Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

I dunno exactly how I felt after this film finished. This was a very average film, where conveniently strained situations are created and by the end of it all life goes back to being very rosy; which all feels too good to be true. Touted as a teen comedy, I personally did not laugh at ay point and I couldn’t really connect with the actors either. Three oddballs in a school ultimately come together: Dan is a new boy in the neighborhood, openly gay and wants to start a gay straight alliance but the school board would not allow. We then have Diwata, an aspiring outspoken wanna be actress who is heart broken when she is not selected for a school musical because she is against the changes made to the story to suit the sensibilities of the conservative town. Finally we have Solomon, who has a lot of thoughts and topics that he wants to write about but the school newspaper is heavily censored because of board rules and hence he is also frustrated. Among the only options available to them...

After a long time i saw a gay film whose subject wasn’t run of the mill. Complexities of living with a sugar daddy is something new, maybe it has been handled in a few short films or side stories but a full fledged film on this subject is a great idea. Sadly personally for me, it didn’t translate too well on screen as I would have liked to, and I will write more details about it but nonetheless I really appreciate an interest in bring something new to the table. Good looking and hot Dennis lives with his sugar daddy Farleigh who works in reality TV production. Dennis has never worked in life and has enjoyed his time as Farleigh’s kept boy, and unfortunately his production is not doing too well. So on his 30th birthday, Dennis is asked to look for a job to support himself a little bit. This comes as a shock to him since he has never worked in his life and his circle of friends also include Lonnie & Paulette who themselves are living with a much older woman and a man respectivel...

And finally the third and the last film in this bear trilogy, brings back all principal characters back from the first two films and continues to what’s the latest happenings in everyone’s lives. As enjoyable as the first two films were, I was looking forward to this film as well. Though it didn’t disappoint, it also did not bring anything new to the table. Lets look at all the major characters and couples that we are introduced to and will watch. Fred who has started making a documentary on bears, is now about to have a baby with his husband Brent. While Brent has completely taken over the responsibility of doing all preparations for the arrival of the baby, Fred is busy with his documentary, making Brent feel that Fred is not taking the baby’s arrival with as seriousness as it deserves. Then we have Michael, who although still mourning the death of his past lover is building a new relationship with Dalton. Dalton’s daughter Emma, a very tough teenager and very protective of her ...

Johnny (US) An older man hires a young sex worker named Johnny to be his first sexual experience with another man. The night they share forces them to face the difficult truths they've been trying to outrun. Johnny is a story about finding the strength and courage that it takes to accept responsibility for the choices you have made. Camchat (US) An experimental look at online sexual encounters through one young man's interactions. Yawn! Lily In The Grinder (US) Ryan struggles to find meaning in his provisional existence, exploring sex and death and the idea of 'becoming something.' This surreal film, enveloped in a classical string quartet piece, is a rumination on death, time, and the nature of existence. What if human life cannot be said to truly begin or end? This one was way too weird for me. Never Too Late (US) A teenage romantic short film that shows that even with HIV+, its never too late to find love if you truly look for it. Dans Les Yeux (Fr...

This is a film that examines long term relationships, (definition of long-term is debatable) over the course of weekend in a nice picturesque beach town. At the onset it seems another one of those improvised, low budget, indie films, but its thankfully saved by some really good acting. The actors maybe unknown but they definitely don’t come out as novice and that’s a good thing because otherwise, a film that relies heavily on dialogues can very soon get very boring. 3 couples (gay, lesbian and straight) come to a beach town near New York for the weekend. Each one wants to have a good time but internally each of them is going through their own problems. James and Spencer have been together for a while and are very much in love but Spencer has just been accepted into a grad school in Chicago and that seems to have put a discord in their relationship. Alex and Jackie, the lesbian couple , hasn’t had sex in ages and Alex is trying her best but feels constantly rejected by Jackie who h...

