Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

I think I am at my peak limit of vertical dramas. I keep saying I need to stop watching these but they are so convenient to watch while running on treadmill that invariable I do end up watching. I am not sure how many of these I have seen already. So here goes one more. It is funny though how all of these series have sort of a [attern to them and you know exactly where the story is headed.  Kit Sterling, a public defender betrayed by his cheating girlfriend, drunkenly declares at a bar that he'll marry the next person who walks through the door. Enter Daniel Finch - sexy defense lawyer and guess what; suddenly the two wake up married. Daniel remembers that Kit is the same boy who many years ago saved him as a kid (Kit has no memory of it). Here starts the drama of will they won't they stay married. Kit's sister is in hospital and Dsaniel's care for her creates a soft spot in Kit for them. The duo keep butt heading in the court in multiple cases that we see and a healthy...

I have to start by saying that I absolutely LOVED this show. I knew that the series is about a closet gay teenage enlisting himself in the marines, but I had no other information on what to expect. I somehow assumed that it will be a dark show, but I was so wrong. IT is an insightful look at friendship, self-determination, courage and acceptance amid the challenges and demands of the United States Marines boot camp. As hilarious as it is devastating, the series is a unique coming-of-age story centered on an unlikely Marine recruit who is desperate to find himself. And I enjoyed every bot of it, so much so that I totally binge watched this Netflix series. The show is 8 episodes of around 40-45 minutes. Set in 1990, we meet gay teenager Cameron Cope, who is so lonely and bored. He has only one friend Ray who knows about Cameron's sexuality. Together they decide to enroll for the marines. He has no idea what to expect, which is clear by the way he has conversations with himself. When ...

This vertical mini series, stitched as a film was visually nice to watch, but I have to say that the stories are getting hard to believe now. It's like, anything is going on and as an audience you are supposed to believe it. This was one of the first ones where I was rolling my eyes more often. This latest mini series from DramaWave app going into the familiar genre of BL mafia. At a high-society party, Selena and Emma were targeted for revenge by an ex-boyfriend and found themselves in danger. Their respective bodyguards, Noah and Carson, worked together to save them, but Noah got injured in the process. Selena then demanded that Emma send Carson to serve at her house for three months as compensation. What neither of them knows is that Noah was saved by Carson many years back and since then Noah has harbored a secret crush on Carson and loves him. Carson works for Emma's brother Arthur Hill, who agrees to the 3 month arrangement because he wants to know the real identity of a ...

The season 2 of Dekkoo TV original 'Danny Will Die Alone' continues its raunchy, hilarious, yet relatable exploration of gay dating in NYC injecting sharp, witty humor. We continue to witness Danny’s disastrous dating life as he attempts to find love online, including adventures in openness, polyamory, sex drive compatibility, and, naturally, fisting. This season has 6 episodes of about 20-25 minutes each. The season continues with more of Danny’s wild escapades and his running commentary on everything going breaking the fourth wall. Besides the Danny, we have another central character this time named Matty, Danny’s regular hookup buddy. His presence adds a layer of drama that gives Danny’s character new emotional depth. Matty serves as Danny’s go-to for regular intimacy between his dating life and their dynamic brings a new dimension to Danny’s journey. The first episode shows a dating app and how he gets into a war of words with a guy who is too much into himself (I found mys...

I am still exploring a lot of gender/sexuality stuff on the queer spectrum. This film is an earnest drama about a teenager coming to terms and coming out as non-binary. The film may feel a bit slow but it was such a good feeling while watching the film mostly because there isa lot f positivity among the usual negative suspects. The film highlights issues around self acceptance, fears of coming out, depression, a family with both supportive and non supportive people and most importantly love. The pleasant, polished drama provides a compassionate take on a high schooler undergoing considerable change. The film is about Ben, a young teenage who is trying to tell something to his parents and in the very next scene, we see him crying calling his sister Hannah to pick him up in freeing cold without his shoes or jacket. It's only then the gravity of the situation kicks in that the parents have kicked him out. Hannah was already estranged with parents and she and her husband lovingly take ...

