Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Classic indies sometimes have solid, sometimes great, stories that are carried out with a very low budget. They have some half wannabe stars to keep it from complete obscurity and extended periods with actors who can't handle their characters. Fortunately, there's a great story to integrate all of the above in this film and it somehow all fits in well together. The start of the film is a bit choppy but it picks up soon by half way, mixing humour and drama well. Nick Young is a high school freshman struggling with Asperger’s Syndrome who idolizes his perfect older brother Chaz Young. His brother dies when riding his bike on the highway because of a group of guys that were driving recklessly. Nick's friends attend the funeral and help him get through his loss. Nick's parents have no idea how to deal with or connect with Nick since Chaz was their perfect son. He begins to take comfort in his brother's friends, who take him under his wing as he learns more about hi...

I started to see this film because i thought it was a gay film But its not. The main character just happens to be gay and there is oohing more than that about him being gay in the film. So why am I reviewing it here, if its not gay. That's because if I got fooled hinting this was a gay film, others to can. So maybe this can help others who read this. The film focusses mainly on troops and their life after war. Not a terrible film but not what I was hoping for. Dave lives by himself in a house in Arizona, where there is a lot of natural beauty. His business is down and he is a little depressed. He hangs out with friends James and neighbor Seth but that doesn't bring much to his otherwise boring and mundane life. A call from his mother and he finds out that has dousing Buck has arrived back from Marines but he has physical disabilities and post trauma stress disorder. Dave thinks he should take care of him because they have grown up together and Buck's father is an alcoh...

I was really looking forward to this film because I was going to watch it with a friend. The premise was so promising. A gay re-telling of Charles Dickens' classic Oliver Twist. How could this go wrong but somehow neither of us ended up liking the film. There were so many questions that were left unanswered, that I was forced to exclaim wtf by the end. The plot is moved out of the London poor house onto the streets of Toronto. The the tale is told not from Oliver's point of view, but rather that of Dodge. Dodge works for Bill who works with various young boys as hustlers. Bill is an angry man who hurts boys if they don't bring enough money home every night. One night Dodge finds Oliver and brings him him with him. He takes Oliver under his wing and instructs him in the unforgiving arts of drug abuse and prostitution. Oliver develops a crush on Dodge and views him as his boyfriend, complicating their friendship. Dodge does not reciprocate his feelings, and reacts angril...

I don't know much about famous pianist Liberace except his name. So when I heard about this film, it came as a pleasant surprise for 2 reasons. First, that I had no idea about his gay side and second, how come it took someone such a long time to come up with a film on the subject. Making a full on film with big names like Matt Damon and Michael Douglas could not have been easy but this film is watchable for it is just because of the wonderful performances by these 2 actors. They both do a splendid job. More of that later. Scott Thomas is a young gay man who grew up in foster homes. When he goes to see Liberace perform with his friend, he gets to meet the man himself. The flamboyant artist invites Scott and his friend to his house and soon gets attracted to the young man. Using his wealth and charm Liberace offers a job as his secretary to Scott just so that the 2 men can live together. In Scott, he finds the guy who can listen to him and be with him in his lonely times. When S...

I have no idea how did I end up getting my hands on this show. Funny! Brilliant! and superb witty dialogues are some of the things that come to my mind after watching the show. Just 6 episodes, each of 25 minutes each, you see same faces, familiar situations and dialogues and they just make you break into laughter. The premise is quite simple. Freddie and Stuart are an old gay couple who have been together for nearly 50 years. Their lives now revolve around entertaining their frequent guests and hurling insults at each other at every opportunity. Ash is a young handsome man who is their new neighbor. Their long term single friend Violet who is looking out for a man in her life. And then an old lady, who just keeps forgetting everything every minute and finally another guy who no one just cares about. I can imagine that not everyone would like the show. You have to have an appetite for dark sometimes even morbid humour and be a fan of sarcasm. The dialogues and the sarcasm that i...

