Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

As per its director, The Writer is a film that explores the art of conversation. And I couldn't agree more. Two people in an apartment talking. Sure we will talk about further nuances of things, but watching this film I wondered if this would have been better enjoyed as a play. You see, for films like this you need to have patience, which is scarce in today's time. A story of two friends and former lovers who reconnect after any many years asking questions about what defines us as human beings, whether politically, sexually or nationally. Their talk jumps back and forth from the public to the private, as if in an attempt to provide an overview of past repression and today’s prejudices towards queer people through private experiences, against the backdrop of ongoing political turbulence between the East and the West. Ethnically Russian and now Lithuanian Dima is in New York for an interview. He meets his old friend and ex-lover Kostas (original Lithuanian and now American). Thro...

This is BL show from Myanmar, clearly inspired heavily from the Thai BL shows that are based in university and schools. The ending felt a bit open ended and something that I was not expecting and also I am not sure what the makers were trying to say, but at least the world of BL is expanding. With 9 episodes each of about 10 minutes, the show moves slow even though there is a proper story, I feel like the screenplay and direction lacks finesse, but good for the attempt I would say. Also what's up with the name? Should it be 'My Heart' looking at the heart on posters? The show starts with a girl being killed in a bar and fast forward one year later. Thu Kha is a young boy studying in school. He has some heart condition but is overall ok. A new student Nay Thit joins the same school after getting expelled from previous school. He becomes friends with Thu Kha and his friends and soon enough the two have some spark going between them, despite rumors around Nay Thit having anger...

Internalized homophobia can be a powerful force. We tend to think of it simply as lingering shame, or even as something that goes away upon coming out, but in fact its can take many different forms and is often culturally specific. We have seen many films about homosexuality and religion.  Add to that superstition and witchcraft and you get a nice little new genre that we probably have not seen before in gay films in recent times. With Egypt as the background and it looks visually stunning, this film is a taut, suspenseful thriller about gay men trying to reconcile their homosexuality against their family’s religious beliefs. It gets intense with several jump scares, but it is artfully made. Mo and Hisham are a couple who are visiting Egypt to meet Mo's mother after his father's death month ago. They need to pretend to be just friends in order to stay safe in Egypt’s very homophobic environment. Coming back to Egypt, however, leaves Mo especially anxious and uneasy, because he ...

What a wasted opportunity!! This isn’t a gay movie per se but the main lead is a gay teenage, which makes me wonder how this film could have been such a nice cute teen gay love story. I am not sure why the makers are marketing this as a thirst trap film to gay men. I guess whatever to see tickets. This is more like a coming of age for a teen film and generally more about life and nothing really about sexuality or anything. I hate it when I spent so much time thinking there would be substantial gay plot and end up being disappointed. Salvi is a 17 year old Mexican origin teen who is a brilliant student. He gets into USC but has no money to pay for it. A new student Gabriel in his class and him have just started to get along and clearly there is some spark between the two. To make money, Salvi starts to work with a local drug dealer Lucky, who is simultaneously homoerotic and very homophobic. Lucky shows Salvi the ropes and they get along great until Lucky beats up a gay man for little t...

This series was made in 2024, so there is no excuse for making it so cringy, atrocious and bad. I am realizing that these low production Filipino have some standard templates. 2-3 hot guys withe Nic bodies, then 2-3 trans girls to provide comic relief and lust over other hot guys, take the setting on a nice resort or something, then put some 5-6 extra chatters who add absolutely nothing to the main story line and then somehow weave a story around all this. This worked when some of the Asian countries were just starting in the bL race like right around 2021 during covid, but to make such atrocity now is no excuse at all. Thankfully this lasts for only 6 episodes each of 15-20 minute duration. Max and Sky are a gay couple. Suddenly Max decides to go abroad and work so that their life can be better. Sky is sad to see him go but understands and they both hope that they will be able to make this long distance relationship work. After a few days, seeing that how sad Sky is, his group of frie...

Firstly this is not really a movie. It is more like 6 episodes stitched together for a total of about 50 minutes. Now I dont know if the came this way or the version I saw was more like 6 episodes stitched together, whatever be the case, it was just a bit silly and something that I did not enjoy much. The story was basic, acting slightly over the top, and really not much memorable to take back home. Troy recently moved to Brooklyn with his friend Pat and his then-boyfriend Chance, but Troy and Chance broke up, and haven’t yet post-processed the breakup to see if they might reconcile. Troy works as a busboy and just generally walks around grumpy and bitter, still having feelings for his ex. When a new neighbor moves in, the sweet looking 29 year old middle school teacher Abel, Troy's hope for a rekindled romance with his ex-boyfriend gets officially placed on the back burner. Troy and Abel begin getting to know one another, complicating the “will they or won’t they” reunion with Cha...

Layla is a beautifully observed narrative of love, sex, gender and friendship. The summary of the film doesnt even encapsulate everything that the film is trying to show. It says "When Layla, a struggling Arab drag queen, falls in love for the first time, they lose and find themself in a transformative relationship that tests who they really are." It is a pleasure to have a film that revolves around drag performers; not having them at the periphery of the narrative as dressing, but centering their stories and granting visibility to their interiority. The love journey will be full of ups and downs, sometimes you may or may not agree to what you see, but rest assured that everything is handled with a gentle touch that a subject of this nature deserves. Layla is introduced living in London with their community of queer friends, performing drag and attending parties together. They have amazing rapport with each other. In one such parties, Layla meets Max, A conventional very stra...

