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Showing posts from November, 2020

Avsar (Hindi) [Opportunity]

This Hindi movie is a pretty straightforward slice-of-life story that tries to give a modern look at what it's like to be a single, professional gay man. It dives into how he understands who he is, the chances he missed out on, and the personal choices he’s made along the way. The director used three parallel timelines to tell the story, which honestly didn't make much sense to me. While the core idea was actually pretty interesting, I really feel like this would have worked way better as a short film considering the point it was trying to make. Still, it wasn't a bad watch. The plot centers on Rachit, a city professional, and his friend Shikhar as they hang out for an evening. Rachit is a polished, urban guy, while Shikhar has more of a "small-town" rustic vibe, and you can really see the contrast between them when they talk. As the night goes on, Rachit starts thinking back to some old memories from a long time ago. He remembers being an intern after college in ...

Fortune And Men's Eyes

Whether we admit it or not, most gays have thought of stories involving prison. Some find the thought exciting, while others scary and repulsive. In fact, a lot of film makers have explored this theme to variety of degrees and I feel that this is the third film in recent times that I am seeing that explores the basic theme of sexual slavery to survive in the prison system. Young Smitty has just come to prison. His cellmates are Rocky, a "dangerous and unpredictable" 19-year-old; Mona, an 18 year-old, who is regularly abused by prison mates and Queenie, a flamboyant gay man. Rocky explains the system: Unless the kid places himself under the protection of a regular old man, in this case Rocky himself, who has a place in the power structure, he'll be the victim of gang rape by everybody else in the cell block. Queenie encourages Smitty to beat up Rocky and spread the news so he can win a better protector from amongst the "politicians" for his own benefit rather tha...

Wig (Documentary)

Personally, for me, documentaries have been a hit or miss. There has to be something interesting, attention grabbing for me to keep my focus on, otherwise I lose interest. For people who are familiar with Wigstock, the biggest festival and indelible part of New York’s drag scene in the ’80s and ’90s; this film would be jogging them back into memory lane. But in the spirit of honesty, it didn't do much for me. Club Pyramid used to be the biggest drag bar in town back in 80s. Wigstock was born when Lady Bunny decided to put on a show at sunrise mainly to show people that drag is perfectly suitable during the daylight as it is late at night. For some reason the festival ended in 2001, after it had grown bigger and better to a professionally-staged show. In 2018, Lady Bunny, along with Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, brought back Wigstock as a massive production on a rooftop at South Street Seaport’s Pier 17. Most of Lady Bunny’s contemporaries were there, as well as younger drag...