Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

There is a scene in this film where the film maker takes his script to show to a producer (?) and he remarks saying, 'I don't understand what this film is about' and that is exactly what I felt having watching the film. I just wasn't sure what the film is about. Online reviews call it a self-reflective fiction that muses on what we find comic about the human condition, and what can reduce us to tears. Made for festival circuits and arthouse cinema, there was absolutely nothing that I liked about this film. Joseph is a gay man and a film maker who has a 3 year old son Pino with his best friend Sonya. He broke up with his boyfriend more than 3 years ago and is now planing to make a passionate comedy film. Sonya returned prematurely from the clinic dealing with depression and she needs to go back there. His meetings with the producer who keeps asking for what he wants to make next creating another weird scenario especially when producer chews dog treats and gives it to t...

I am not much of a standup comedy viewer. I might have seen a few clips/reels here and there but watching a whole TV special is something, so I apologize of I dodged not know anything about Jerrod Carmichael. I went into this comedy special, blank, hoping to just enjoy it with no baggage of either the person or his previous work. In this latest HBO comedy special, he talks about the most intricate details of his life, his long-time boyfriend Michael and his current relationship with his family – to hilarious effect. Witty, brash, and funny, he reconciles that how much the fear of being outed made him forget about the one other thing that affects his everyday life: racism.  The show starts with his struggles with internalized homophobia and rampant infidelity. He talks about online trolling for having a white boyfriend and how maybe he has something against black folks. He also admits rather sheepishly that he still seeks the approval of Black people, which likely has to do with his...

I wouldn't call this series as a typical BL. This was actually a classic gang/revenge story between 2-3 underworld clans and just bit of romance thrown between the lead guy and the other boy. It was never developed, was never the focus. With 12 episodes each of about 55 minutes, I went into the show hoping for a gay love story, but I was disappointed. Having said that, if you watch the show for the grit and novel story that it says, it is actually quite good. But it's all about managing your expectations. Even this poster is soooo misleading. The plot centers on a young man named Sun, who is the son of a benevolent gang leader. After his father and best friend, Kong, are tragically murdered, Sun is wrongly accused and sent to prison. Once he is released, he works to expand his power and uncover the truth behind the deaths of his loved ones, his life becomes intertwined with Peach, a sensitive Korean artist. Unbeknownst to Sun, Peach is the son of the rival Korean gang leader, M...

Plainclothes is a gripping film that effectively captures the tension of 1990s gay identity and the struggles of remaining in the closet. The film's electric tension utilizes grainy VHS style narration at multiple places probably trying for the audience to visualize the fear and anxiety that our protagonist is going through. Set in Syracuse in 90's the film is told from the perspective of an undercover cop. Lucas is a closeted gay cop assigned to special task force in the local mall to its bathroom, a known gay pick-up spot. The special police unit entrap the gays and arrest them for violation of the sex code and given Lucas' youthful and good looks , his job is to to find such folks, trap them and then his partner would arrest the guy. His family has a loving mother, a sick father and Uncle Paul. He recently broke off with his girlfriend, who is th only person he confided in the fact that he actually maybe attracted to guys. What happens though is that Lucas ends up fallin...

Tadaima, Okaeri, translated to "Welcome Home" follows the home life of house husbands Masaki and  Hiromu, as they raise their children together and the series is delightfully gay. I have learnt new concept having seen this about Omegaverse. It is a fictional world where people have different reproductive and sexual biology. Alphas are those who impregnate others and cannot give birth, Omegas are those who can bear children, even if they look otherwise male. Betas are basically normal humans. The main prejudice in Omegaverse stories is against Omegas, where they suffer discrimination, violence, or sexual violence due to their type. This specific series was 12 episodes each of 24 minutes. Masaki is an Omega who married an Alpha named Hiromu. They now raise their young children together, with Masaki as the househusband and Hiromu as the breadwinner. They start with one son named Hikari. The series is about everyday stuff of them raising their kid with many other people showing u...

This interesting piece of documentary is essentially the history of the queer movement in Canada seen through an assembly of parades, marches and protests. Through rarely seen archival footage and first-person accounts, Parade brings to life pivotal moments that sparked Canada's 2SLGBTQ+ movement, honoring the activists and elders whose resistance led to the rights we have today. It opens with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s famous statement about the government having no right in the bedrooms of the nation, preceding the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969. The film looks at the early Gay Liberation Movement, including the We Demand Rally that took place in Ottawa in 1971. From here, Parade takes us through infamous events such Toronto’s bathhouse raids, and protests in response to how the government was handling the AIDS epidemic. The film finally touches on the BLM activists who controversially shut down Toronto Pride in 2016 to protest the presence of uniformed p...

