Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

When I saw that this film was by the same director of the film " The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros", it got me excited. I liked that film and was expecting something similar. This film is not great by any means but it is definitely different. It is a funny and touching story of a up and coming teenage poet who also happens to be a gay boy. A teenage boy goes into a gay nightclub one Saturday night and it is empty except for those who work there and the usual crowd. "Boy" has never been to the club before and knows nothing about the gay lifestyle so he has no idea of the rules that are followed. Suddenly an 18 year old dancer Aries takes the stage and boy is mesmerized although he does not understand what has caused the attraction. The boy gets so attracted to Aries that he sells his prized collection of comic books and action figures to gather enough money so that he can bring Aries home on New Year’s Eve. When he does that, the boy's mother suspects something ...

I know I have said this many a times before but what can I do when it is so true. Frenchmen have come up with some of the best films ever and this holds true even for gay genre. The freshness in the scripts and execution is worth watching. I feel I am lucky to get a chance to watch these films. Not everyone is that lucky. I just hope more people start appreciating French cinema. Handsome Malik returns to Tunisia from France to stay with his widowed mother, Sara. He is half Arab and half French and is already struggling with his roots. He wants to confess to his mother about his homosexuality but as we later find, she always knew just never wanted to acknowledge it. Malik seems attracted to rough local guys whose job is to service young rich men. Sara has an Arab guy called Bilal who lives in servant quarters who does menial jobs for her. Malik has instant attraction for him but doesn't know what he feels like. He keeps guessing it keeping the master-servant relationship going. Mea...

"Hollywood, Je T'aime" is not just a lighthearted colourful popcorn comedy that the cover suggests. There is humour but also some food for thought. It looks at a heartbroken guy's disillusionment with the Hollywood glamour, and ultimately finds out the hard way that streets in Hollywood are not paved with gold. He has to answer the question, whether he loves Hollywood or not. Jerome, a guy from Paris, after having been ditched by his boyfriend, and in order to overcome his infatuation, decides to go to L.A. for Christmas, at first for vacation, and maybe get his hands on acting and then for reasons not quite pinned down that seem like going for a ride. At this journey he meets various local people who help him in his destiny. He meets Ross at the beach, who lives on his own and is a drug dealer. Ross, is attracted to Jerome and helps him at various points. In the interim, Jerome befriends a tranny prostitute and, through her, meets an older, bitter drag queen who lets...

Entirely set among London's gay community in the mid-1980s against the background of the mounting AIDS crisis, My Night with Reg follows the ups and downs of a circle of homosexual friends over a period of several years. One of the group, the Reg mentioned in the title, is not a character in the play but the whole plot revolves around his apparent promiscuity and the chain reaction of deception and betrayal set off by it.  The group, most of them in their thirties, meet at irregular intervals, often at Guy's place. Guy himself is a lonely man who has always had crush on John but never dared to tell him. He lives a solitary life, which he only spices up with phone sex. 18 year-old Eric, is helping him decorate his new flat. During the course of conversation we find that on one holiday he met a gay man who eventually forces himself on Guy and has unprotected sex with him. At his flatwarming party, he has just come back from his holiday. John comes to meet him and they talk. The m...

This film is made up of four unique stories, very different from each other, about 20 minutes long talking about different aspects of gay romance and each story is quite moving. We see also what love is and how it affects the characters. the stories could as well have been for characters of any sexual orientation.  "Don't Ask" is about a interracial couple Cameron and James. The two have been together for 4 years and for most of that part Cameron has been on duty in Iraq. Just before Cameron has to leave again for his duty, they both go out to meet friends, where Cameron is forced to defend himself to a pacifist when she wants to know why he is still fighting in a useless war. Cameron leaves and James stays home and lives in fear that his lover may not return. "Bloodline" is about Gerald, a cute gay goth who finally is able to talk to Christian in his class. He always thought Christian was interested in him. Pretty soon the boys fall in love for each other but ...

