Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

These are exciting times for avid film/series watchers like me, specially the ones that focus on gay characters. It is time for another gay TV series from UK. I had heard of this series a few months back, but I am an impatient man. So I waited of the entire series to finish, so I could binge watch 8 episodes. By now most of you may know that this is a part of 3 web series along with Banana and Tofu, which essentially represent hardness scale of penis erection. The thought itself is so exciting that every gay man would watch this series. Cucumber’s central character is a 45 year old man Henry and his life and his loves and his adventures. Henry is an insurance salesman and has been living with his boyfriend of 9 years, Lance. Interestingly, we find out that Henry doesn’t like anal sex and somehow he has convinced Lance of that. Lance is desperate to get married to Henry and end his virginity phase but Henry is more interested in his conversations with Dean (a black teenager worki...

This was an interesting film. I have very mixed feelings about it and still can’t decide what to make out of it at the end. Hopefully while writing this piece, it will get clear in my head. the few things that come to my mind after seeing the film is that it must have been made on a ultra low budget. Because the entire film has been shot in one hotel room along with some pics here and there but pretty much every single thing happens there. So the production cost has to be really low. Keeping that in mind, the film has been done actually pretty well. Lewis and Cooper have ben the best of friends for a while. At Cooper’s bachelor party, when he gets too drunk , he decides to just stay back with Lewis at his hotel room. More shots follow and Lewis admits to being bisexual or maybe even on path of being gay. Thankfully Cooper doesn’t over-react and since he has never messed around with a guy, they end up doing so. Thankfully again, no drama happens in morning and the friends part way...

Just finished watching the last episode of Season 2 and at the same time I also find out that the series has not been renewed for Season 3. Now that makes me upset, because e decent gay series are hard to find in the first place, and now HBO wants to take away that pleasure from us. Anyway, at least they are going to allow a special episode so that all the stories can be given a proper closure. Now I will wait for that. Season 2 continues to focus on the 3 friends Patrick, Augustine and Dom. Patrick and his boss Kevin are now secretly dating. Initially hesitant, Patrick tells this to all his friends. Kevin has still not broken with his current boyfriend, so the things are complicated. Patrick initially is ok with this but can’t take it anymore forcing Kevin to take a decision. Ultimately patrick and Kevin end of moving n together but the end of season is not as rosy as it seems because it seems the 2 want different things form their relationship as far as monogamy is concerned. Au...

The Day It Snowed In Miami, a documentary about LGBT rights and the 1977 Anita Bryant campaign in Miami-Dade County. The documentary’s title serves as a metaphor: the ordinance that sparked the outrage was debated by commissioners on an uncharacteristically frigid night and some opponents at the time remarked that the ordinance would pass "when hell freezes over." The morning after the ordinance was approved — Jan. 19, 1977 — Miamians woke up to snowflakes for the first and, so far, only time. The ordinance and subsequent battle in South Florida between liberal supporters and conservative singer Anita Bryant's Save Our Children group, thrust gay rights into the national spotlight for the first time and the film documents the LGBT movement through the present. Banned by law from holding any public or private teaching jobs, as well as several other professions, and hounded by a state Senate committee headed by a former governor, Florida’s homosexual population lived in...

In the documentary film Underage and Gay, shown on Channel 4 in UK, we meet bright, articulate, funny teenagers who tell their own stories during this interesting period of their lives. The camera follows queer teenagers for about 4-6 months to survey whether the world is now a more tolerant place? But even more importantly, what is the reality for LGBT teenagers in Britain today? Become from Bradford is a 14 year old gay teenager who was never in doubt of his sexuality. The documentary looks at his desire to be out, open and honest while starting at his new work but at the same time dealing with threatening phone calls and abuive messages. Mykyla, 14, is a self-described ‘butch lesbian’ and as such has had issues fitting in with other girls. She attempts to meet more people ‘like her’ including a residential boat trip with an LGBT group. During the trip she finds out that she identifies herself being addressed more as a boy with pronoun ‘he’ but still wants to retain her body. Ta...