Pool Days This is a very interesting short film. It can be rightly put in the category of teenage coming-out stories. Justin is a 17 year old teenager who gets a summer job at a health club. He notices he is getting attracted to some hot men in the club but keeps denying it. One budding swimmer in the club helps him get over his anxiety and help him realize who he really is and be ok with it. It is a good film that shows the struggles that most teenagers have coming out and how maybe some of us help them get over their anxiety. Acting by both the principal characters is actually very good and real and I must say that they are both very good looking and easy on the eyes. Justin specially looks good and does his job very well. A duration of about 25 plus minutes keeps this film at the right length where as a viewer I get enough of context to not imagine things on my own and at the same time, it doesn't feel too dragged. (7/10) Summer Blues (Norway) This was a very interesti...

Even now, while writing this review, I really can't make up my mind if I liked this movie or not. Hopefully by the time I finish writing this, I would have a clue. The story is not very novel. We have seen the premise before but this one like every film has something different to offer. The one definite good thing about this film ws that it is set in New York and being away from my city for about 2.5 months now, kit definitely made me nostalgic about the city. Jack is a Brit gay man living in NYC. When his brother unexpectedly dies in a car accident, he starts taking care of his wife who is pregnant. Years have passed and his niece is now 6-7 years old but Jack's life still surrounds his sister-in-law and niece. He works with a photographer with his lesbian best friend Aly. When Jack finds out that his visa renewal application has been rejected, his lawyer suggests that getting married is the only option left with him. He coerces his friend Aly to marry him. Things are goi...

My movie watching has slowed down soooo much. Work is getting busier. Anyway, I am so glad that I saw this movie after a long break because I know I would have been really disappointed had a I ended up watching a really bad gay film (the chances of which are really high) but I am glad that I did not have to deal with the situation. This film thankfully does not deal with gay stereotype stories and movie that we have all gotten used to Instead, it touches on a very important subject of adoption and deals it with sensitivity. Apparently based on a true story, the film is set in 1970s. Rudy Donatello is a struggling musician and drag performer in a gay nightclub in 1979 West Hollywood, where he meets Paul, a closeted district attorney. Returning home to his apartment, Rudy finds Marco, a 14-year-old with Down syndrome, left alone after his mother, Marianna, had been arrested. Rudy takes in the abandoned boy, but Family Services intervenes and takes Marco to foster care. On Rudy's...

A sequel to supposedly popular gay web series, this series continues from where the last one left over. Its not really a sequel in the true sense but the same characters have been taken from the first season and new stories webbed around it. This season has 9 episodes, that continue to focus on some aspect of the lives of these A-list gay New Yorkers. The life of the 4 friends continue after the death on of one of the friends. New characters are introduced. We are introduced to a straight black man who is the girl's dousing who starts sharing the apartment of one of our protagonists. The doctor guy is still under low self-esteem and ends up dating either drug addicts or sorta losers on life one way or the other. The macho guy is all about just sleeping with anyone and everyone who he can find. (Reminded me of the dude from Queer as Folk). Of course, the straight italian lover for one of the guy is re-introduced but they keep their relationship open. At the end of 9 episodes we...

The ninth edition in this series comes in with a very interesting title. Most of the shorts in this series focus on youth in various stages of emotional crisis. Unfortunately, the previous series have all been a lot of fun and interest but somehow this one lacks a punch. Barring just a few, most of them somehow did not manage to hold my attention. Deep End (Canada) When Dane's older brother comes out, Dane doesn't react very well. But soon after he has to choose between siding with his homophobic classmates or fighting to support his brother. The film has very few dialogues but I think it was very realistic. One of the better ones in the series. Family Affair (Brazil) The short shows a young man briefly escaping the masculine energy of his father and brother for a smoke-infused dalliance with one of his brother’s friends. The smoke ends up in a very passionate kiss followed by one of the best reactions that i have seen by a guy after his first kiss. The mix of p...

