The Call (UK) Amir a prospective university student struggling with their sexuality, calls switchboard for advice and connection at three crucial moments. With each phone call, we see Amir take steps on their own personal journey towards self-acceptance. It shows some of the vital work helpline volunteers undertake daily, but also explores contemporary themes surrounding LGBTQ+ culture unravelling truths about the community from a wide range of topics. This short film was made to raise awareness of Switchboard’s new 0800 number showing the breadth of support the charity offers. Regreso A Xanadu (Spain) [Return To Xanadu] A young man caught in the vortex of addiction and chemsex through fleeting encounters and endless nights. His friend Marcos seeks to intervene directly, confronting him with the reality of his actions and their consequences. Other friends choose to distance themselves, feeling unable to handle the weight of the situation. The guy goes to another night of chemise party ...
Told in tedious flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks, this minor-key drama about a country-ish band and its closeted gay lead singer is a yawn fest. Everything from story to acting to uninspiring music is bad about this film. And I fail to understand why everyone speaks so slowly in this film. The film would have been half the duration if they all spoke normally.
The film starts with the lead singer of an upcoming band found dead in a violent attack in a back alley. We follow the friends and lovers of ‘Handsome Jake’ as they try to come to terms with the singer’s untimely death. As the band travels to Nashville to honor his passing, we discover that there are many Jake’s - the brother, the lover, the poet, the liar and the cruel manipulator. As the band members cross the Midwest with Jake’s ashes on board their Winnebago, they must now struggle to regroup, understand what happened, and find a way to move on.
Yes, thats pretty much the story of the film. The characters and the acting of everyone was so bland that not even an inch of interest could have been generated in me as a viewer. He has a girlfriend who is pregnant, he has a secret gay male lover, whom he wants to keep hidden, he also has two other male admirers in the band who long for him, but really nothing major happens to be honest. They all talk and talk and remember Jake as the person that they have in mind. There is really no closure on why the death happened or who was responsible. The flashback sequences are boring and it gets in a repetitive pattern connecting the the dynamics of the band members along with Jake's struggle to come out. His boyfriend wants him out in the open but Jake doesn't and this hampers their relationship too. Overall, the relationships are not all that novel or interesting and neither the film. Completely avoid. (1/10)

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