If you have been a follower of my blog, I put this post about a short film "Dare" and did mention that this film has the potential of being made into a full length feature film. Well guess what, someone did listen to us and used this idea to make a full length feature film. Although the film really didn't preceded or follow the story but the short story fits in very well in the narrative. I liked the fact that they stuck to the original dialogues and scenes of the short. I wish they stuck with the original actors too.  The film is split into 3 acts from the perspective of individual 3 characters and a final act of them together. Alexa is a typical teenage high school girl who wants to become an actress. He drama partner is Johnny who doesn't take it seriously. She wonders if being bad would benefit her and so she gives in to have a physical relation with Johnny. This transformation in Alexa makes her best friend Ben feel betrayed. He also has had a crush on Johnny. O...

Documentaries that focus on the lives of their subjects are intrinsically voyeuristic. What starts as a not uncommon family avocation turns infinitely darker as several of the family members seem compelled to record disturbing intra-family encounters that both enthrall and repel. I In the late 1980's, the Friedmans - father and respected computer and music teacher Arnold Friedman, mother and housewife Elaine Friedman, and their three grown sons, David, Seth and Jesse - of Great Neck, Long Island, are seemingly your typical middle class American family. They all admit that the marriage was by no means close to being harmonious - Arnold and Elaine eventually got divorced - but the sons talk of their father, while also not being always there for them, as being a good man. This façade of respectability masks the fact that Arnold was buying and distributing child pornography. Following a sting operation to confirm this fact, the authorities began to investigate Arnold for sexual abuse ...

This is an old 70s film which directly actually does not fall in the gay category. There are situations in the film that question whether Paul was gay or not but it is clear that his attraction is more real to wards the girl whom he meets towards the end of the film. So this can be argued. Set in 1930s in Paris during the German occupation time, the film is nevertheless interesting. 7 year old Paul studies in a church run boarding school and visits his home every weekend. For some weird reason he feels that no one at home wants him (including mother, father and elder sister). Soon there are issues between the couple and they split. Paul is no longer in boarding school but school was never his thing. He tries but he just does not like to study. He wanders on the street and like to meet strange men looking for love and acceptance. He does this menial jobs for German soldiers in Paris and make some money out of it. He meets a school friend, they share a bond. Paul steals for him because h...

I am not a big lesbian movie watcher, so I wasn't sure about watching the film. They are just not my cup of tea. So with my own apprehensions, I did start watching the film. In the end it turned out to be not so bad. The funny thing was this film also had all the typical lesbian cliches that you will find in most gay movies too. So in a way , it was funny. PLus the film was in a comedy genre, so it wasn't that bad after all. Meggie, just quit university and preferred becoming part of Vancouver's gay scene, performing in a gay bar and working in a lesbian book store. Things seem to go pretty fine until the day when Maggie's Mum Lila calls and informs her that she just left her current husband and wants to move in with Maggie, bringing Maggie's teen brother Paul with her. The problem is: Mum doesn't know (or doesn't want to know) that her little daughter is gay. Things get even more problematic when one night, after her performing at the club, Maggie meets an ...

This is a film that promises a take on gay life, as most viewers expect and somehow, it gets away from that promise into an introspective view at a young man's soul. The film has a way of staying with us even when it has ended. It is a character study about how a young man gets involved into a love affair with someone so much different than him that, in the end, will leave Mathieu confused, hurt and depressed when things don't go according to what he hoped the relationship would be. The story unfolds with Mathieu, after suffering from depression; revisit his family summerhouse to pull his life together. It is the same place where two summers ago he met his first boyfriend, someone he just broke up with. Mathieu is visiting with his sick mother and his sister to his aunt' summer house. While sunning at the beach Mathieu notices a handsome youth his age staring at him, and we can feel Mathieu's emotions quivering with confusion. The biy ultimately turns out to be Cedric w...

This was such a ridiculous movie. The first thing I read someone's review online was that it is one of the director's best film dealing with contemporary loneliness and alienation. BS !! This was crap, boring and utterly annoying. Viewers just keep waiting and waiting for something to happen but almost never nothing happens. In Taipei, a middle-aged real estate agent, May Lin, goes about her daily routine of putting up signs, inviting potential customers to an open house, then sitting and waiting for them in empty apartments as the hours drag by. Hsiao-kang, a young gay man who sells wall space for burials, soon finds the key to an apartment being shown by May Lin and moves in. When May Lin meets Ah-jung a slick street vendor of women's clothes during a lunch break, they coyly size each other up, then use the apartment for casual sex. Ah-jung, unaware of Hsiao-Kang's presence, takes the key from May Lin and also moves in. The characters live an existence surrounded by s...

