Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Supposedly a dark comedy about two friends trying to get by in this economical crisis and housing situation, this film is situational fun while two friends come up with a scheme to spend an entire year living “rent free” with the help of friends, family and strangers alike in a rapidly changing Austin. Ben and Jordan, twenty something, have been close friends since childhood. Ben has sold away all his belongings to begin his New York era and is staying with. Friend and his wife. Jordan joins Ben on a trip to New York to see his friend off, and spend some time in the big city. And as they assuredly know, New York can be ridiculously expensive. Ben is a Gen-z gay squatter who tries to sleep with the friend he is staying with which does not go well and they ask him to leave. Finding themselves suddenly homeless, Ben has no option but to return to Austin with Jordan. Jordan's girlfriend is not too happy about this, especially since Jordan has not paid his share of rent for. A few month...

Spanning the five-year period after an intense teenage break-up, this Danish film is an unconventional coming-of-age tale, where the film focuses on the lead protagonist's inability to get over his first heartbreak. The past lovers details are slowly revealed, but also never fully explained on why the breakup happened, but in the process we are shown a fraught modern gay love. We meet 20-something Christian, a university student, who spends his time between studying and clumsy casual sex using the app but he seems to find no real release in his trysts. He’s awkwardly torn between feeling bad when his hookups leave right away and freaking out when guys want to take it slow and get to know him. The entire film focuses on him meeting many new folks but hardly making connections, but he was not like this always. Through multiple flashbacks we are shown how he was extremely happy with his then boyfriend Aske. Form his first date with him to full of romantic ideas, he used to be a very p...

This steamy, unapologetically queer hockey romance on HBO has become of the surprise hots of the year. In fact, I have been reading that it is the platform's biggest success this year; which honestly surprises me a little. Based on a book, this 6 episode, one hour each series is filled with very explicit sexual scenes, which of course add a lot to the viewership, but thankfully the show is not just about sex (although there is a lot of it). It is about how these two rivals eventual get emotionally close from just physical intimacy, talks about cultural barriers, and the terrible price of living in the closet. Canadian hockey star Shane Hollander and Russian hockey star Ilya Rozanov are rivals on the ice; something that media also plays with. But somewhere there is a spark that gets stated with Rozanov initiating an invite to Shan win his room. What follows is a night of very sexual passion and the affair continues for 7-8 years playing different games.  They have the best sex and t...

Yay for a full on BL series from China. My friend mentioned that the series is getting very popular in this year, so naturally I was keen of watching it. And for various multiple reasons it took me more than 2 months to finish it. Not because t is bad or anything, but I had various personal commitments, I would start it and then pause again. And the fact that the show has 24 episodes of 40-45 minutes each demand that you need to invest a lot of time in this one. It is rewarding but it is definitely one of the longest Asian BL shows I have watched. And we know China is known for tightly censoring BL content, so I was quite surprised to see that this show isn’t wishy-washy when it comes to the sexuality of its primary characters.  Story starts off pretty simple. When a young and poor-ish Wu Suo Wei gets dumped by his girlfriend, he finds out that she dumped him for money and is now seeing the rich tycoon Chi Cheng who loves snakes. He hatches a plan where he thinks that he will seduc...

This is a Japanese comedy series primarily focusing on a fujoshi, who is totally shipping two of her office male colleagues and imagines them in all kinds of torrid situations. Oh man!1 I laughed so hard in almost every single episode. The female lead is brilliant, and her boundless enthusiasm propels the funny antics. I wouldn't call this strictly a BL because we are never really told about the real relationship, but honestly I don't care. Breezy 25 episodes of each just 5 minutes were so much fun to watch, that I will be going around recommending this show.  Oto is a female accountant in a sales office. She often sees Daichi (one of the youngest sales employee who has a very outgoing and perky personality) and Hong (a 32 year old more mature man and also boss of Daichi) working together a lot and helping each other. She lets her imaginations run wild and totally dreams about them being in love and doing things together. The two men are close friends with chummy interactions, ...

The summary of the film says "A stone-broke gay actor and a privileged fuck up with a failing business cross paths on a winter night and join forces in a quest around London to find a meaning to their miserable lives, but when their unlikely connection turns into something deeper, fears and demons from their past come to jeopardize the whole mission." I thought this sounds interesting and should be a good watch, but oh man! was I disappointed! The execution of the film is so bland and uninteresting, it just feels like it's going nowhere.  Brash and cocky, Oliver enters an empty bar asking if someone could buy him a pint? Sitting at the bar nursing his beer is Lukas, who wants none of the entitled fratboy energy this loser is giving off. What Oliver doesn't know is that before he ended up drinking alone on Christmas, Lukas came dreadfully close to jumping off a bridge (which we find out much later). The two men happen to meet again in a bus a short while later. Oliver ...