One more of those vertical mini series but this time not from Drama Box. This series is US based and like most of the previous ones, this one is to be seen just for pure entertainment. It has all the usual 'masala' like drama, kisses, love, misunderstandings, hot hot guys, lot of abs and with a title like this, we do get to see a lot of skin with our headliners spending most of the time in speedos or swim shorts.  The two leads here are Aidan and Will. Aidan's father used to run a store that got hammered by a bog corporation incidentally run by Will's father. Because of this Aidan's father left and disappeared and now his mother is very ill and he needs to take of the bills. They are both in swim team and even though everyone wants the hunky Will to become captain, it is Aidan who become captain. Even though Will occasionally teases Aidan, but he always protects him from being bullied by his friends which confuses Aidan. When Will finds out about Aidan's need fo...

Yet another horror comedy genre, this time mixing drag queens, queers and zombie world. A group of queer characters find themselves trapped in a Bushwick nightclub, fending off a horde of the living dead. Sounds familiar? Yes, I have seen at least a couple of films, more recently in the Canadian film Slay. I feel like this genre has specific viewers and is targeted for them. I have to be honest that I was quite enjoying the first half of the film, but then it just felt. Ike it is dragging on for no reason. Also some of the gags were really not as funny as they were likely on paper. Needing a last-minute cover for her half-dead party, Dre hesitantly calls on an old friend, Sam (who I snow a nurse and has been out of scene for a while now), to fill in the stilettos of the headliner for the night. After getting reacquainted with some old faces and butting heads with some new queens. Sam meets Ginsey, Sam’s drag mother and mentor; wannabe performer/dealer Nico ; and Lizzy’s plumber brother...

Set in a small town middle America, the film likely had an interesting idea with them but the execution of the film is so drab and boring that you just can't wait for the film to finish. Also, when you take a subject that has some medical ailment behind it, it's always advisable to do some research, which clearly this film failed to do. Alzheimer's rarely is a death sentence and more often than not the patients lead a long life. Anyway, back to the film now. Michael is in his mid 40s and is a gay romance novel writer. He meets James at a bookstore and dating/romance soon follows. Michael has been feeling bouts of sickness where he suddenly forgets things and stuff gets blocked out. When he gets checked, he is told that he has early onset Alzheimer's and that he will need support of people around him, who love him and will see mood swings and that his life expectancy is only about 6 years. He keeps the information to himself but confides in a couple of friends. One of wh...

This film is supposed to be a thriller crime drama, which an intersex lead at the center of it all. The person is dealing with their childhood trauma and young adulthood 'trying to survive' stuff. Depending on how you see it, is either a film exploring nonbinary gender identity or a mesh-mash of a crime movie with a radically unorthodox queer protagonist. I wanted to like the film, but I felt like this film was trying to be a lot of things.  The film starts with us being introduced to Ponyboi, (who I first thought was trans female), who is a part time sex worker for New Jersey truck drivers and later arrives at the second job of laundromat. Ponyboi's best friend is the pregnant Angela, whose boyfriend Ninny also happens to be the pimp for Ponyboi (fucking them on the side). He is charming, sexy, alluring but also dangerous. It's valentines day and he asks Ponyboi to "tale care" of one of his clients with home cooked drugs. Things go wrong when this man dies be...

This mini series is a tender ode to young love with individuals struggling with their identity and hopes. Told over 6 episodes of a total runtime of about 70 minutes. The series is about Elly and his first summer after high school and people he meets. We are not spooned on what is Elly's background. All we know is that he has been dealing with some sort of depression and some sort of estrangement from his mother.  Series starts with Elly’s best friend, Rowen, picking him up at the hospital. Elly is going to be staying with her for a while. The setting is a very small town. Here Rowen introduces Elly to Yonah, same age and a recently out young man. ON Rowen's insistence the two boys start to hang out, despite initial reluctance by Elly but Elly starts too slowly enjoy this. Yonah is not doing anything to cure his depression but the company helps. Yonah is a dreamer himself, who likes to read books and write poetry and dreams of traveling. Elly meanwhile had been  painter and ha...