En Malas Compañias (Spanish) [Doors Cut Down] A school boy hangs around a mall in order to pick up older men and have sex in the public toilets. When his English tutor teaches him anal sex he is opened up to new experiences despite being caught by his disapproving father. When he meets a 18 year old he goes to the toilets only to be caught by security and charged. Despite his parent's disapproval he finds this makes him dedicated to one relationship but the sexual anonymity of the toilets is a constant lure for him. Close To Two young men have a brief sexual encounter in a New York City subway that sets off feelings of anxiety and desperation. It was a weird film that I didn't care much about. Davy And Stu As the sun sets over a swampy Scotland bog, two boys meet in the darkness as part of a nightly ritual. Part character study, part love story, DAVY & STU is a heartwrenching look at the intensity of adolescent romance and forbidden love. Heartland H.G. liv...

The cowboy has long been romanticised as the ideal image of masculinity – a rough and rugged bushman who loves his beer as much as his woman. But for a young bloke living on the land it’s a tough life if you don’t fit the mould. Adam Sutton grew up in Australia, the son of a Vietnam veteran. He had a turbulent time as a young man, spending six months in jail after a fatal road accident for which he was convicted of culpable driving under the influence of alcohol. Sutton went on to build a reputation as a skilled and respected rodeo rider, horse breaker, riding instructor and trick rider – culminating in a stint as a wrangler for the movie 'Ned Kelly', where he also helped the actors with horsemanship skills. It was here that he met Heath Ledger – and established a unique connection that would resonate later with the release of Ledger’s recent movie 'Brokeback Mountain'. Adam Sutton’s story first came to public attention just 2 days before the Academy Awards in a front-...

After having finished the film, came the declaration that this film was based ona true heist that happened in Buenos Aires in 1965. It is so interesting because while I was watching the film, this is exactly what I kept thinking. The film has a gripping story and the main protagonists happen to be gay. Focus of the film is not their sexuality at all, instead its all about what they both are doing as a team and what are they capable of. Nene and Angel are lover who are famous in the criminal world as 'Twins' since they never do anything alone. After initial passion, there is something missing between the two from Angel's side because he keeps hearing voices that tell him what he is doing is wrong. But when it comes to work it is all good. They are hired for a bank robbery along with the car driver Cuervo. The robbery is successful but they end up killing a couple of cops and also Angel gets shot in his shoulder in the process. Now the entire police department is after them, ...

This was a stupid, nonsense movie. Actually maybe not that bad in retrospect but again, what was the point? A slice of one day in a person's life? But it still has to have a point. I can go and start filming a bunch of people on a beach on a particular day and 2 hours editing call it a film. It does not make it a art specially when you have forced nudity and sex in the film. Salvatore is a handsome man edging towards middle age ho now spends time enjoying beautiful seaside of Italy. The film bizarrely starts with a hookup encounter with another young man in the sand dunes on his way to he beach. Then he goes to the beach, walks around (sometimes naked) and meets a group of 3 girls (totally annoying). The group starts talking about love , philosophy and future. He also meets a young man on the beach named Cristiano who reminds him of his lover who died a year ago. There is attraction between the 2 men but Cristiano is young and careless which annoys Salvatore. He becomes close to on...

This movie was supposed to be funny or at least thats what the film makers claimed. Trust me it could have been funny but it in no way tickled any of my funny bone. On the contrary I wanted the film to finish fast because it was just too obvious of what's going to happen next. Calling it a comedy film is itself a wrong thing to say. Carmello, who is 30-years old and extremely shy, finds it difficult to reveal his innermost feelings to Verónica, his coworker. He has loved her ever since he has seen her but he doesn't have that outgoing personality. When Verónica returns from a work trip from USA, she brings her boyfriend along with her which completely shatters Carmelo's world. Things are worse when she announces her intention to get married soon. Accidentally, she spots him demonstrating in a gay rally where he becomes a leader of that cause. Of course, Verónica assumes that Carmelo is gay and asks him to help her out in the project that she is working on. Hoping to win her...

