Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

The fruit machine was created as an ostensibly scientific way to detect homosexuals, so they could be fired from their government jobs or pre-screened before being offered employment in the first place. This was during the Cold War, and the prevailing fear was that homosexuals would be at a greater risk of blackmail by Russian spies. They needed to be identified and removed, the thinking went, so they wouldn't reveal the nation's secrets. This documentary throws some light on the homosexual witch-hunt of public servants and military personnel in Canada from the 1950s through the early 1990s and its effects on the people whose lives and careers were disrupted or destroyed by it. The first half of the documentary focuses primarily on the historical context of the LGBT Purge, including the Cold War. Intertwined with this historical section are the stories of a number of men Civil Service Purge survivors who were investigated and lost their jobs. The producers anchor the film in th...

I had seen the part 1 of this film back in 2010. God! How time flies. I knew that there was a sequel to this movie, but somehow I did not get my hands on it until now. Well! It's never too late. Made 8 years after the original, this sequel takes the story forward of Brin and his mother and aunt. Having read my original review, I quite liked the fit, but then those days were different. I was relatively new to watching queer content and was just happy to see whatever I can. Now that I have seen more than enough, I can say that I may not have rated the film as high today. Havig said that, strictly as a pure comedy, this sequel is not bad. You just have to not look for logic, but immerse yourself in this simple, fun-loving story. Brain and hs go-go boy fiancé Chase are now preparing for their wedding, with his over-enthusiastic mother Mae and aunt Rose (both from part 1) threatening to take over the planning. As the wedding draws nearer, Mae decides to invite Chase's estranged moth...

About Him series from Signal23 TV is something that we are used toot have too much expectations. Most of tenor work focuses on hot and handsome black men with barely a thread of storyline. Imagine my surprise when I saw this season, with a proper story line and actually much less sex scenes. Although, almost every episode had one big scene but it's nowhere compared to what we have seen in the past. Omari is a young man who runs an NGO that supports LGBT folks in all over Africa who are trying to see asylum and get a better life in South Africa, one of the few countries in Africa where it is not illegal and you do not fear for your life. An American guy mason is visiting for work and they hook up and start seeing one another, unsure of where this is all heading. In between all this, we hear that Omari's grandfather in Zimbabwe has passed away. SO the mother along Omari and younger brother visit their tribe. There we find out and are told with multiple flashbacks is that Omari...

Set almost entirely in the confines of a low-rent dive bar, offers an enchanting tale of community, self-belief and belonging shot-through with very contemporary politics about government-backed gentrification and the displacement of non-conforming communities. The film is an ode on why community is important and a tender tribute to all those oddballs in the society. Whether, personally I liked the film or not is something we will see later. Unfolding almost entirely within the confines of the seedy, gay-friendly Brazilian bar called Inferninho, we meet Jarbas, a footloose sailor who arrives at the bar. The easygoing dude immediately catches the eye of world-weary transvestite proprietor Deusimar, who offers him a room for rent. Of course, they dance and love sparks from the very first night itself. Jarbas is welcomes by other members of this seedy bar including a man always dressed as rabbit, bearded Wonder Woman and a chubby Wolverine and such other characters. A nefarious developer ...

The summary of the film said "An erotic thriller about a young artist whose obsession with a taboo fetish leads to life altering consequences." You feel this could be an interesting film, but so much disappointment instead.  starts out slow and some of the beginning seems irrelevant. Then it gets into the true premise of the film, but never explains the motivation of the characters. I was so confused at so many places but I thought it will get better. But it doesn't. Thomas, a young gay black man is an erotic artist by profession. He lives with his boyfriend Amadi but secretly explores his sexual fantasies by hooking up with guys through apps. He is fascinated by role play and BDSM but never gets to explore that with Amadi. One night at a gallery opening, he meets a white man named Lee who enjoys DBSM, and he soon becomes enmeshed in a racially-charged relationship that threatens to push his boundaries further than ever before. Meanwhile, Thomas’ white friend and fellow a...

