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Ponyboi

This film is supposed to be a thriller crime drama, which an intersex lead at the center of it all. The person is dealing with their childhood trauma and young adulthood 'trying to survive' stuff. Depending on how you see it, is either a film exploring nonbinary gender identity or a mesh-mash of a crime movie with a radically unorthodox queer protagonist. I wanted to like the film, but I felt like this film was trying to be a lot of things.  The film starts with us being introduced to Ponyboi, (who I first thought was trans female), who is a part time sex worker for New Jersey truck drivers and later arrives at the second job of laundromat. Ponyboi's best friend is the pregnant Angela, whose boyfriend Ninny also happens to be the pimp for Ponyboi (fucking them on the side). He is charming, sexy, alluring but also dangerous. It's valentines day and he asks Ponyboi to "tale care" of one of his clients with home cooked drugs. Things go wrong when this man dies be...
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The Nature Of Us (Mini-Series)

This mini series is a tender ode to young love with individuals struggling with their identity and hopes. Told over 6 episodes of a total runtime of about 70 minutes. The series is about Elly and his first summer after high school and people he meets. We are not spooned on what is Elly's background. All we know is that he has been dealing with some sort of depression and some sort of estrangement from his mother.  Series starts with Elly’s best friend, Rowen, picking him up at the hospital. Elly is going to be staying with her for a while. The setting is a very small town. Here Rowen introduces Elly to Yonah, same age and a recently out young man. ON Rowen's insistence the two boys start to hang out, despite initial reluctance by Elly but Elly starts too slowly enjoy this. Yonah is not doing anything to cure his depression but the company helps. Yonah is a dreamer himself, who likes to read books and write poetry and dreams of traveling. Elly meanwhile had been  painter and ha...

Historia de dos Guerreros (Spanish) [Story of Two Warriors]

This film felt like an independent film with a runtime of just about an hour. On the plus side, the film just focuses on the story it wants to tell without having to stray into side plots. Sadly that is not enough to keep the focus of viewers. It felt like this could have ben a very good short film. The attempt, though noble, feels amateurish at various places. Despite the fact that the film doesn't drag, it still feels it could have ben tightly edited to make for a far better impact. The two good looking leads hold the film tightly together. The film is about the bond that forms between Ara, a local MMA fighter, and Kossi, a soccer player from Togo who faces hardship in Argentina. Ara, a local fighter notices an injured Kossi and somehow gets fascinated by him. It turns out that Kossi came here from Togo with a promise to join an elite football club that could change his life. But not only did the agent turn out be fraud, but now with the injury, he doesn't have place to live ...

Baban Baban Ban Vampire (Japanese)

Honestly I wouldn't call this a gay film at all. Categorizing this in BL genre is also pretty much borderline. There is no BL or romance as such, this film is more of a comedy that uses queer themes to explore a dangerous dynamic between the vampire and the boy. Adapted by a manga and an anime series of same name, I would not wanna see the anime now, especially since, there is in't too much of BL content here. Yes, it is funny but thats about it. Mori is a 450 year old vampire. Injured one day, he is taken home by a 5 year old boy Rihito. Since then, Mori has lived with Rihito and his family. He was given a cleaning job at their bathhouse. Mori works at night, rests during the day, and keeps a low-key routine. Mori has told the family he is vampire, but they all joke about it and cal it his 'persona'. Years have passed and Rihito is now 15. Mori always craves for young virgin blood and has his eyes on Rihito since he will turn 18 in three more years, but he also loves h...

Come Fly With Me (UK) (TV Series)

This mockumentary series, is not gay series. The two lead actors play almost all roles, including female and gay characters and the sensibilities of the humor is something that might align better with gay audience and hence the review here. The idea of the series is to poke fun at flying at the friendly skies. The duo portray nearly 50 different characters who work at or pass through the fictional airport's imaginary terminal, from pilots, stewardesses and baggage handlers to coffee-kiosk workers and assorted traveling couples. Also it is important to remember that this series came back in 2010. The show has 6 episodes of about 30 minutes each. The series satirizes people who have the time and money to use airports regularly - people with respectable dayjobs, authority and status; people with a shot at a managerial role. It features a wide array of characters such as owner of low-cost airline FlyLo Omar Baba, work-shy coffee kiosk worker Precious Little, highly camp passenger liais...