This film is a coming of age story of the growing pains of a privileged 16 year old teenage but for some reason he despises all that because he feels nothing is real. It is a drama about youth and desire – and destiny, sexuality and class. I am struggling to define this as a LGBTQ friendly film, because in a way it is about this kid realizing about his sexuality, accepting it and figuring out ho to live with it, but this is just one part. The film is so much more than that. 16 year old Enzo comes from a very wealthy family but he is spending his summer at a construction site doing menial jobs. Their son is sensitive, artistic, unused to manual labour; he’s arguably equally unsuitable for it, though he persists, despite the disapproval of his boss. But Enzo insists he wants be there. Slowly we start o realize that this may be for the company of these two Ukranian guys who work alongwith him. Out of these two, Vlad shot more compassion, friendliness and  a sensitivity toward Enzo tha...

I was really hoping that this film will be good. But as its title suggests, it was so vanilla and I wasn't sure what was it even trying to say. The synopsis says that it is a poignant exploration of gay relationships and infidelity between an interracial gay couple. To an extent yes it is, but the film never gos into the extent of details and everything is touched upon just superficially. I didn't connect with it at all. Bastien and Matt have ben together for a while, but they have hot a rough patch, since Bastien slept with a woman 8 months back. They are both now visiting Barcelona hoping to mend this rocky relationship. The communication between them seems strained. As Matt grapples with the lingering hurt and its impact on their intimacy, enter British guy Florent, who catches Bastien’s eye and offers top show them around the city. It is obvious that he finds Bastien extremely attractive and given his infidelity before, this just makes Matt more and more angrier. Of course ...

How can two people spend an entire year together and feel completely different about the situation? One things everything is great, while the other one has a whole different perspective. This is what the film is trying to explore. Over the course of the film we see many glimpses of this couple's relationship right from living together to threesomes to arguments, the entire relationship plays out. Is the viewer supposed to decide who’s right and who’s wrong? Tom and Jero are a gay couple who have become well-known on Instagram. On what would be their first anniversary, Jero comes home to find that Tom has left him. The only item left behind is a pink box with 300 letters that Tom wrote on each day they were together. The letters seek to explain why their relationship reached the conclusion it did, and as Jero works his way through them, he realizes that the relationship was nothing like he thought it was. Flashbacks take us to the early days of their relationship. We don’t really se...

Confusing is the first word that comes to mind while I was watching the series and even after it finished. The idea of parallel universe have been explored in a few other BL series before, but man was this weird or not! Even the ending did not make much sense. If you were to ask me, what really happened, honestly I am not even sure. The show is 8 episodes of 30 minutes each. During this lunar eclipse, Yang You inexplicably crosses over into a parallel universe through a mirror into another world like his own but definitely not his. In what he thinks is a serendipitous encounter, yet it is not, he meets Chen Shi. He realizes that he must be near Chen Shi in this world or he will fade from existence and so he convinces him of his destitution and therefore he needs to live with him. During their time together, Yang You discovers that despite Chen Shi's tough exterior, he is unusually caring toward him. Gradually, Yang You falls for Chen Shi and boldly confesses his feelings. However, ...

This film is intriguing, engaging, erotic yet a mindfuck of a tricky flick. Honestly the first half of the film was quite visually appealing. The makers tried to make this an art film, but what the hell happened in second half. IT was like watching two different movies. Fro the lush landscapes of Brazil in the 80s to modern day times in the city, the film leaves viewers with a lot more question that answers. I mean, I can probably try and read online to make a sense of what it all meant, but then what's the point f I cannot understand while watching the film!! Set in rural 80s, we meet Antonio (a hunk straight out of a leather bar) an isolated farmer who lives a quite mundane life. Fate makes him meet Marcelo, an injured motorbike driver, whom he nurses back to health. A worried affair starts between the two and they are having long slow-mo sex acts shown explicitly but also falling in love with each other with a lingering question of whether Marcelo will suddenly up and leave? But...

I think I am at my peak limit of vertical dramas. I keep saying I need to stop watching these but they are so convenient to watch while running on treadmill that invariable I do end up watching. I am not sure how many of these I have seen already. So here goes one more. It is funny though how all of these series have sort of a [attern to them and you know exactly where the story is headed.  Kit Sterling, a public defender betrayed by his cheating girlfriend, drunkenly declares at a bar that he'll marry the next person who walks through the door. Enter Daniel Finch - sexy defense lawyer and guess what; suddenly the two wake up married. Daniel remembers that Kit is the same boy who many years ago saved him as a kid (Kit has no memory of it). Here starts the drama of will they won't they stay married. Kit's sister is in hospital and Dsaniel's care for her creates a soft spot in Kit for them. The duo keep butt heading in the court in multiple cases that we see and a healthy...

