Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

I really cant remember when was the last time I saw a trilogy of films focusing on gay theme. In fact, is there any other trilogy on queer theme out there at all? I have been so busy with work these days and haven’t had much time for movies but this was a good change or break from work. The last film in this series conveys a very important message. After focusing on falling in love and then individual journeys, this film focusses on what the ultimate outcome will be for the central characters. Their internal conflict versus the conflict from church and families. The two need to decide what their future would be like. In part 2 we saw that Chris is now divorced. But RJ and him are still having difficulty  sorting out where their relationship stands and where it’s going in the future, especially as they’re living in different parts of the country. They decide to get together for the weekend in the hope figuring out where they stand and what should they do. RJ has largely rejecte...

I am not too sure about this film. It was well made but something was really odd about the whole thing. I just couldn’t connect with the characters. When the lead says, no one understands him, I was in same category, because everything weird or strange in life was somehow oddly romantic for him, including someone’s rape. I mean, we have to draw a line somewhere. The film shows three different possible outcomes when a couple decides to break up. Ryan is a struggling writer who has been with his boyfriend Joel for 3 years now. On their third anniversary, Ryan meets Leo, a college student and they hit it off immediately. Apparently Leo is the only one who understands Ryan’s off taste in movies, books etc. Though he loves Joel, Ryan feels stifled by the relationship's stability and senses that Joel doesn't appreciate his artistic temperament. Ryan decides to leave Joel and this is where 3 different scenarios are shown. In the first version, Ryan gets together with Leo and the ...

Gay cinema is becoming all too predictable and repetitive. I don’t mean to say that the films are not enjoyable, but I am craving for something new and different that I have not seen before. Till then, feel good gay-cinema is not going out of fashion and movie lovers like me are going to continue to enjoy movies like this. Luckily, we always have some good looking faces to admire and get some eye-candy. In case of this film, specifically, the print that I had was with the worst subtitles that I have ever seen. The translation was pretty bad and still it did give an idea on what the overall story was. Yad was a medical student in Amsterdam, but he was getting too tempted with the partying life, so he gets summoned back by his mother. Joris , on the other hand, is constantly at loggerheads with his mother, who has become very bitter ever since their father left them. He is now dead and all Joris has are his ashes in an urn. Joris is now supposed to find a job, and he starts as a cle...

This is the second film is recent past that references to the ACT Up movement. I think the choice of subject was quite interesting but unfortunately the development of both the characters and the storyline was not upto the mark. I am glad someone thought about the sort of tussle between the generation who fought for LGBT rights all their life while watching their friends die of AIDS vs the younger lot, who get it all so easy. There was a lot of scope where this point of view could have taken a very interesting shape but this film doesn’t focus on this premise primarily. Sam is in his mid-50s, an artist and lives in his NY apartment. He lives in the survivor guilt, which becomes evident later, while he used to go to funerals twice a week in youth while his friends were dying of AIDS. He decides to make a documentary on his close friend who also happened to author the book called ‘After Louie’. But Sam’s friends have their own views about this project. One evening Sam picks up a 29 ...

This is the kind of gay cinema that I look forward to and my hunger keeps increasing for such movies. A lot of people would say that this film about coming out of a gay teenage is as cliched as it gets and to be honest its true; but there is something about this film that really will connect will adults and teenagers alike. Its an emotional yet funny film about sexual identity, a film that I found will be much appreciated if promoted well. I am so glad I got to see this on the big screen. Simon is your next door teenager with loving parents and a younger sister. He has a happy life with his closest friends from childhood Nick & Leah and a newcomer Abby. Everything in Simon’s life seems to be “normal” except he hasn’t told anyone that he is gay. One day a student with a pseudonym Blue posts an online confession about how he feels lonely about being gay in school. This gives Simon a channel to discuss his feelings with someone and he starts correspondence with Blue using nickname ...