Based on Howard Roffman's best selling photography book "Three" this video diary of Kris, John and Gary documents the challenges and joys of an intimate three-way love relationship. Gorgeous and uninhabited, these American boys in London have agreed to let the outside world into their provocative private lives.  John and Gary have been a couple for few years in London. Because of work, John has to be in SF for few years and thats hwne he meets Kris and a wonderful 3-way relationship starts. As every relationship has, these guys also go through time of love, jealousy, meaning, work, fun, sex etc but they are different because they are 3 people on a relationship. The documentary shows up bits and parts of the lives of these 3 gorgeous men and individually what do they all think of one another and the relationship overall.  The documentary also shows how the actual book 'Three' evolved which became so famous because no one could actually believe that these 3 gorgeous...

I had mixed feeling during watching this film because there were times when I felt that the film was simply dragging but having watched the whole film, I think I was impressed with the film. It looked very realistic (Though I am not the one to say anything about life in South Korea), and specially the ending left me in the pain when its too late when you finally are ready to reciprocate the love of the other person. Dae-Shik is a gay homeless man on the streets of Seoul. We see him saying goodbye to a guy saying that he does not want love at the beginning of the film. He finds a suicidal ex-financier Suk-Won on the street. Suk-Won's business has failed and his wife has thrown him out. Dae-Shik starts taking care of him. Completely broke now, Suk Won also starts living on the street doing some menial jobs. Dae-Shik takes good care of him. He is falling in love for him. Deep love which Suk-Won is completely unaware of. The film progresses with the 2 spending time together, getting...

Clay Pride - Being Clay in America Steve, age 31, introduces himself to us: he's clay. He talks about the struggle of growing up clay, feeling different, picked on at school, thinking it was his fault. Steve discovers a support group, "It's okay to be clay," and he starts to come out and accept himself. His dad is there for him. Daddy A one-night stand leaves a young, single New York man shocked to find he might be pregnant. Although, one in a million case, he chooses to be pregnant and gives birth. One day he randomly again meets the man who could possibly be the father of the childI loved the film and the concept. It definitely makes you think. It shows a lot in little 5 minutes. Lloyd Neck Alex has a crush on her brother's friend, Jesse. But Jesse likes Alex's brother, Taylor. Alex knows something is up with her brother. Caught in an awkward position, Taylor takes Alex and Jesse to his favorite spot. A very very cute film.  Love and Deaf ...

I saw this film few years ago and remember that it was funny film. I had to watch it again primarily because I had to review it and hence decided to watch it this time with my boyfriend who by the way hates romantic comedies and is not a fan of gay movies. With his apprehensions he started watching this movie, could not get too much into it. But me? I still liked it. Maybe not as much as I remember liking the first time but nonetheless it still wasn't a bad second viewing experience.  Dave and Katherine work in a law firm as peers and former lovers. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Dave moves in with his best friend Christopher who is gay. Christopher's next door neighbor is Lucy who thinks these two are boyfriends. Tables are turned when a case involving sex discrimination over a gay employee is to be assigned. Dave and Katherine vie for the assignment that will most assuredly result in being granted full partner ship in the firm. The company involved happens to be of Lu...

What the f*** was this film. An almost 2 hour film with barely any dialogue, this film really tests one's patience. I recently saw a lot of gay asian cinema and liked it but this was torture. Actually this was not even a gay film. 2 stories run parallel. There is this young waitress who is taking care of this old paralyzed or in coma man. Her life is very boring. On the other hand, there is this group of Bangladeshi immigrants who one night find this Malaysian man beaten and passed out. One of the guys takes very good care of him, nurtures him back to health and sleeps next to him. This homeless man met the waitress and share the feelings for each other by following each other around in the neighborhood. The film ends as randomly as it started. Most of the time it just seems like a hodgepodge of random (and meaningless) ideas pieced together. The relationships depicted here are so unclear (there's nothing apart from lust), and I find the characters hard to sympathize with. Plea...