Thankfully, Lovebirds doesn't fall in the category of of your atypical, sexually explicit skin flicks whose purpose is to entice men and get them sexually charged. Now, there is nothing wrong with it but once in a while it is good to watch a different film. Mario lives in Philippines and has been chatting on internet with Alexis, a Spanish guy. When Alexis decides to visit, as per Philipino culture, Alexis is thrown a big bash. But there is a surprise. Mario's mother so far thought that Alexis is a girl and gets shocked to see that he is a man. She fabricates a story that he is Alexis' brother Alex in front of everyone in the family. Fearig that Mario is gay, his mother, who is very dominating, asks him to ask Alexis to leave the next day and that Mario should meet a girl and get married soon. Mario's father on the other hand tries to be friendly. Bt in between this, Mario and Alexis are struggling. They have just chatted on internet a few times and are not getting...

Now this was a very interesting film. The last film of the OIA film festival in Johannesburg, I saw a lot of people getting uncomfortable in their seats. The film was slow and when you have bunch of gays in an almost house full show, they expect something light, fast and sexy. This film was all opposite. So was it good or bad, lets try and analyze. One night at a bar Paulo gets very drunk. During the night he kept checking out the bartender Ilir, originally an Albanian guy. Ilir ends up taking Paulo to his apartment when Paulo gets wasted and passes out. Ilir is attracted to him but doesn't do anything. In the morning Paulo confesses that he has a girlfriend and he is questioning himself. Unable to control himself, Paulo goes to meet ilid again, and they have a quick affair which Paulo's girlfriend soon finds him. She throws him out of the house. Having no place to go, he ends up going to Ilir's house who is schooled to see him. He says that he wanted only fun but Paul...

It is 4th of July and a young teenager June who lives in a small town is looking to meet his internet date. The date turns out to be a middle aged black man Joe. Joe takes him out and they stat talking about random things. Mostly including why June is not comfortable in his own skin and can't come out to his family. June is an awkward teenager, who is not very sure what he wants from life and tries to push back on things he doesn't want to deal with. He doesn't even know why he is meeting Joe in the first place. Just to get out of house, for sex, for companionship or something totally different. We also meet Dexter and Abigayle. Turns out Abigayle is Joe's daughter who is staying in for the evening to take care of her mother because Joe is "out of town". Their relationship is fragile because Dexter thinks, she thinks of him as idiotic and cocky. Bored at home, she takes up Dexter's offer to meet for 15 minutes which turns out to be date where they even ...

My first movie in Johannesburg 'Out In Africa' film festival and I was so excited watching this with my new friends. I had my inhibitions for watching an American gay film in theatre because lets face it, US gay themed films have disappointed us much more than they have made us happy. This film thankfully did not fall in the former category. If, the film did not make me cringe and I didn't realize how soon the movie ended, I would say that the film did a pretty decent job of keeping the audience's attention. Corey, soon to be 30, has a successful career as a psychiatrist and lives with his boyfriend Jon. The night Corey is about to propose to him, Jon finds out and freaks out completely. To the extent hat he ends up sleeping with a woman, who happens to be Corey's patient. He comes back home to tell Corey that he might be bi and Corey completely flips out. They break-up. Corey's sister, Kelsey, moves in. She is lesbian and runs a neighborhood coffee shop wh...

These are some really really short films that I saw (less than 5 minutes in duration) It's Consuming Me (Germany) A wonderful 3 minute video of a boy obsessing with a guy and his traits and things he does. "I can’t move on. I wish I could. But I’m caught in the thought of what could have been, losing my grip on reality." A little weird ending by still pretty good just for the dialogues. OK (Brazil) Two friends in a public restroom talk about and actually do experiment with their sexuality. Starts with jerking off, fingering and finally gets sealed with a kiss. Very innocent and sweet story. Noturno (Argentina) Desire runs out through between a couple since they met. A very quick overview of how they met, got passionate and within a short time, how the passion fizzled out completely. Make Homosexuals Marry (US) If you disagree with the homosexual lifestyle, why not overturn Prop 8 and make them get married, like the rest of us? A quite funny story showing a ga...