patrons. Genesis owns and runs the club and makes sure only the good looking guys become members. Every year, one person is also chosen to be "the guy" who gets to enjoy everything for free. This guy is the hunky Kris, who everyone wants to sleep with and he gets to choose or reject. We then meet a young college boy Rico who is just discovering his sexuality and ends up joining the club when he is invited by Kris who sees him on a bus one day. Rico is clear that he wants only monogamy and fall...

This film is absolutely insane. The treatment is nothing like I have seen before. With a mix of period piece, with modern rap and dance numbers, the characters move from one period to another in a jiffy. The insanity of the film trying tomato itself a cult or something of sorts with showing off the wild whacky side of the characters, this film is absolutely not for everyone. Yaji and Kita are two samurai men living in Edo period Japan who are in love. One is married, the other is a drug addict. Yaji wants Kita to kick off his drug addiction. They decide that in order to make things better they will go on a trip to Ise Sanctuary, where its presumed, everything will be made right. What happens once they get on the road is the movie and its as wild and wacky as anything your likely to see. On their way they meet various gender bending characters laced with gay jokes, romance, spoofs of films and music (and musical numbers), trips through time and space etc etc.  The film actually star...

This is not a gay film and if you know me, I like to make some things clear right at the onset. The reason I am reviewing it here is that our lead is a gay man who is struggling a little with choice of his love and also because this film gets circulated in the queer library. But at its heart it has nothing to do with our lead's sexuality. The film is rural, rustic and set in a time period, which I am not very sure, because just when you think everything is in early years in rural setting, you see something modern and so you are not sure what's going on. There is a group called warriors, who help lords in catching of thieves, bandits, kidnappers act in the rural towns and jungles etc. When the most wanted bandit kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy landowner, who reigns over the shepherds of the area, its time to track him down. Fogo is the lead warrior who is pretty popular for his quick results. He teams up with two other warriors with other unique qualities to team up with him. ...

I knew nothing about the man Peter Berlin, who he was, what was his claim to fame or anything of that sorts. Despite that I was pleasantly surprised by this documentary. Peter Berlin, as how he rechristened himself, was a strong, complex, fascinating man who stays true to himself and lives his life to the fullest. It is fascinating, how he understood the human psyche of what would get him attention and love and played to that human need. He knew he was good looking and charming, so he created a character called Peter Berlin, turning it into a fixed figure of the streets of San Francisco, and photographing it himself in erotic and very very suggestive images, among other things.  Told through a series of interviews by some famous people who knew him or of him, the story just gets better when we see footage of his wrk, his films and interview with the man himself. He had a great social life. He created this enigma about himself, where people wanted to be with him. Self admiringly, he...

I had seen this film way back in early 2000's when I had just been exposed to the queer films and also before I started writing my blog. So, I am glad I got to watch it again, relive how much fun this movie was to watch and how I wish more makers make this sort of light hearted comedy films which don't tale life too seriously. We all deserve to have a good time once in a while, when we can forget our stress and worries and just have a good time. A Parisian couple, Mac and Beatrix, are enjoying a seaside summer holiday with their teenage son and daughter. While the daughter is off for a biking adventure with her boyfriend, Their son Charly is with them. Charly's best friend Martin also joins them later for vacation. The couple falsely convinces themselves that Charly is gay and that Martin is his boyfriend. Marc is initially uncomfortable with the idea but Beatrix is very happy. But the truth is only Martin is gay. Charly is straight and they both just happen to be the ...

By now, I have seen a few films on this subject: the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. All of them true and focusing on different part of the world. This, as a subject, will never go old and the more we talk about it, the more people need to know these stories. Interestingly, while I was watching the film, I realized that the context and setting is the same as that of movie 'Spotlight' which won the best film oscar a few years ago. This, made for TV movie, is shown from the perspective and lawyers and the church. The film is set in the time of Cardinal Law, who during his time in Boston apparently turned a blind eye to all the cases of child abuse and sexual abuse of young boys and continued to support the priests. We see a few very uncomfortable scenes where priests are seen molesting young boys. Primarily amongst these were Father John Geoghan, whose arrest in many years later starts to uncover all these hidden truth. The victims start to come forward, and a lawy...