Set in the backdrop of a boarding school, this film is another one of those coming-of-age stories for a teenage boy or boys. What’s a little hard for me to believe is the fact that neighborhoods and societies in general can be still so homophobic in Ireland, but then I don’t live there, so its not fair for me to comment on that. It may not be the easiest for  a teenager to come out but but something tells me that its highly unlikely that a whole high school community would be harsh including the teachers. Ned, teenage gay outcast, joins a boarding school since his parents work in Dubai. Taunted and laughed at because of his ginger look and non-interest in rugby, he has learned to live that way. He is soon joined as his room mate by Conor, who also joins this school because of suspension from his previous school for picking up fights with students. A quiet and shy guy by nature, it turns out that he is a rugby star and now the only hope for the school to being them back the win...

I had mixed feelings 15 minutes into the film. I was wondering whether this is going to be another trash, budget independent bad movies or will it bring something different in perspective. I have to admit that less than half way into the film, I forgot and didn’t care about the low production quality or even the use of hand help camera at different points. I was engaged in the chemistry of the leads and was just trying to figure out what the relationship between the leads is, because it is never made clear to us until quite late in the film. A complicated but love story would be an appropriate way to describe this film. Sahil, is a young budding musician, who has a huge fight with his roommate(?) Alex before heading to the airport to meet his childhood friend Jai. Jai is now a successful banker and is in India for a meeting and Sahil plans a weekend getaway to Western Ghats with his friend. The two are from very different worlds which we see n first few minutes of the film but des...

One thing gets very clear after you have started watching this film, that this is definitely a book turned into a film. The dialogues seem something like you would read in a book and even otherwise things are not. at a consistent pace and that was my biggest problem with the film. An otherwise beautiful love story spanning over a period of few years gets wasted when you don’t work at all in characters behaviour or clothes or attitude to reflect the changing timelines. The film starts with Benjamin, openly gay 17-year old high school student. He is completely infatuated with a new student Tim in class. Gorgeous Tim is popular, very handsome and apparently straight and so Benjamin stands no chance. An accident when Benjamin trips over him brings the two boys together when Tim confronts Benjamin if he indeed is gay. Soon their love story begins and both the boys are very happy but Tim still can’t come out in open, forget telling his friends about Benjamin. They eventually break-up ev...

What’s happening to me! Why can’t I find a couple of hours at a stretch to watch a nice decent gay film? I hate being busy. But thankfully web series or short TV series dont require a commitment of a couple of hours at a stretch and hence, they come to my rescue. MIQVA is one such series which has 8 episodes, each of about 8-12 minutes in duration. The primary events happens between 4 close gay friends over an evening and our primary man is Juan, who is also the host of the party. He is obliged to attend a family event with a boyfriend. "I imagine that you will come accompanied" (“Me Imagino Que Vendrás Acompañado” thus the abbreviation MIQVA) says his mother, who has accepted him being homosexual but cannot accept that her son is single. This happens every time and all his friends have already exhausted pretending to be his boyfriend. In the urge to avoid problems and prejudices, he hires an escort as a companion, and gather his friends to give them the news and ask the...

I know I am posting after months. But I have ben way too busy with a lot of things happening in life, and am not sure how and when I will be back to watching and reviewing films regularly. Anyway.. What is happening with this whole series? Something that started off with a brilliant collection of stories is turning into something barely relatable. At least I feel so. Its quite disappointing. Golden (Germany) As a golden boy becomes a golden man, his carefree spirit wanes under the weight of being different. As he grows up he becomes more introverted until, one day he discovers he’s not alone. I had seen this before. Something that shows you may not be alone. Jamie (UK) Shy, quiet Jamie, spends a revealing afternoon with Ben after meeting on a dating app. As they chat, Jamie finds himself opening up and letting loose his hopes and fears in an unexpected awakening. Interesting! B. (Germany) Torn between a cold relationship with K. and her feelings for another woman, shy and i...