A list of some really short films/programs that I saw with gay theme. The Clearing (UK) This short show an unidentified walker who is lured through the woods by the distant sound of a saxophone. He is drawn past inviting groups of gay men luring him into sexual acts, a woman picnicking, a boy eating an apple, before finally reaching the clearing. Good ! Alfalfa (UK) Film introduces a gay alphabet, with the aid of images and music, which it is argued is a defence against heterosexual language. Yawn !! Distance (French Canada) A couple struggling in their relationship gets the last blow when the husband comes out to his wife as gay. Average ! The Navajo Nation and Same-Sex Marriage (USA) The national debate over gay marriage, however, is prompting some Navajos to re-examine a 2005 tribal law called the Dine Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex unions on the reservation. More documentary style. Yawn ! Black Gay Dads Who Blew Up Twitter (USA) What did Kordale and Kaleb Le...

Films with multiple parallel tracks can be a hit or miss. Some stories gel well with each other while others don’t. Each film-maker has a different way to present these stories. Some keep them totally separate while others try to bring in the characters into each other to show some form of relation between the stories. There is no right or wrong between these two styles. As long as the viewer is still sufficiently engaged and enjoys, nothing else matters. This film also follows 4 parallel stories. We meet 11 year old Mauricio who has a secret crush on his dark haired cousin. Rather confident of his feelings, he manages to act on it with his curious cousin only to be later humiliated in public by the cousin’s curiosity-turned-homophobia. The young boy’s first brush of crush will leave a deep impact on his life including how his parent’s react to the entire situation. In the second story we meet Fito & Leo, former school buddies as kids who reunite in college again. Spending tim...

Its not a queer film per say but depending on how to see it, this could fall in this category. Story of a perfectly normal kid, showing no sign of homosexuality, it just happens to be that the boy likes to wear dress. Is that so wrong? This and more questions are asked and answered in this feel-good heart warming beautiful film based on a book by the same name. 12 year old Dennis lives with his older brother John and their father. Their mother left them recently for another man. Dennis is very god in football an misses his mom terribly. When Dennis sees the Vogue magazine in a store with cover girl wearing a dress similar to what his mother wore, he gets intrigued. The school rebel Lisa James finds out and comes closest buddy with Dennis because she is all about fashion and wanting to break the rules. She makes Dennis wear a dress and experiment by going to the local store to see if anyone recognises him and of course no one does. One day when Dennis has had enough of his father’s...

This film reminded me so much of Ferzan Özpetek’s films that I have seen over the years. A very similar setup, specially to the Italian film ‘Saturno contro’. But I am not gonna judge this film based on that. We all have inspirations and as long as we still end up producing a good piece of cinema, I am going to appreciate it and enjoy it. This film falls in the same category and was a very pleasant experience in a lot of departments which we will talk about later. The title of the film comes from the name of the neighbourhood in Brooklyn where the protagonists live. The premise of the film is a birthday party. Will and Mateo have been together for sometime and it is Will’s 30th birthday and they are hosting a party for their closed ones and friends in the backyard of their apartment. Mateo is Latino  and is frustrated with his career not going anywhere and we then find out that Will is not out to his family. Soon after the plethora of friends start pouring in and the plot just...

Eden (USA) Adam and Everett are stuck  in an institution that cures you of being gay. With the help of Mary, a nurse haunted by her own past, they begin to execute their plan of escaping from the Eden institute. But as time starts to run out, and Adam struggles with a darkness that has plagued him for some time, they start to lose hope of making it out untouched. When Everett escapes and Adam stays in, he is supposedly cured. I really did not understand the ending of the film. This still confuses me. ON a bright side, the actors are cute and can actually act. (5/10) HuffPost Talks With Brett Jones: The First Openly Gay Navy SEAL (USA) Navy SEAL Brett Jones joins HuffPost Live to discuss his new book "Pride: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL" and why he is pushing for equality in red states. Jones, the first openly gay Navy SEAL, was outed while serving when a voicemail to his boyfriend, who was also a member of the United States military, leaked. (4/10) ...