Full marks for novelty to set a BL romance in a Thai prison. This gritty environment allows the series to explore meaningful themes. Sadly the screenplay and the execution is so jarring and random and sudden that half the time it doesn't make any sense. Apparently this was released as a 20 episode series , but the version I saw was 5 episodes where first 4 were 30-40 minutes each and the last one was 80 minutes. Jed owes a lot of money to people (we are later told he borrowed money for making a film), so he gets arrested. Even though he spends just one night in jail, it's his first time in such an environment. He's crammed into a tiny cell with numerous other inmates. Bible, a young prisoner on volunteer duty, is tasked with guiding new inmates. He somehow takes a liking for Jed and protects that first night from getting bullied. Jed gets bail next morning and Bible asks him to never come back again. Three months later his cheque fraud eventually lands him in a longer priso...

Never Fair (Korean Mini-Series) - 2025 A guy moves in with his childhood friend in Seoul who is a writer. They haven't met for 15 years now and new guy is looking for a job. The writer is in love with this. Guy but has no courage to confess. When the new guy gets a job in a cafe, his managers love and care and affection to the new guy causes our writer to get very jealous. He will now need to find ways to keep his love close to him and even confess his love. 4 part, total of 45 min mini-series. You Made My Day (Thai Mini-Series) - 2024 A 5-part, 50 min total long ad for Minzz inhaler and a good tourist promotion for Bangkok. Bom an dTar are two friends who are exploring Bangkok. They face few problems but always seem to keep it cool when using this product; solves your problems. Cute leads. No BL, just bromance and a super lengthy advertisement with two very cute leads (could go easy on the lipstick though). Y Journey: Stay Like a Local (Thai Mini-Series) - 2023 6 episode, 8-9 min ...

Calling this show 'Gayborhood' in today's time feels a bit outdated and not inclusive, especially given the content of the series. The series is very inclusive in terms of representation of gay, lesbian, drag queens and trans characters. It's definitely not just about gays, so an umbrella term Queer might have been better. Anyway, this is me just nitpicking. The show is primarily centered around a studio owner who rents out the place for shows and the employees working and their friends. This is not the story of just one person but a collective ensemble. Season 1 has 6 episodes of 18-20 minutes each. IT ends on a cliffhanger, so season 2 is very likely to follow. Space Studios is a vibrant LGBTQ+-owned space in Dallas run by Bruce aka drag queen Heather. After a disastrous no-show by the previous manager, Bruce hires Noah, a friendly newcomer, to help manage the chaos. Noah quickly meets Jesse, a nonbinary staff member and handyperson, and gets a crash course in navigat...

Even though a good part of this series set in Northern Thailand was about promoting tourism, but the way it was incorporate din the larger storytelling and a beautiful love story, it did not feel like watching a tourism advertisement (which happens sometimes). The locations and sites were so seamlessly integrated, that most f the times you were either engrossed in the beauty of it all and other times in the romance that was developing in front of you. So overall I quite enjoyed this series about first love and its loss of 8 episodes, each of 45-50 minutes. Tontae and Nankrai have been best friend since they were little. From the very first episode we realize that Nankrai has much deeper feelings of love towards Tontae but he is completely oblivious of his gazes and stares and love and sees the former just as a very close friend. Tontine dreams of traveling the world someday. Since Tontae has understanding of English, he is requested to accompany a Taiwanese visitor Victor to their vill...

This one is yet another campy cheesy horror comedy films, this time with drag queens chasing and fighting vampire bikers and rednecks. Yes, it is low budget, yes it has questionable acting, is cheap, stupid, predictable; the lovers of this genre may actually end up enjoying the film. I will be honest and upfront that these kind of films do not do it for me, so I didn't think much of it, but I can totally see if this fit was released in gay film festivals, it would have been lapped up by the audiences. Slay begins on the road with a performing troupe of drag queens on their way to a gig. The 4 of them believe that the venue is legendary gay bar in middle of nowhere, only to realize they misunderstood and are actually performing at a dive bar. This dive bar is run by an old guy called Dusty, despite most of his clientele being big buffy homophobic bikers. Swallowing their pride and their need for money , they decide to perform. Just as the show starts, the bar is descended upon by a ...

We have a yet another high school teenage romance BL. You will not find anything much different here than what we have already seen numerous times, but the good and refreshing part about this is that there I son forced drama. This is more like a feel good romantic teen story focusing on various couple and depending on their individual situation how they fall in love, manage love and their insecurities. The first half of the show follow on these and in last 2-3 episodes the focus shifts on future universities, what happens to love and friends and life in general. The series is 12 episodes of about 45 minutes each roughly. Since we have multiple couples here. That is how I am going to review. First we have Shane and Kit. Shane is a hardworking student looking for scholarship for further studies. His teacher makes him tutor a student Kit who has been failing in Maths and that he can make some good money. Their initial few sessions are nothing but chaos since Shane is full of fears and ins...

Part of a trilogy, one of which I have already reviewed in my blog, this film is about two colleagues with very different approaches to sex and romance. Honest, thoughtful, and daringly talky as it observes modern dating customs in the age of apps, this may test your patience because it is heavily dialogue focused and a lot of time it also feels like the film maker wants to give an ode to city of Oslo, just like his previous film 'Sex' was. I wouldn't call this specifically a gay themed film, but one of the characters is gay and we do get an insight on gay perspective around sex, love, relationships through his perspective which is interesting. The film starts with Marianne, a physician specializing in urology, giving a patient the news about prostate cancer. The make nurse Tor spots that the patient may not have understood and absorbed what has just been told to him, and makes sure to seek him out to get further clarifications. The subtle scene tells us that Marianne may u...