I am surprised I missed this cute little mini series from 2018. With just 4 episodes each of about 10 minutes duration, the show explores the modern day gay dating world, particular to San Francisco, through a multi-diverse array of friends, lovers and a man lost inside the hook up culture, desperately trying to escape seen through the lens of our protagonist Jackson, the lead actor and also the director of this show. This is what the official synopsis of the show says: A look into the contemporary gay dating world particular to San Francisco, through the eyes of a man lost inside the hookup culture, while on a relentless pursuit for a way out. He asks all the questions, he tries all the things, he falls in love in all the wrong places. Playing both the victim and the culprit, follow him traverse a world full of contradictions, over-the-top self expression, casual drug use, and the age old idea of ‘free love' with all the consequences that follow. In a place, seemingly without any ...

Sometime back I saw the documentary about Small Town Gay Bars in the south. Made by the same filmmaker, this documentary explores efforts to create LGBTQ events that offer an antidote to hatred coming from the White House, right after Trump's inauguration. Still based in Mississippi, this time the focus is on a community's quest to do their pride march but also highlight light issues like transphobia. We meet two very vocal, different yet similar individuals. Lynn is the owner of Biloxi bar, who has been with her wife for a long time and seeing Trump get into the office feels that America needs a big mirror to reveal its deep divisions and backwards momentum. Meanwhile, Shawn, a black person, is owner of Club Xclusive in Hattiesburg, facing severe racism and homophobia from locals. Lynn is working to organize the first Gulf Coast Pride, while Shawn is setting up what she calls Unapologetic Black Gay Pride. Both want to create an event where queer people can gather and feel good...

I am not sure why the title of this Belgian comedy-drama film, but it tells the story of a colourful sham marriage between a widowed and whimsical homosexual man and a young, undocumented Congolese woman. I won't call this film a queer film per say, its more about human interactions, loneliness, a face-off between two human beings who are polar opposites, and who will have to learn to live together. Martin, an again man, has just buried Jan, his husband of many years and love and backbone of his life. He is now struggling financially to keep up with mortgage of the house they both lovingly built. One day, a friend dog his tells him how he has fallen in love with a Congolese woman but  because of legal reasons cannot support her to make her legal in Belgium. He pleads Martin to marry her in return for money. Martin agrees and enter Tamara. Martin and Tamara, who have virtually nothing in common, will enter into a marriage of convenience and will have to live together, much to their ...

An Army Of Lovers is a visual journey into the history of queer self-presentation in Sweden. Combining newly shot 16mm and Super-8 material with rare archival footage, this documentary tells the story of the brave activists who in the 1970s picked up their film cameras in order to tell their own truths to the world – defying the ‘illness classification’ attributed to homosexuality and the dominant homophobic imagination. In 1977, the same year that the first liberation march paraded through Stockholm, three pivotal queer films began production: Bögjävlar/Damned Queers, Kvinnan i ditt liv är du/The woman in your life is you and Eva & Maria. For the first time, open lesbians and gay men were granted state funding for depicting their own realities, stories about finding love and community and confronting society’s rampant homophobia and traditional gender roles. In this documentary, rich archive is brought to life and recharged with urgency in dialogue with newly shot documentary scen...

I had seen the Chinese film 'The Ambiguous Focus' long time back, so I was quite fascinated to hear that this film, which came after the sad film, was actually planned as a prequel to it. The story takes us back to high school when Zhang Zhe and Zhang Nan were starting to get to know each other and the moments that lead to potentially them becoming a couple. Zhang Zhe, a smart student, and Zhang Nan, a handsome swimmer, couldn't understand each other. They did not expect to meet each other at the same university, even though they have known each other since childhood. Zhe is a mathematical genius, but has a social phobia; Nan is an athlete, but he hates being used as a racing machine by his father. Soon they both realize that they can actually support one another. They soon come to a truce and agree to help each other out. Their mutual support and reliance help them to understand what they really want - Nan's deep abiding love of swimming without any of the trappings of...