This film has been on my list to watch for a long time, especially since it features in a lot of lists that talk about the best LGBT films of all times. And boy , were those lists right. Running over a period of little over 2 hours, its like watching the complete journey of a family. The story of Zac, a young gay man dealing with homophobia while growing up with four brothers and a conservative father in Quebec during the 1960s and 1970s is so well shot and told and you feel intruding into the families life. Sure, the film may not be perfect but it is definitely an amazing film to watch and not feel the love for it. The film essentially focuses on Zac, fourth son of Gervais and Laurianne, who is born on Christmas eve prematurely. His brothers include Bookworm Christian, shiftless drug addict Raymond, dumb jock Antoine and youngest Yvan (and hence the title). Zac and his father share a very special loving relationship which officially comes to an end when Gervais comes home to find...

Finally, the mother of all gay films. Of course I had seen the film way back when it released on the big screen but I started writing my blog only much later. So, it was in my TODO list to watch the film again, so that I can review it for my blog. Whoever watches or has any slight interest in gay films, knows and has probably even seen this film. I finally got to see the film again with a buddy who is just getting into the world of gay cinema, and what better film than this to onboard him to this wonderful world. The film begins in 1963, when Ennis and Jack, about 19 years old, get a job tending sheep on Brokeback mountain. Ennis is a boy of very few words. He learned to be guarded and fearful long before he knew what he feared. Jack, who has done some rodeo riding, is a little more outgoing. After some days have passed on the mountain and some whiskey has been drunk, they suddenly and almost violently have sex. Denying the initial incident as one-off thing, slowly the 2 men fall ...

This was an interesting film, unlike most other Japanese gay themed films that I have seen before. It was an interesting mix of drama, comedy, emotions. In fact, the film could also be a right balance between both gay and straight audience. A story that’s said to  focus on relationships (does it really?), it makes for something interesting on paper. Saori is a young woman, with low self-esteem and always low on cash struggling for survival. Her father left her mother to live his life as a gay man. He started a bar for gays, which later closed. He then opened up a retirement home for gay men called “La Maison de Himiko”. Understandably, she holds the grudge against him through the entire movie. When approached by her father’s very young and handsome lover to work as an assistant at this home, she unwillingly takes up the job became of money involved. At first she’s very uneasy and finds the men that live in the retirement home disgusting. Slowly but surely she comes to like the...

The idea on paper sounds very interesting. Get gay short films made by lesbian filmmakers and lesbian short films made by gays. How does the sex of the others work, how to deal with stereotypes, prejudice, sexual fantasies and pornography; all these areas could be explored. So 15 queer crossovers filmmakers from Berlin were asked to make a short film about their idea of lesbian and gay love respectively.  All genres – animation, documentary, drama – were allowed. Filmmakers were also given a free hand in deciding which form their films would take – either experimental or conventional. The only parameters to which they were required to adhere were the length of each film – between three and seven minutes. It was interesting to see that even though we may think lesbians and gays co-exist, there is still a lot of cliches in the minds of many in the opposite group. Sometimes ridiculous and other times offensive. W are not just fucking differently, we are fucking different. And tha...

Kinky Boots is about shoes and a reverence for footwear of all types. Though it doesn't reach Sex and the City heights of shoe obsession, it's a heartwarming story about how important fashion is in helping feminine people express themselves, presented in a very humorous manner. The film could have been a depressing forced march  on global trade but the director makes this film quirky, cheeky and imminently watchable. Charlie Price is a young man, who has inherited his father's sinking shoe company. He wants to save the company from falling completely apart. He starts firing people and one of his employees, a lovely lady Lauren, gives him apiece of her mind to look for new ideas rather than just firing people. He travels to London for some ideas and has a chance encounter with a sassy drag queen performer Lola, whom he saved from getting harassed by drunken hoodlums. Lola complains that women's shoes don't stand up to the weight of a full-sized man in drag. Charl...

This film was disturbing and edgy at the same time. Made probably on a very very small budget (you can tell after watching the film), it does take some unexpected turns but a little simpler plot would have kept this film much more enjoyable. It started out slow and felt it could be one of those low budget really bad films, but the end result was not that bad. Corin, a thirty year old professional, and his younger, party-loving boyfriend Jake have been together for a while but they are having their share of problems. While Corin has settled down and likes to spend quiet evenings at home, Jake still loves the "bar" scene, and often views his relationship with Corin as holding him back from enjoying his youth. At work, Corin is able to confide in his boss and good friend Nancy who is the only one who understands him. Due to workload increase, Nancy decides to hire an assistant for Corin. At first, Elliot is awkward and somewhat nerdy, but likable nonetheless. Corin learns that ...