This is a sentimental Filipino-Spanish drama about a young missionary uncovering his late father's secret gay love affair. It highlights queer theme with respect and dignity. It doesn't say religion is bad or anything but it does give a perspective on just a very loving father-son relationship but also how it is difficult to be yourself in a very conservative religious setting. It gives. A hint of it but never goes into to many details, because its focu sis on love. Young Seph is giving his speech at his father Otep's funeral, when it is interrupted by a woman, Cecil, whom Seph has never heard of. She screams obscenities and claims that Otep was gay, and that Seph ruined Otep’s life by being born. For a very conservative church going family, this comes as a surprise, especially since Seph is supposed to depart soon on a several-year mission trip, but this revelation sees him beginning to question his church. He decides to met Cecil to know the truth about his father. He lea...

Right in the beginning of the series, there is a disclaimer that says "approved in strict accordance with the Myanmar Video Censorship Board", which probably means that it will barely be anything more than a tepid bromance despite being promoted as a full BL series. And this is what ends up being. There is a hint of gay romance in the past but besides that, this show ends up being strictly a bromance and not really a BL. With 8 episodes of approx 20 minutes each, it's an easy, though a frustrating watch. Ling Yuang lives with his father and his aunt. When his father announces that he will remarry, neither of them have a choice. Enter the new wife with her son Shein Wah; who is same age and Ling. The dup now have to share a room and as per father's instructions get to know each other and become brothers. It takes time for them to negotiate their new status together and endure the ups and downs of their family dynamic, but soon their relationship begins to evolve into s...

I have to start by saying that I absolutely LOVED this show. I knew that the series is about a closet gay teenage enlisting himself in the marines, but I had no other information on what to expect. I somehow assumed that it will be a dark show, but I was so wrong. IT is an insightful look at friendship, self-determination, courage and acceptance amid the challenges and demands of the United States Marines boot camp. As hilarious as it is devastating, the series is a unique coming-of-age story centered on an unlikely Marine recruit who is desperate to find himself. And I enjoyed every bot of it, so much so that I totally binge watched this Netflix series. The show is 8 episodes of around 40-45 minutes. Set in 1990, we meet gay teenager Cameron Cope, who is so lonely and bored. He has only one friend Ray who knows about Cameron's sexuality. Together they decide to enroll for the marines. He has no idea what to expect, which is clear by the way he has conversations with himself. When ...

This vertical mini series, stitched as a film was visually nice to watch, but I have to say that the stories are getting hard to believe now. It's like, anything is going on and as an audience you are supposed to believe it. This was one of the first ones where I was rolling my eyes more often. This latest mini series from DramaWave app going into the familiar genre of BL mafia. At a high-society party, Selena and Emma were targeted for revenge by an ex-boyfriend and found themselves in danger. Their respective bodyguards, Noah and Carson, worked together to save them, but Noah got injured in the process. Selena then demanded that Emma send Carson to serve at her house for three months as compensation. What neither of them knows is that Noah was saved by Carson many years back and since then Noah has harbored a secret crush on Carson and loves him. Carson works for Emma's brother Arthur Hill, who agrees to the 3 month arrangement because he wants to know the real identity of a ...

I really can't believe that this Italian film came out back in 1979. Uncommon to those times, this film treats homosexuality with a poetic and respectful point of view. At some point you feel there is. Not much going on in the film, but at the same time it also shows us the journey of about to turn 18 Ernesto and how he is dealing with growing up, not just in his home but how the outside world treats him too. I am not sure of what period it is set in, but from the novel it seems like its early 1911. Ernesto is about 17 and works as an administrator for a construction firm, and thinks the world of himself. When a rugged factory worker makes sexual advances and gradually becomes totally smitten with the boy, Ernesto, he starts to play with his feelings. They have sex a few times but Ernesto son realizes that he has some hold over the man. When he overhears about his relationship between two men can be punishable, he breaks the guys heart in most sad way. But Ernesto still dreams big ...

The season 2 of Dekkoo TV original 'Danny Will Die Alone' continues its raunchy, hilarious, yet relatable exploration of gay dating in NYC injecting sharp, witty humor. We continue to witness Danny’s disastrous dating life as he attempts to find love online, including adventures in openness, polyamory, sex drive compatibility, and, naturally, fisting. This season has 6 episodes of about 20-25 minutes each. The season continues with more of Danny’s wild escapades and his running commentary on everything going breaking the fourth wall. Besides the Danny, we have another central character this time named Matty, Danny’s regular hookup buddy. His presence adds a layer of drama that gives Danny’s character new emotional depth. Matty serves as Danny’s go-to for regular intimacy between his dating life and their dynamic brings a new dimension to Danny’s journey. The first episode shows a dating app and how he gets into a war of words with a guy who is too much into himself (I found mys...