Desired by My Unknown Husband (Web Series)

One more DramaBox series stitched together like a film for audiences like me, making it easier to watch it all at Ince on iPhone. I am not sire how many gay web series like these have been released by DramaBox so far, but I think this is the fourth one that I am seeing. The show was cheesy, a bit unbelievable, but somehow still quite engaging, thanks to the short format and two handsome leads. At their grandmother's insistence, Andrew and Frank marry each other but never see each other's faces. The show starts with Andrew leaving for 1 year business overseas and handing his husband his credit card with a promise to come back and get divorced. One year later, Frank is interviewing for Personal assistant to his new boss William. William gets totally smitten by Frank's hot face and body and hires him and tries to seduce him. But Frank resists temptation for two reasons: One, in his previous job he was seduced by his boss who ended up putting blame on Frank since he was married...

The Ex-Morning (Thai Series)

Just the other day I was thinking of SOTUS series and how I never saw the two lead actors from that show again! And it was funny when I started watching the show, to my surprise, here comes the two leads on this brand new BL series from the good old production company. The show never really offers anything new or ground breaking but I believe that the idea here was to bank on the nostalgia and appeal of one of the beloved couples from back in the day. The average show, makes up for it by a very fun last episodes where they show some traditions from Thai culture of a very dreamy wedding. The show is 10 episodes of 45 minutes each. Phi is a well-known weather anchor on a TV show. However, he faces public disgrace after a live broadcast where he throws coffee at a colleague. His reputation suffers, and he gets suspended from his show. To save his career, Phi must work with a new producer, who happens to be his ex-boyfriend, Tam. Tam is calm and professional, having studied media abroad. T...

The Mafia's Obsession (Web Series)

Continuing with watching DramaBox series, this is another series of multiple short episodes stitched together as a movie in vertical format so it is easily watchable on phone. As I might have mentioned before, these shows are total guilt pleasures and they beautiful fit within a 90 minute range (plus or minus) making it an easy watch. The shows starts with one mafia taking over another's business and agrees to let him love, as long as his son Pietro can get married to his daughter Alice. 15 years later, Alice's brother Augusto can't stand that Alice will marry to mob son Pietro. He finds. Loophole in the contract and instead says that he will marry Pietro. What Augusto doesn't know is that since they were kids, Pietro has always like Augusto and he changed the contract to have that loophole. So Pietro very much loves Augusto but he doesn't believe it. Also with this marriage, the entire mafia community goes against this bog mafia family because they don't accept...

Te Prometo Anarquía (Spanish) [I Promise You Anarchy]

How I wish this film stayed being a gay love story, bit instead the love story angle is a small part while the film is based on the harsh living of two Mexican boys to noir-ish crime thriller to social-comment drama. For me, it would have been so much better had the film stayed central to the love aspect and created some drama around it. I am not saying that the story being told here is bad at all, it is just my wish here. Miguel is a pretty young skateboarder from a middle-class family in Mexico City who is having a torrid love affair with the son of his family’s maid, a fellow skater Johnny. Besides the barriers of class and social status between them, tensions are also heightened by the bisexual Johnny’s ongoing relationship with a young girl, Adri, a dysfunctional love triangle constantly shaken by angry accusations and jealous tantrums. While this theme hovers in the background, the central theme is around how Miguel and Johnny have been making money with a petty criminal scheme w...

The Writers

This is a badly acted and directed story of sexual deviance and forbidden romance between two tortured men - who like to act out by torturing others. The poster promoted it as two serial killers in love and a wife who is betrayed. Honestly, the story is novel and had a great potential to make one of this slashy horror romance kinda films, but this is so badly acted that I Was laughing at so many places. Andrew, a celebrated gay novelist, is married to Pauline. Their marriage is going through rough patch and Pauline has taken to alcohol. Andrew, meanwhile dealing with wrier's block, goes around paying gay hookers to suck him off but is still struggling. One day he sees a guy murdering someone and drinking their blood. He runs for his life but the killer soon catches him and kidnaps him. His name is Eddie and is a psychotic serial killer. After a few days of torture and sexual activities, Andrew convinces Eddie to let him go and that he will write a novel based on his life. For next ...