I was given access to screener version of the film by Syndicado, a film and TV distribution company. I have mixed feelings watching this film. Had I seen this film a few years back, I may have thought that this was a feel good funny film but having seen a lot of meaningful cinema of late, I unfortunately can’t say the same about this one. This does not mean it was an awful film but there is nothing special about it either. As title suggests, the film is set in a motel and focusses on few couples who are spending their time (a couple of days) in this motel. We meet a Venezuelan import trying to make it into movies and longing for companion. A chance encounter where the motel miss up a reservation for another guy could be his chance for companionship. We meet a straight couple who are in town to meet their cousin where the wife overnight develops a penis and the entire day goes in the confusion on what the hell has just happened. Then we have a lesbian relationship. One of the girls...

And its back!! The saga of terrible awful gay themed films mad in US is back. Let me just say it out loud: ‘Please do not watch this awful terrible movie. Save 1.5 hours of your life’. I would not recommend to watch it, even if you get paid to do so. But then, if you need lessons on how ‘not to act’ and how ‘not to direct’, this film could be a good case study. A group of friends rent a cabin in the woods to escape the hollow festivities of West Hollywood Gay Pride. The group consists of 4 gays and one straight guy whose father owns the cabin. Once there, boredom fast settles as they're deprived of their usual party tactics. They get their hands on an Ouija board which somehow awakens the spirit of a Gothic murderess. The vampire starts following and one after the other, the guys are attacked and made vampires. I do not even wanna go into the details of the story anymore because only I know how I managed to survive the film. Acting was over the top by everyone involved. I co...

This BBC mini series is definitely not a gay mini series but the fact that 2 of the 4 principal characters of this series were gay, makes this series qualify for me to write a review about it here. This series chronicles the lives of the four Russian spies from 1934 to 1951. The series shows us how the 4 characters, Philby, Burgess, Maclean and Blunt are recruited and why they feel compelled and obligated and wanting to do this with Russia. Each series focusses on an individuals life and the interactions between the four people. Blunt is the reserved one who occasionally is allowed to show emotions and is also gay. Guy Burgess is witty and charming, who enjoys picking up men in public toilets. Maclean is a man of privilege who feels guilty for what he has, yet is aware of his limitations. And finally we have Philby, the most enigmatic, fiercely loyal and intelligent, devious and filled with angst. There is a lot of information that is thrown at the viewers and you just have to kee...

Gerontophilia means ‘love for old people’. This love story is shocking, at least for me,in terms of its premise but by the time the film ends, it does make sense. This story of intergenerational gay love, although being controversial ends up also a tender love story if you can look beyond the predujices. I have never witnessed such a premise in the gay film scene and this is enough to generate the curiosity for me for this film. 18 year old Lake is in a relationship with his overly feminist girlfriend Desiree. But soon we get a hint that he actually gets aroused and excited by old wrinkly jaded old men. The happiness he sees sees a guard on the road and later when he gets an awkward erection while resuscitating a geriatric swimmer at the pool. His boozy mother soon gets him a job at ld age nursing home and Lake feels in heaven. One patient who particularly gets his attention is Mr. Peabody, 81 year old from theatre actor. After a few meetings the two people hit it off and they sha...

G&T is an Italian webseries. As title suggests, these are initials of our 2 main characters Giulio & Tommasso. The web series was 13 episodes. I was lucky enough to find this with subtitles. There are so many web series that I need to catch up on. I just wish there was more time in a day. Series starts with the G & T, two best friends going to a club to have fun. One thing leads to another and they end up kissing and later we see Tommasso storming out of the club. Circa, 5 years later, people have moved on. Giulio is in a steady relationship with Matteo but lives with his best friend Sara whereas Tommasso lives with his girlfriend Serena working for his brother. The 2 friends haven’t seen each other for 5 years since then. When Giulio catches Matteo cheating on him, he is heartbroken. A chance encounter with Tommasso and Sarah at a new club is going to change things soon. There is awkwardness when the 2 friends meet and Tommasso even picks up a fight with Giulio. We re...