This film is very important not just for the black community but also very much for the African-gay people, who like a lot of other communities struggle to be themselves. This film especially becomes important form a US standpoint when politically things are going downhill and people are very quick to judge anyone who doesn’t cater to the social norms. I have been hearing so much about the film, especially after winning the Oscar award, so naturally my expectations from the film were quite high and I have to admit that the film actually meets expectations to a large extent. It is important to understand and relate to what and how a child goes through and how any small thing can infest a kids mind and ultimately shape his or her future. The movie is told in 3 parts and focusses on life of Chiron, a young boy. Drug dealer Juan watches Chiron being chased after by school boys shouting faggot behind him. He rescues a boy but in a manner that doesn’t shelve his self-respect and bring h...

A beautiful and touching film, although not-necessarily a centrally gay-themed one. The film deals with issues of friendship, acceptance, rebel, self-confidence. Equal focus is given on all three primary characters in the film. More than anything it is about friendship and how one kiss could change the lives of friends. Slowly, three of our primary characters are introduced to us. Lorenoz is new to town. He is outgoing, exuberant, very gay and likeable (if you want to). He has been adopted by very liberal parents and brought to town. Parents are ready to fight with school authorities if they have to, to make sure Lorenzo is comfortable with who he is. He becomes real close friends with Blu, daughter of hippy parents. She has been labelled as rebel and slut because of an infamous incident where she slept with her bf and three other friends of him. She gets called names in school, so she prefers to be by herself. And finally we have Antonio, a gorgeous young boy and basketball star ...

A very taboo subject, whenever someone tackle sit, can be very easily met with extreme negative reactions. Although I personally may never endorse the feelings, but I do respect and am ready to give my view point to a film makers motivation on taking up a complicated subject and present it to their audience. Shown us through Nate’s view point and through flashbacks, we are introduced to brothers Steven and Nate. Steven is a year older, and a medical student from out of town. Nate stays local and is a physical trainer in a local gym. Steven returns to town after their mother’s demise. We learn through flashbacks that their father is already dead. Steven stays back to comfort his brother Nate emotionally, who was very close to their mother. But soon enough more secrets are revealed and we find out that both Steven and Nate have been in a secret relationship with each other. Something that started as sexual experimentation in their pre teen years soon evolved in a very very strong lo...

Slash is definitely not a gay themed film but has enough references for it to have a review here on my blog. I’ll try to keep it short and simple for 2 reasons. a) Because I didn’t think too much of the film, and b) My blog is supposed to be mainly about queer cinema but this film falls in a grey area. Neil is an introvert 15 year old, questioning high school freshman. He thinks he might be gay but isin’t sure, although he continues to write steamy fan fiction for his own pleasure. He writes about Vanguard, the brawny, galaxy-hopping hero of a popular sci-fi franchise. When his stories are exposed in class Neil is mortified, but the slightly older, effortlessly cool Julia comes to his defense, who is a fan fiction writer herself on an online “adult” forum. They both become good friends and Neil has someone with whom he feels comfortable with. He feel she is falling in love with Julia. Until Neil grabs attention of Denis thorough the website, who is the site moderator and he invite...

Thanks to one of my blog followers lina, I finally managed to watch the third  season of the show ‘Skam’ which apparently translates to ‘Shame’. My initial thoughts, (a) Why didn’t I watch this series sooner (b) How do I now find time to watch the first two seasons.? For those unaware of the show, like I was till a few days back, this is a hit Norwegian show, a cross between TV/online/web series that focusses on lives on teenagers studying in a high school. Each season focusses on a different character and tackles various issues. The main theme of season 3 is the gay storyline and this is how I came to know about the show in the first place. Its 10 episodes with each episode being 20-25 minutes each. Since I haven’t seen the show’s first 2 seasons, my review will be based on this season as an individual. The main character of this season is Isak, who hangs out with his close group of 3 other male friends. He flirts with one of the popular girls Emma, but very soon we realize t...