Its times like these that make me frustrated. After a gap of few weeks, this is the film that I end up watching, while quietly questioning myself at every step, why am I watching this and what’s the point of this film. The whole film is in conversations between the principal characters and those talks have no meaning or reason. They are pointless. Th film is pretty much nothing about no one. Esme is having an affair with her girlfriend. We soon find out she is actually married to Eddie. Eddie’s brother Danny, who is gay, is coming to town. He is a porn film maker. So she invites one of her friends Devon, a recent surfer and a newly import to town. Eddie and Esme are going through their issues in marriage despite both in love with each other. Eddie has no idea that his wife is having an affair with another woman. Danny hangs out with Devon but he finds it difficult to read Devon to know whether he is interested in him or not. Mundane conversations continue over the period of time ...

I am not very sure if this film should be reviewed here or not. Although one of the 3 main characters is gay and there are homo-eroticism undertones, the issue or subject is never addressed head on. But then, for a film that came way back in 1968, I guess this small step was itself probably quite a big achievement. Kath is a lonely middle-aged woman living in suburbs with her ageing father DaDa. When she meets hanssome, young and very sexy Mr. Sloane sunbathing on a tombstone in the cemetery near her home, she invites him to become a lodger. When he accepts her offer and comes home, her father recognizes him as the man who killed their neighbor but is too afraid to speak anything. Eventually Kath seduces him. Meanwhile, her closeted, yet obvious gay brother visits him and also gets charmed by him. He makes Mr. Sloane his personal chauffeur (complete with a titillating tight leather uniform) of his pink convertible. Sloane takes delight in playing brother against sister and torment...

This is a 4 part mini-series, each episode of about an hour each.There aren’t many good thriller, mystery series which focusses exclusively around gay characters. The drama is based on the historical, unsolved hate murders of possibly 30 to 80 gay men in Sydney's eastern suburbs and beaches in the 1980s and '90s. Murder mystery, detective series and gay characters; now tis is a series that ticks off all the boxes that I like when I look forward to watch something. One morning, in one of the apartments on the beachfront of Bondi, a mutilated body of a young man is found. Tori Lustigman and Nick Manning are assigned the case. They soon discover that this could possibly be a gay hate crime of maybe an ex-lover or a hook-up gone wrong. Their boss wants the case to be closed soon but Tori strongly believes that this goes much deeper. With a series of investigation, she suspects that these murders go back to late 80’s and 90s of gay bashings and sudden disappearances of many you...

If you are occasional gay porn watcher like me and have a few favourites, then Brent Corrigan is a name that you must be quite familiar with. This film is a true story and is based around him as the central character around an incident that became a big deal and affected his career and his personal life to a large extent. I didnt realize this until the very moment I started watching the film. Had I known this fact, I would have seen this film, right when it came out. And it has, the now famously ambiguous actor James Franco as well. Anyway, better late than never. Bryan is a gay porn producer and he own Cobra films. He meets Sean Paul who introduces himself as Brent Corrigan for his porn name. Brent signs a contract with him and Bryan starts producing a couple of porn films. Within a very short time frame. Brent gains immense popularity and becomes really famous. On the other side, we also meet a low key porn producer Joe, who runs his company Viper Boys whose sole porn star is al...

I had been meaning to this film for a while, even before it won the Oscar for best foreign language film; but after that it just peaked my curiosity. So a friend of mine and I decided to check it out in the nearest cinema. I am glad I saw it on the big screen, because somehow the impact was stronger. Also, since the pace of the film is a bit slow, I Have a feeling that I might have gotten uneasy at some points; which didn’t happen at the movies. This is a film about a trans woman fighting for simple human respect in a world filled with hatred. Marina, is a waitress and an aspiring singer. She goes on a romantic dinner date with hr much older boyfriend Orlando, who also happens to be rich. Later that night, Orlando wakes up feeling very unwell. Unable to stand up, he collapses and falls down a staircase. Marina rushes him to a hospital, but Orlando dies, apparently from a brain aneurysm. This is where the trouble begins where the cops and Orlando’s family both suspect her for foul ...