Pit Babe: Season 2 (Thai Series)

So I was definitely not the biggest fan of the series when it came. I remember it getting excellent reviews around sleek production, money spent, racing cars and what not, but somewhere I felt with too many characters, the overall plot was too convoluted. Sadly even in second season, the problem persists. There are way too many characters, each of them have some story in parallel going on. The plot points start to get repetitive, the pace is slow and almost all over the place and the misunderstandings between main couple were just to much to sit through. With 13 episodes, each of 50-60 minutes, it's not like it doesn't ask for your time. It is a significant time investment and sadly the return is not at all satisfactory. Babe and Charlie are now in a committed relationship and they are still surrounded by a plethora of friends and colleagues. Babe still races and is top of the game. However a new boy Willy arrives and soon becomes a threat to Babe. For some reason, he also majo...

Morrer Como Um Homem (Portuguese) [To Die Like a Man]

I am not sure how I feel about this film to be honest. A sort of love story of an aging drag queen. ON paper the story is interesting and to an extent it really is, but I thought the film was stretched way beyond it should have been, plus there are certain elements of the film that it could have easily done without. The film starts in bleak darkness where we see two soldiers first fighting and then leading to gay sex and accidentally stumbling upon a house where two trans women live. One of the soldiers then kills the other because he makes some comment. Change scene and we meet agin drag queen Tonia. She is head over heels in love with Rosario, a gay man half her age, who makes her dresses. Rosário is a drug addict, a thief, and a generally abusive partner – but as the film progresses, the sheer volume of interaction between the pair begins to wear you down. You wonder why is Tonia so much in love with this toxic man, but you stop asking questions. Eventually you're forced to beli...

Amar Sin Miedo (Spanish/English) [Love Without Fear]

I have mixed feelings about this film. At every point it talks about 'going with the flow', let your heart experience new things, make yourself open and explore new things, but the way it has been setup is quit contrived. It is definitely an interesting story to tell but besides a totally random ending, even the way two men come together wasn't completely established. The one good thing about the film is that they shot in the beautiful city of Taxco, Mexico; which is now added to my bucket list of cities I Want to visit in Mexico. Josh, a white American is visiting Taxco with his Mexican girlfriend of few years. They are very much in love and she can't wait for Josh to experience her childhood memories. On their first day, they see a guy proposing to his girlfriend, a very loving scene but in a stark contrast, they both having a huge fight in the evening leaving the couple apart. They both laugh it off and continue with their life. Next day when the girlfriend gets an u...

Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life (Documentary) (Israel/Germany)

Jonathan Agassi, one of the world's most successful gay porn stars, splits his time between Berlin and Israel. Agassi built his fame and success on what is globally considered a taboo, yet still pleases millions around the world. This film offers a rare and intimate look at the world of porn and escorting, as well as at unique relationship between a mother and son who courageously redefine familiar family concepts. This is a film about a lonely person who seeks love and meaning, but is condemned to a destructive lifestyle, understanding that the extreme fantasies he chases are not necessarily his own. Filmed over eight years, we see Jonathan being close to his mother, his father abandoned them when he was young. He rose to fame in the gay porn industry while working a side hustle as an an escort. The fly-on-the-wall approach chronicles Agassi’s swift, awards-laden ascent to the top of the industry, from his native Tel Aviv to Berlin where he also finds work as an escort. But his ri...

Casa Izabel (Portuguese) [House of Izabel]

This film definitely takes on a very interesting premise and tries to weave a thriller around it. Set in the 70s, it weaves the fascinating lives of cisgender men embracing their female alter egos under Izabel's guidance in a secluded retreat, offering a unique glimpse into Brazil's history and societal nuances with warmth and depth. There is a secluded house in middle of nowhere, called 'Casa Izabel', where cis gendered men come, disguise as women and spend their time. These are all socially well to do men and they live out their fantasies while no one judges them. It is a temporary escape, allowing them to become the glamorous women they desire to be. They don wigs, make-up, gowns, and aliases to live openly for their short stay — tossing back champagne, dancing, and even hunting wild boar in their pumps. This setting, managed by the transvestite Izabel, becomes a sanctuary for their unique escapades. But Izabel is extremely old now, so the things are managed by a car...