I saw the first two of the show a few years back, and had no idea on when did the third season come out. It's really hard to keep up these days. I actually had to go back to my review to read and refresh my memory on what the series was about so I could appreciate this season. Consisting of 8 episodes of 10-12 minutes each, the story carries forward from where we left off in season 2. A quick recap: Jason and Brian were together for many years before Jason got cancer and he passed. Brain has a very close circle of friends and support system and he tried to move on with a new guy David and since Brian could never let go off Jason, it didn't really work out with David. The season continues with the story where we see that Brian has immersed himself in work and despite the fact that he wants to move on from Jason, his friends and support system around him don't let that happen. In fact, the ghost of Jason still continues to talk to Brian. At a friend's recommendation, Bria...

This is an intimate look into Vietnam’s quietly thriving queer and trans communities. Through a series of portraits, the director explores different individuals from various marginalized groups across Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) who are all trying to live their lives authentically. It follows an intimate collective of people who both challenge and reinforce traditional concepts of family and love within the LGBTQ community in Saigon. The one big thing to note here is that this documentary is made by a Vietnamese born director (but raised in Canada), which is quite a contrast as clarified by one of the participants saying "There are a lot of people who have filmed the Asian LGBTQ+ community but most of them don’t understand our reality and don’t get it right in their films." Family is at the centre of the film. A wedding is being planned. Relatives have to be won over. Parents adjust to their kids’ sexuality and get to know their new partners. Some of them dive headlong into que...

Another queer film with religion as the backdrop. But here the conflict is different and relatively new. The gay couple here needs to confront themselves and each other on their beliefs on what they want before they start to deal with problems that the society throws their way. During an era where legislators and religious organizations are weighing in on queer rights all around the globe, this film provides a considered perspective on the juxtaposing relationship one can have with organized religion, God, and queerness as a whole.  Peter is an English Vicar now serving in New Zealand. He was happily married, and he currently has an adult-aged daughter as well. After his wife died, in his moments of grief, he met Jason, who happened to be in prison at the time. Before this occurred, his queerness wasn’t something Peter ever really thought about. But then Jason fell into his life and the two fell in love an make for a beautiful couple and everyone knows about them. Jason runs a yout...

Ganymede is something of a hybrid, mainly functioning as a coming of age queer drama commingled with the horror. With its religious homophobia at its core, this feature is semi-horror, not in a scary way but more in subtextual nuances. It confronts us with the horrific bigotry and abuse that is heaped upon LGBTQ existence from right-wing religious hate. The film tries to show an important lesson that will speak to many young people struggling with their sexual preferences, especially amongst problematic family members. Set in a small town in the modern-day Bible Belt, it centers on high school wrestling star Lee , the only son of a deeply religious local politician who runs his household with an iron fist. Kyle , a gay student who is out to his classmates, has a crush on Lee. He finds out that Lee volunteers to clean up trash on the school grounds, so he signs up to join him. They start hanging out together, which makes Lee’s parents nervous, as well Lee also unsure about his feelings....

I had the seen the live version of the show a few years back, so honestly I did not remember much. But one episode into this anime and all the memories started to come back. I guess I must have liked the show. The show starts as an office romance between its two leads and then there is another couple as well. The show is quite straight forward and down to earth, which somehow you don't get to see these days. It's 12 episodes each of 24 minutes and the two versions (anime and live) are literally exact copies of each other. Adachi is a 30 year old guy, who think she is ordinary, dull and boring. And guess what he is also a virgin. He envies Kurosawa, a popular younger coworker who attracts attention due to his handsome looks and natural charisma and a lot of girls seem to like him as well. When Adachi turns 30, he is choked to find that he has received telepathic powers and he can hear what is going on in people's mind as long as he touches them. One morning, Adachi's cur...

OMG! This film was such a boujee film and what a drag!! Showing us the daily life of a gay couple who has already gone through the great storms and who now lives in calm, with all its contradictions.The hook of this film is that this couple have supposedly created their version of perfection, only for it to be called into question by the inevitable developments of life. I am not sure, but even if thats what it was trying to say, the film was so boring, monotonous that it ends up becoming one big snooze fest. I mean this film can easily be summarized as one 15 minute short film. Juan and Mariano are a gay couple who have been together for many years. Recently they decided to leave their city life in Buenos Aires and move to countryside with more open space, less stress to be more in contact with Nature. Juan is an established writer so from a work perspective it will be fine for him, while Mariano dreams of opening a nursery and making pots. While they are settling in, their best friend...

Queer holiday movies are something that can give you a warm cozy feeling but the timing has to be right. This film, unfortunately, is so slow moving, that irrespective of when and in what mood you watch it, you will lose interest. The acting is flat, there is not much going on and basically very low production and an extremely indie film that sadly leaves nothing memorable. Bailey is a single middle-aged man living with his medicated mother in Florida, who suffers from chronic pain. He’s also going through his own issues, having recently losing his dog by a tragic accident, and being informed that he will be losing his job at the end of the year due to company closure. His mother tells him that her close friend and her son Greyson are looking to move to their town and for that Greyson will come and spend 2-3 days with them. Greyson and Bailey used to be close friends when they were younger but it's been 30 years now. Greyson and Bailey spend a few days together remembering memories...

There are so few comedy stuff out there that every content that comes out is anticipated a lot. I did not know anything about this 6 part Canadian series, but I was happy to be pleasantly surprised. It is exactly the light queer kinda comedy we need right now. It is about relationships, the many and varied forms they can take, and the many and varied challenges and obstacles they present, both real and imagined. Each episode explores the challenges of queer love through new client stories, tackling themes of anxiety, commitment issues, and unconventional relationships. These clients and their stories reflect various topics about queer dating, love, and sex. Mason runs a podcast about love. Relationships and settling down while also running a match making business for queer personnel, a welcome change from the plethora of apps available. He has been married to Jarod for a few years , who has been very supportive of the business but of late Jarod feels that his work is more important for...