Gay Days is a documentary that dives into how the LGBTQ+ community really started to find its voice in Israel. Back in 1985, there were literally only three gay men who were officially out in the whole country, but by 1998, that number had jumped to 3,000. It’s a look at this super short, intense, and dramatic window of time where Israel went through one of the fastest and most vibrant social revolutions at the end of the 20th century. What’s wild is that this whole shift happened without any blood being spilled; instead, it was this rare team-up between professors, sex workers, trans people, singers, barbers, and even military officers. The director, Yair Qedar, was right there filming it all for his own newspaper called The Pink Times . He uses some really cool old footage, personal stories, and his own private diary to piece together this energetic and bittersweet musical mix of a movie. The film follows Qedar’s own path as a kid from middle Israel who moved to Tel Aviv in...
We meet Loic, a twenty year old very beautiful guy, who works in a chocolate factory by the day and spends pretty much all his nights having anonymous sex either online or through cruising the streets. All he cares about his physical satisfaction, until he meets Lionel (whom we never see), who is more interested in Loic’s personality , history, likes and dislikes rather than going to bed with him. And this is a new feeling for Loic. He shacks up with his best friend Marie, who works at a museum. The two friends are very close. Loic takes a lot of photographs with his phone and when Lionel praises him, he thinks he can be a photographer. Typical young adult confusion. When Marie starts dating a guy, that makes Loic very mad and upset and they both have a fallout. This changes everything, since now he has no friend he can count on, or any friendly place to sleep. Next thing we know is that Marie is dead and Loic is wandering around and it is during this phase, he gets obsessed with a soccer player. He is very attracted by the man's family life and celebrity status and wants to emulate him. Is he straight now or just confused? Is this longing for emotional connect that is missing because Marie is gone or something else? Only time and Loic will tell us.
As I mentioned earlier, Loic is enigmatic and incredibly attractive, and the film could have developed well based on that, but instead it wanders hopelessly after its first 20 minutes. Loic sees the world has part real and part fantasy, which is never very clear or evident to the viewers. Second half felt completely disconnected with what I started watching the film and this is where I feel that the movie went into an experimental zone. With a blend of emotional innocence and sexual hyperactivity, Loic is a loner who is looking for more. He constantly blurs the line between sex and love and leaves us wanting to know more about his turbulent life, if only to help him discover his true identity. There is a lot of talk without taking the plot somewhere and after second half even that goes missing where there is hardly any talk. Quite a few scenes seem to be there to just provide a shock.
For most people, IMO, this film will work only because of the lead actor. Barely any credit to the makers of the film. (5/10)
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But the only Swiss movie that I've seen twice has been " The Circle" ( Der Kreis ) .
The circle was actually a pretty good film.