This 3 part, 45 min each, Sundance documentary series explores the panic and terror caused by a string of murders in 1970s Los Angeles. The series focuses on the discovery of 131 bodies and the subsequent police investigation, which initially focused on a single suspect before revealing the existence of three killers, each with a distinct method. The show highlights the unsettling nature of the crimes and the fear that gripped the city as the body count rose, with some describing it as a "trilogy of terror". From the early 1970s, gay men were being savagely murdered and their bodies carelessly discarded along Southern California’s highways. Through thorough investigations it is eventually found that this is not one serial killer but a trip operating individually. The documentary exposes three sadistic serial killers — Patrick Kearney, William Bonin, and Randy Kraft — and explains the truth behind these horrifying events. EP 1 Trash Bags - In the late 1960s and early 1970s, l...

I had hopes from this film having read the basic premise, but somehow it just did not work for me. It felt amateurish and at times I was wondering if the idea was to make a serious cinema or comedy? It just doesn't hot the right notes, either of love or betrayal to its two main protagonists, which would have been the key to it all. Movie starts with Natalie having discovered that her husband Ernesto is having an affair and invites the person to the house. She is shocked to see that the person is actually a young boy and that her husband was cheating on her with a man. Daniel is a part-time sex worker, and Ernesto paid for his company before love began to bloom between the two as time went on, a love that was conditional on Ernesto continuing with his marriage. Just as she plans to confront him, she gets the news that her husband had had a stroke and is in hospital, she rushes there. Daniel hears it and also goes. Over the course of next few days, these two people connect on the tra...

This was an interesting series in the sense it was hard to like it or dislike it. The story is really barely there and s just paper thin, but look at the guts of the makers that they decided to convert this into 30 episodes each of about 8 minutes to keep the viewers hooked a few days a week to wait for what would happen next. Thankfully, as always I saw it when the whole thing was out.  It is the story of two worlds. Navee is a young man who works at a radio station. At the halloween party, another man dressed in traditional royal clothes catches his attention but disappears. The same guy starts showing up as a ghost at his apartment at regular intervals scaring Navee. Navee tries making offerings and prayers but nothing helps, so he eventually gives in. The man tells him that he is a prince from 2000 years ago and he has not crossed over and it would happen only when Navee remembers everything. Slowly love Strats Tod develop between the two in this world and in small fragments, N...

A very interesting perspective on the sex underbelly life of Manila sex-workers, this film tackles the grittier realities of queer life, where survival often means turning to sex work and petty crime. Manila is almost a character in the film which takes no time to hurl you into its immersive world, an incredibly vibrant and chaotic cityscape with a darker underbelly. Neon lights, street food vendors and frisky rent boys. The sights and sounds of Manila are more than enough to make this engrossing tale of life on the streets worth seeing. The queer road drama, in some ways, could be considered a ‘post-tragedy’: rather than the stories we’ve seen over and over that end in queer sadness. We are introduced to a young sex worker Uno, working on the streets alongside his group of 3 other friends. He is confident, knows what he is doing and he meets a new guy Zion, who seems to have been beaten up. As the night progresses and each of the 4 guys continue to look for tricks to pay their rents, ...

Biographies are tricky, because they may work for the country where the main character is based on, but maybe not in other places. This film is the biography on the life of Peruvian actor and drag queen Ernesto Pimentel 'Chola Chabuca' and a very famous TV show host. As it happens most of the times, I had no idea who this person was. But that did not stop me from throughly enjoying this film. It is one of those well made biographies and is a story that will resonate with most folks irrespective of what you have known this personality or not.  The film starts with Ernesto Pimentel, dressed as 'La Chola Chabuca', about to enter the air to host his first television program, and he faints. Using this scene a few times, we are then taken through the journey and rise of Ernesto. As a very young boy, Ernesto loses his mother and is raised by his grandmother. He also needs some economic stability, so he starts taking random theatre jobs here and there, but is always hard workin...

n00b is a New Zealand coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama television series. Set in the town of Gore, it is primarily about Nikau, a high school student who becomes a social outcast after being outed. He becomes a social outcast and along with a group of "freakish friends and foes" traverses the complicated world of high school, and the internet, in search of the confidence to be his true self. The show is 6 episodes of about 20-23 minutes each. The series is set in 2005 with bad fashion choices, emo music and flip phones, which also serves as a love-letter to the internet. Nikau is a popular high school student and a star rugby player and captain. Secretly he has been writing gay fan fiction stories on the internet. In real life he has a girlfriend Lauren, who dreams of making it big in LA. She is pretty but also like a bitch putting herself always before anyone else. Nikau is finding it difficult to lead double life and Lauren is  getting increasingly frustrated at the lack...