Antiman (Guyana) Anil, an introverted young boy, is pressured by his father to become a cricket player the way he himself was years before. Although a skilled player, Anil refuses to play and takes refuge in his love for Dano, an older boy in the village.  In order to attend the local masquerade and see the boy he pines for, Anil must win the cricket tournament. False Negative (Italy) Luca is a shy and insecure guy and is hard to get along with. He has a problem with gay people: he is always very uncomfortable with them. One night, in spite of himself, he will have to face the problem and confront once and for all with himself. Thirst (Israel) Two friends go on a hike to the desert. In the desolate wilderness something hidden comes out in their friendship. From then on, the only way they manage to communicate is sexually and violently. While one of them wants more than the other, he expresses his frustration by making sure they get lost and have no water - anything to e...

Now, finally, a decent thriller with a gay theme. My last few attempts of watching a film with this genre has been terrible, so I was a bit nervous about this one. Actually to be honest, I did not even know that this was thriller when I started watching but pretty soon, it was obvious. For some reason, one thing that caught my attention in this film was the background music. Somehow it was just really good and perfect and went very very well with the film. I usually don’t even pay attention to such things but this was good. Businessman Tae has not returned from his Korea trip and this worries his wife Kade. She asks her police friend, Tum , to help her out but he advises her to wait for a few more days, because some work emergency may have had come up. But Kade is restless and can’t wait any longer so she asks her husband’s driver Mac to take her to his office to see if she can find something. There she finds an electricity bill for the house she never knows he had. Kade makes Mac...

I don’t know why but I have been holding off to watching this film. Somehow the name did not seem  inviting enough for me to give it a chance. Finally I did and honestly it wasn’t that bad. Sure its a bit cliched and we have seen plenty of movies with similar theme about high school teenagers struggle with sexuality and coming out and what not, but even this film manages to hold on with its individual merit Russel and Gunnar are best friends since kids. But Russel has a secret. He is gay and can’t even bear to tell anyone since his father has high hopes from him. For his friend Gunnar’s sake , he goes on double dates but is very frustrated. But his dreams soon start to come true when after a few meetings, he gets into a secret relationship with the hot and hunky Kevin, the school’s quarterback. At their first kiss, their classmate Min sees them and invites Russel to join ‘Geography Club’ which essentially is a cover for clandestine LGBT club. Initially reluctant, Russel does j...

There are just a handful of thrillers in gay genre, and most of them are not even good. This film is sort of thrillers but not strictly in gay genre. Regardless, it is difficult to put this in either suspense thriller or psychological mind fuck. Actually if you look at the film as a whole, I don’t really get the point it is trying to make but anyway. more on that later. Within first few minutes after he kills one of his male lovers, our protagonist tells us how he is dealing with issues of lust and killing and he can’t control it. He comes as Nick to Berlin and rents a room from Philipp. Philipp loves his charm and good looks and also introduced him to his best friend Lily. Clearly both of them are charmed by Nick and at the same time Nick systematically seduces them both. Lily with his charm and love and Philip with his friendship, although clearly Philipp has feelings for him. Nick is also sad about this whole thing because even though he genuinely likes both of these folks, he ...

This trilogy is actually a set of three interconnecting short sitcoms and was quite interesting to watch. Each of the story is placed an year after the previous one, so its essentially a growth of characters over a period of time. Wilhelmsburg is supposed to be Hamburg’s worst district, where a lot of immigrant population lives. Episode 1: Eine Nacht in Wilhelmsburg Martin, a budding actor, has a crush on Murat, who works in a video store, but doesn't know whether he's gay or not. One day Murat invites him over for dinner but Martin's buddy Christopher however is convinced, that Murat is a gay-basher as Murat lives in the worst part of Hamburg. Martin leaves Murat’s address with Christopher just in case. Love eventually finds its way between the couple but has a hilarious ending when the cops show up. Episode 2: The Lucio Fulci Experience Martin and Murat are going through a rough patch after being together for one year. Murat conspires with one of their friends to...