This vertical series includes the usual tropes of mafia, straight suddenly turning gay, some really hot men, some disgruntled women and some past that links that two main characters. Of course don't forget the cringy romance scene and at times bad acting, but then there is something about these shows that make me keep coming back to these. On his wedding day Gabe finds out that his fiancé is cheating on him with his step brother. But to acquire company's shares, he needs to be married by 25 , and so he decides to make a bizarre decision to marry this guy Sebastian, who suddenly came hiding in his closet running away from goos. Seb agrees because he recognized Gabe from 4 years ago an dhow he save this life, but Gabe has no memory. Seb is the heir to Brooklyn Mafia gang, but before he could tell Gabe this, Gabe makes it very clear about his hatred for mafia folks, since they were the ones responsible for his mother's death. Seb now tries his various ways to make sure that Ga...

Set in mid 90s, this film set in Boston, follows a thirty-year-old gay man who attempts to get his life in order while living with his actress mother. It is a simple coming of age drama, that probably was quite novel for its time back in 96. The story itself is simple, with not much happening and a lot of it can just be watched fast forwarding quite a bit of content, because most of it is around our lead hanging out with queer artists and there is not much from a plot perspective. Rejected by numerous art schools and lacking romantic prospects, gay guy Andrew's life is going nowhere. He still stays home with his theatre actress mother. HIs close friend is his uncle, an artist and a confidant and is also gay. His closest friend is Lucy who works in the art studio with him and is lesbian but constantly bickers with her girlfriend. Andrew decides to enter a contest in hopes of winning a six month stay in Kenya. But neither of his family thinks it's a good idea. He find out about h...

This is a badly acted and directed story of sexual deviance and forbidden romance between two tortured men - who like to act out by torturing others. The poster promoted it as two serial killers in love and a wife who is betrayed. Honestly, the story is novel and had a great potential to make one of this slashy horror romance kinda films, but this is so badly acted that I Was laughing at so many places. Andrew, a celebrated gay novelist, is married to Pauline. Their marriage is going through rough patch and Pauline has taken to alcohol. Andrew, meanwhile dealing with wrier's block, goes around paying gay hookers to suck him off but is still struggling. One day he sees a guy murdering someone and drinking their blood. He runs for his life but the killer soon catches him and kidnaps him. His name is Eddie and is a psychotic serial killer. After a few days of torture and sexual activities, Andrew convinces Eddie to let him go and that he will write a novel based on his life. For next ...

Dealing with sensitive subjects in films is never easy. The film makers here take a muted, almost ambivalent stand on the subject, which show sis the questionable relationship between a 29 year old man with a 15 year old boy. As a film, it is a pretty straight forward execution without much drama trying to show as 'matter of fact' events and what/how happens. I guess it is left to the audience to make their own morality decisions. (Although looking at the film's dvd poster, which features only the younger male, rather than the duo which should have been the case for a film whose title has names of two protagonists) Eban returns to his hometown Christmas from Seattle. He is a bit vague about the reasons he has come (which we later find out). Killing time growing through local shops, he sees a young 15 year old handsome boy Charley and rather insistently strikes up a friendship on the pretense of swapping lessons about guitar and being lonely etc. You can tell that Eban likes...

This film, set in 2015, is a feel-good comedy about people trying to follow their hearts, whether it involves an inter-generational romance, a middle-aged interracial throuple or an artistic trans man looking for love in all the wrong places. Sadly a treatment of a subject like me would have likely worked in early to late 2000's but somehow in 2022, this subject feels a bot dated, especially the way it has been directed. It feels very obvious and simple and the plot feels contrived and a bit corny at places. It was good to see Matthew Montgomery after a long time. I do remember when I had just started watching gay films, he used to feature in a lot of films. In 2015, just as Supreme Court rules on marriage equality, long term couple Max and Josh decide to get a divorce, except that they have a hard time separating. We see Josh occasionally hooking up with a cop Pete while Max still harboring feelings for his ex. When a young guy named Conrad moves into Max's old apartment, he g...