This film was a very amateurish attempt at making a gay love story. The acting was average to bad, the scenes were unnecessarily long; in fact the story plot was paper thin and they still managed to stretch it to almost 2 hours of run time. It is full of plot holes and I am not even sure what really happened at the end. It suddenly got so confusing. This is the story of two school boys who are aspiring musicians, meeting by fluke and falling in love along the way to a music competition. An He (Chinese name translates to “River”) is a musical genius who is experiencing writer’s block. Xiao Yu (translates to “Little Fish” in Chinese) is a rich kid who runs away from home and has joined the same school as An He. Both have their own challenges in school and in life. A school girl fancies An He but he constantly refuses him. Somehow Xiao You manages to start living with An He since his mother travels a lot for work. Their friendship starts growing, till one day Xiao You literally pushed him...

So, I am forgetting the name of the film, but I had seen a Japanese film sometime back, which had a decent story line but backed by a LOT of sex scenes. This film feels similar in the sense that yes, there is a coherent plot and a story that is being told (which could probably have been told as a short story) but there are a LOT of sex scenes in the film. I'd say good 60% plus film is sex scenes. So, I don't know if this is like a soft porn or whatever. A man returns to his home in Kyoto after being away for a year. His father has been dead now and the sister is taking care of the home. Now that she wants to get married and move with her boyfriend, the sister decides to sell their childhood home since both of their parents have passed away. The boy recalls that his father used to have a favorite watch and starts to look for it, but he stumbles across a notebook titled "My Memories." He starts to read it and sees the words written on the first page saying "The men...

Filmed in a single all-night session, this documentary is an extended interview with the filmmaker's friend and collaborator Julia Katharine, a Japanese-Brazilian trans actress-filmmaker whose insomnia keeps her awake long enough to candidly spill stories of her childhood, family, romances, desires, self-destructive impulses, and—above all—love of cinema.  Transgendered Julia decides to spill her guts in this friendly made documentary. With her charming personality, Julia talks of everything. She tells us how when she was 8, she was in so called 'relationship' with her grand uncle, which only later she realized was probably child abuse but she didn't know then. She talks about school and bullying in school and how after multiple school transfers, there was no more school left to go. She tells us how her parents meet and how her mother was always supportive and never stopped her form doing whatever she wanted to do. We see how it was easy for Julia to fall in love, we he...

Nr. 47 is a Swiss web series with four seasons. No. 47 refers to the address of an apartment block in Bern where several young adults live. The series shows her life and addresses the concerns and fears of young people in their early 20s. Over 3 seasons it takes one individual and tells the story from their point of view. There is a gay storyline in season 2 of the show which focuses on Dominic, a closeted gay rapper over 5 episodes. Someone posted the edited version of all scenes including Dominic and I am glad I got to see the high level love story of Dominic without having to sit through details of all 4 seasons. Dominic is closed, unapproachable and often follows his thoughts over texts. He is a rapper, part of a band and lives with his friend. He has not yet revealed to his friends and family that he is gay and he is also trying to keep this secret to himself. So far, this has also worked well. But things change when one day he meets Tim, a bartender at the place where Dominic goe...

This film set in 80s was actually made in 2018. In tone, it seems very theatrical, given that the entire 90-ish minute film happens in one tiny room apartment, with only just the two lead characters playing their part during the different stages of their almost a decade long relationship. Roberto and Miguel have been together for over 10 years. Over the course of 4 days in November, the talk and discuss and reminiscence the memories of all these years remembering some specific incidents. These include how they met and when, when they started living together, when Miguel was thrown out of home for coming out as gay, when they both struggled for their jobs and the political unrest around the Berlin Wall. A seemingly strong relationship will start to crumble with each new memory. The memories are not shown all at once and the film keeps moving back and forth in a very non-linear time format, peeling layers only one by one. We are also told, how they fight, bicker, talk about almost anythi...