Continuing with the trend of feel good vertical shows, here comes one more. I am enjoying these, since you dont have to use too much of your brain. They are simple stories involving love, misunderstanding, a mandatory third guy who could be the negative lead, a chance hook up and a very happy ending. And most importantly, almost all of these shows (or the ones I have seen so far) have some really hot and good looking leads, which makes the viewing even more pleasurable. But of you take these seriously, this wil just be comical nonsense. Rookie agent Ryan is assigned to investigate powerful CEO Vincent. A chance kissing dare brings Ryan and Vincent together. To avoid a public scandal, Vincent proposes a fake marriage to Ryan to save his company, which Ryan agrees hoping that this way he can investigate Vincent. To stay on the case, he goes undercover as an intern at Vincent's company-only to find that another new guy Thomas is mistaken as the CEO's lover. He actually likes this ...

I am still exploring a lot of gender/sexuality stuff on the queer spectrum. This film is an earnest drama about a teenager coming to terms and coming out as non-binary. The film may feel a bit slow but it was such a good feeling while watching the film mostly because there isa lot f positivity among the usual negative suspects. The film highlights issues around self acceptance, fears of coming out, depression, a family with both supportive and non supportive people and most importantly love. The pleasant, polished drama provides a compassionate take on a high schooler undergoing considerable change. The film is about Ben, a young teenage who is trying to tell something to his parents and in the very next scene, we see him crying calling his sister Hannah to pick him up in freeing cold without his shoes or jacket. It's only then the gravity of the situation kicks in that the parents have kicked him out. Hannah was already estranged with parents and she and her husband lovingly take ...

Yes, one more of those macro vertical dramas stitched into movie versions, the English BL format. I think I should take a break from here because things are starting to mix up now. Having said that hat, these are good fun for guilty pleasure viewing, easily done on phone, so I shouldn't really be complaining. After you have seen a few of these, you really know what to expect. Brian has had a crush on Terry an upcoming football star from his teen days. Now adult, Terry is a very famous football star and Brian is his manager, very good at his job. Terry knows that Brian has had a crush on "someone" for 7 years and that he is gay, but Terry never guesses that it could be him. HE is also extremely flirty with Brian on many occasions and doesn't like when someone doesn't treat Brian right. But Brian has had enough and one day he resigns, forcing Terry to think of his actions. Soon Terry's game starts to suffer. The agency rehires Brian again, but. This time to mana...

I had no memory of the first Arisan film, so I had to go back and read my review to get some context before I watched this second part. As the original source material, this film is not queer per say, in fact it is so much more about a group of female friends, but the stories of the prominent gay characters continue here as well and I think it deserves a mention rightly here on my blog. The film kicks off 8 years after the events of the first film happened. The gay couple Sakti and Nino have broken up. Meimei is now divorced and Andien is now a successful person after losing her husband. We have a few new characters who join as well. The film starts with Meimei anther young son (or is it her friend's) spending time on an island getting therapy from a doctor Tom. The two have connection but we are later told that Meimei has cancer and is dealing with her issues. Nino now has a much younger boyfriend and this makes Sakti not happy, He has still not completely gotten over his ex. His ...

One more of those vertical mini series but this time not from Drama Box. This series is US based and like most of the previous ones, this one is to be seen just for pure entertainment. It has all the usual 'masala' like drama, kisses, love, misunderstandings, hot hot guys, lot of abs and with a title like this, we do get to see a lot of skin with our headliners spending most of the time in speedos or swim shorts.  The two leads here are Aidan and Will. Aidan's father used to run a store that got hammered by a bog corporation incidentally run by Will's father. Because of this Aidan's father left and disappeared and now his mother is very ill and he needs to take of the bills. They are both in swim team and even though everyone wants the hunky Will to become captain, it is Aidan who become captain. Even though Will occasionally teases Aidan, but he always protects him from being bullied by his friends which confuses Aidan. When Will finds out about Aidan's need fo...

Yet another horror comedy genre, this time mixing drag queens, queers and zombie world. A group of queer characters find themselves trapped in a Bushwick nightclub, fending off a horde of the living dead. Sounds familiar? Yes, I have seen at least a couple of films, more recently in the Canadian film Slay. I feel like this genre has specific viewers and is targeted for them. I have to be honest that I was quite enjoying the first half of the film, but then it just felt. Ike it is dragging on for no reason. Also some of the gags were really not as funny as they were likely on paper. Needing a last-minute cover for her half-dead party, Dre hesitantly calls on an old friend, Sam (who I snow a nurse and has been out of scene for a while now), to fill in the stilettos of the headliner for the night. After getting reacquainted with some old faces and butting heads with some new queens. Sam meets Ginsey, Sam’s drag mother and mentor; wannabe performer/dealer Nico ; and Lizzy’s plumber brother...