My second American BL, shot in Phone format, released as multiple episodes on DramaBox. Thankfully I watched the version where all episodes were stitched together and overall the duration is just under an hour. It is an easy watch even though the plot is filled with loopholes but once you start to watch it, it is easy to ignore some aspects. The protagonist, Ace, is a ruthless and decisive mob boss who has firmly established his position at the top of London's underworld. However, during an ambush orchestrated by his archenemy, Jack, a younger stranger named Max unexpectedly steps in to save him. This act of bravery sparks Ace's interest and earns his trust. Ace brings Max into his inner circle, as his bodyguard. What he doesn't know that it was all Jack's plan. Ace likes to flirt and is gay and he does that constantly with Max making him feel uncomfortable. Max succeeds in planting care in Ace's room who does the same. So Ace knows that max is watching him have sex...

I am not much of a standup comedy viewer. I might have seen a few clips/reels here and there but watching a whole TV special is something, so I apologize of I dodged not know anything about Jerrod Carmichael. I went into this comedy special, blank, hoping to just enjoy it with no baggage of either the person or his previous work. In this latest HBO comedy special, he talks about the most intricate details of his life, his long-time boyfriend Michael and his current relationship with his family – to hilarious effect. Witty, brash, and funny, he reconciles that how much the fear of being outed made him forget about the one other thing that affects his everyday life: racism.  The show starts with his struggles with internalized homophobia and rampant infidelity. He talks about online trolling for having a white boyfriend and how maybe he has something against black folks. He also admits rather sheepishly that he still seeks the approval of Black people, which likely has to do with his...

Plainclothes is a gripping film that effectively captures the tension of 1990s gay identity and the struggles of remaining in the closet. The film's electric tension utilizes grainy VHS style narration at multiple places probably trying for the audience to visualize the fear and anxiety that our protagonist is going through. Set in Syracuse in 90's the film is told from the perspective of an undercover cop. Lucas is a closeted gay cop assigned to special task force in the local mall to its bathroom, a known gay pick-up spot. The special police unit entrap the gays and arrest them for violation of the sex code and given Lucas' youthful and good looks , his job is to to find such folks, trap them and then his partner would arrest the guy. His family has a loving mother, a sick father and Uncle Paul. He recently broke off with his girlfriend, who is th only person he confided in the fact that he actually maybe attracted to guys. What happens though is that Lucas ends up fallin...

Calling this show 'Gayborhood' in today's time feels a bit outdated and not inclusive, especially given the content of the series. The series is very inclusive in terms of representation of gay, lesbian, drag queens and trans characters. It's definitely not just about gays, so an umbrella term Queer might have been better. Anyway, this is me just nitpicking. The show is primarily centered around a studio owner who rents out the place for shows and the employees working and their friends. This is not the story of just one person but a collective ensemble. Season 1 has 6 episodes of 18-20 minutes each. IT ends on a cliffhanger, so season 2 is very likely to follow. Space Studios is a vibrant LGBTQ+-owned space in Dallas run by Bruce aka drag queen Heather. After a disastrous no-show by the previous manager, Bruce hires Noah, a friendly newcomer, to help manage the chaos. Noah quickly meets Jesse, a nonbinary staff member and handyperson, and gets a crash course in navigat...

This 3 part, 45 min each, Sundance documentary series explores the panic and terror caused by a string of murders in 1970s Los Angeles. The series focuses on the discovery of 131 bodies and the subsequent police investigation, which initially focused on a single suspect before revealing the existence of three killers, each with a distinct method. The show highlights the unsettling nature of the crimes and the fear that gripped the city as the body count rose, with some describing it as a "trilogy of terror". From the early 1970s, gay men were being savagely murdered and their bodies carelessly discarded along Southern California’s highways. Through thorough investigations it is eventually found that this is not one serial killer but a trip operating individually. The documentary exposes three sadistic serial killers — Patrick Kearney, William Bonin, and Randy Kraft — and explains the truth behind these horrifying events. EP 1 Trash Bags - In the late 1960s and early 1970s, l...