Told entirely through a third narrator (I saw the English version), it was extremely difficult to follow through what twas the exact storyline of the film. I would focus and follow for about 10 minutes and think that finally I understand what's going on, but then suddenly a tonal shot would happen, and it will again start going into circles which I was not able to keep up. As per the official synopsis, After being framed in a murder, Nick returns to his troubled hometown Exalon, where he begins an affair with a young man working at a family restaurant. The arrival of his former employer convinces Nick that he is being personally hunted down. We go into flashback in another fictional town where it seems Nicks used to do some illegal business and also had sexual relations with his ex-boss. But he is missing deeper currents unravelling a wave of local unrest, to which he unwittingly contributes. The film is way too artsy and extremely heavy on symbolism, which went over my head most o...

I don't even know why I am reviewing this film here. It I soothing but an excuse to watch porn for 75 odd minutes. Yes, it is porn with full on sex scenes; the only thing is that it is disguised behind an actual storyline, which to be honest are not that bad. But story probably constitutes 15-20% of the film, and the rest is sex. Its primarily a collection of four short stories. "Diablo en Madrid" is a story of serial temptation in a graveyard. An irresistibly good looking guy is playing the part of the Devil who's come up to earth from hell. He succeeds in his mission of seduction, meeting resistance only when he encounters the "good" angel. This is portrayed as a battle of good and evil in the summary.  In "Über Menschen" , a professor, is visiting Madrid from Buenos Aires and contemplates to kill himself by jumping off the Viaducto de Segovia, known as a notorious site for suicides. When his young Uber driver realizes that, he talks him out of ...

A zany Taiwanese comedy about gender swap is the basic premise of this show. Although the plot is quite thin and you may feel the story line is silly, the performances from the three leads keep this 8 episode (15 minutes each) series lively and entertaining to a certain extent but certain sequences become inconsequential and relevant too. As always, good marks for the novelty of the subject at least. A-Bu, a single gay man in his 40s, with his sharp wit and humour, is the owner of a gay bathhouse Mermaid Sauna. He has two employees: a young 22 year old university student Xiao Chi who is works there so he gets free nude models to draw and Hua Hua, a beautiful and very flirtatious female who has a complicated love life because of her continues seductive charms on every guy. Xiao has a girlfriend who like shim very much but he is a very shy guy and doesn't know much about love or anything. One night the trip are partying and they end the night drinking up a special sake. Next day they...

Mood Indigo was one of the good shows that I remember seeing sometime back. This show is the sequel to it, although very interestingly, it is this show that came first and the prequel Mood Indigo came later. But as luck would have had it, I ended up watching in sequence of the order in which things are supposed to happen. Kijima is now a famous porn writer. He is famous and successful. One day while walking he gets in an accident with a university student Kuzumi. Since Kuzumi doesn't have any insurance money ti pay, he agrees to help Kijima at his household with multiple things including scribing for the novels that Kijima wanted to write. While dictating the erotic novels, Kuzumi's fascination for the man keeps growing but he doesn't understand the guy at all. There is always a sexual tension between them and Kijima is always in control. One night they do end up sleeping together but Kijima dismisses it as a drunken episode. One day Kuzumi realizes that all these books tha...

This was a very weird film and even after watching the whole thing, I am not sure what was the film was trying to say. Reading more online about the film, apparently it's a story of a drifter who was sexually abused as a child and the trauma it causes. To be honest, if you do not have this context, there is absolutely no way for anyone at all to understand what's going on this film. Alex just drives around aimlessly in his van occasionally photographing and renting motel rooms for Craigslist encounters that seem to double as opportunities for petty theft. In between all this, there is a series of web videos of a girl whispering to her audience and offers “vibrational peace”. Alex follows her and using his own camera is trying o make videos to impress this girl. Eventually Alex tracks down an older man, who possibly abused Alex. He brings a teenage boy over for dinner, and seems to hope he’ll catch John trying to do something to him; but much is left unsaid on this topic, even a...