Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Let me first clear it. This is NOT a BL series. The two leads identify themselves as gay men and there are a couple of scenes that show that maybe there is a potential love angle there, but it never happens. The show is not about BL romance at all. The show started off well, even silly but funny in a weird way, but the second half went in a different direction. Also, to be honest I am a bit confused around the whole plot. I hope I have understood it ok, but I would never know. The good thing is only that the show was only 10 episodes of 10 minutes each. The main character here is Shi Hyun. He has just returned home after a long time and is shocked to find his younger sister too engrossed in computer games. She lives in virtual world of comics and otaku (a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills). And because of this she is obsessed with Mong Ryong. He is president in some gaming company. Shi Hyun joins...

I had been looking for this film ever since I had heard of it running in a few film theaters. The makers recently released the film on Muni, which gave a lot of people an opportunity to eventually watch this film. Jaggi is traumatic, triggering, and shakes you to the core. But it’s also raw, touching, and unnerving. It is definitely not gay cinema, but the subject that says "Story of a schoolboy’s impotence leads to accusations of being gay, triggering relentless bullying" was something I really wanted to see. Id also like to say that the film has some very disturbing scenes that could be triggering for some people. The film starts in present day where we see Jaggi as he goes through rollercoaster of emotions. He breaks down, tries to jerk off, grabs a gun, writes a letter in his diary and gets picked up his uncle to take him home for his engagement the next day. On the way, they give lift to a man who slowly starts to inappropriately touch Jaggi and the film goes into flashb...

I am not sure how to react after seeing this film. The premise is interesting yet totally bizarre at the same point. An unusual love triangle, I Wont classify this film as gay film per se, but it had its elements. I am not sure though why the title of the film! Anyway, here we go. Teenager Pol lives with his mother Claire, who raised him single handedly after his father abandoned them. Migoy is Pol's best friend. (Both guys are apparently 19) Pol and Migoy spend time studying and sometime Migoy stays over. Pol had long harbored a crush on Migoy, but he did not have the guts to come out as gay, fearing it would negatively affect their friendship. Migoy had long harbored a crush on Claire, age difference be damned. One night, in one moment of impulsive passion, Migoy confessed his feelings to Claire and even shocked her with a stolen smack on the lips. Initially totally shocked, she pushes away Migoy, but eventually giving in. An affair soon starts between Claire and Migoy. The duo a...

This documentary from 2023 charts the development and journey of the Aids Project Los Angeles (APLA) from 1982 through to the current day. It offers a timely oral history of the AIDS epidemic from those who lived it. The talking heads doc puts the words of the LGBTQ+ community front and centre while revisiting the peak AIDS years. The film starts usual with a thorough account of the mysterious early days of AIDS, reports about gay disease, how it was perceived and archival clips stress the homophobia that ran rampant amid the uncertainty of the disease’s transmissibility. Survivors recall in contemporary interviews the wrenching experience of seeing loved ones die alone. Scenes discussing the APLA’s hotline calls and the need for a buddy system for Aids patients ring home how strong the LGBTQ+ community is and had to be in the face of ignorance, fear, and stigma. “It was discrimination that killed many of us,” we hear at one point. The film shares the events through which celebrities a...

So there is a huge red flag in the series: A love story between a teacher and a high school student. The series completely ignores this aspect and treats it as just another BL story. So as much as I have BIG problems with this kind of relationship and unacceptable in my books, I am still going to try and write my review from a BL perspective, ignoring, for now, this aspect (which really, as much as you try, is hard to ignore). Like most Japanese BL's this show is 8 episodes each of about 24 minutes. Toki is a school student who is infamous for always getting intro trouble and picking up fights. Everyone pretty much ignores him because he just has a bad reputation, but things change when a new teacher arrives in school. A young looking guy, Mr. Sahara instantly becomes popular with the girls. While other teachers in school are always shouting at Toki, Sahara shows genuine concern towards him and he motivates Toki and encourages him to take his studies seriously. Toki gets inspired, ...

A one man play wherein Oscar Wilde talks to a younger version of himself in his cell during his time of imprisonment at Reading Gaol for gay sex in 1896, in cell 3, we find prisoner C33. I am not sue how much Iw as able to connect with this as a film, but I can assure that had I watched it as a play, I would likely have appreciated it more. This is 1895, and Wilde is in prison for gross indecency after the details of his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, his beloved Bosie, became public knowledge. As the aging, wretched prisoner, he is cold, hungry, sick, dirty and bored. He is in conversation with his younger self – a witty, elegant man, dressed in immaculate velvet, with rouged cheeks, who is urging his counterpart to strive for survival. Wilde debates grand subjects with himself. He rails against England and “sound English common sense” and the English education system. He talks of morality and art and faith and God. Is art useless? There is much to say about love, too, from the betr...

Its interesting that despite the fact that this show came during covid times, it tries its best to not have the subject of covid include in it an drive us something extra. Sadly, this 6 episode mini-series of 20 minutes each might have worked then, because we were all starving for content, but seeing it now feels like a stretch and something that we could have lived without. Except that its two leads are extremely good looking and I cant remember if I have seen them in other shows. I need to do more research. We have three main characters here. A girl named Heart has just been dumped by her boyfriend and she goes live during her heart out. Her best friend, the hot and happening Winston, who happens to be a content creator and vlogger decides to try and help his friend by looking for her a date that could mend her heart. Enter Jamie, a hot singer, who has been following Winston on social media. He applies for possibility to date Heart. Because of his good looks Win chooses Jamie to spen...

Oh wow ! I cannot believe thatches widely popular short story collection series is coming to an end on DVDs. I hope that they will continue in some format on OTT or digital. Appropriately titles "Happy Endings", it is a bit of a mixed bag, but that is not a slight to the quality of the films. Every entry is worthwhile and well made; it is more a matter of personal taste. The best shorts in the anthology feature two guys navigating sex, love and desire. Many of them deliver the happy ending of the title, but a few shorts may leave viewers wanting more. Aloof (Israel) Flip-flopping between scenes from a family outing and a gay bathhouse, Yariv, a timid photographer cannot seem to decide where he truly belongs. When your identity seems to have so many different contradictions, how do you figure out who you are? Beautiful Stranger (France) After being abruptly dumped by his long-time boyfriend and missing his train, Romain checks himself into a two-star hotel. Deciding to drown h...

I did not realize that we can have a film of the same name that was released merely a year ag. I guess the rules are different in different countries. Anyway, here we are again with a film of same name, albeit, this time it is a horror/slasher genre unlike the gay romantic one that came out earlier. That said this slasher/cheesy film is just not worth your time. It is not bad, but it is just boring. I mean when you are not able to connect with any character and you don't even care if they get murdered, then clearly a lot is missing here. The story is about a straight couple, a lesbian couple and their single gay friend Troy going to Fire Island for the weekend. Troy's boyfriend recently committed suicide and since then he has been in sort of depression, so this trip is also to help him cheer up. Slowly murders start to happen on the island. First we see one of the guys in a long term gay relationship gets killed, then it's the straight couple who was visiting and soon one o...