Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Gay cops who stare at each other in a very sexy way is my new favorite genre. This was an entertainingly good detective movie with a gay undercurrent, neither of which are truly fleshed out but the potential was there. When the film started with a guy in cop uniform, I was like "this dude is so f***ing hot" and even when the film ended , I do stand by my thought. An interesting murder mystery of a wealthy gay man and how cops have to navigate through gay scene to find the culprit make the gist of this film. Ambiguity pervades the film in both a sexual sense, in the relationships between the main male actors and the plotline of the aftermath of the murder; and this might be a deterring factor for. Lot of movie watchers. The film starts with a rich gay man's murder, who belongs to a very influential family. We see a handsome policeman Ganso waiting at the crime scene for detectives to show up. Enter Chavez, a handsome middle aged detective with a wife and kid who is asked b...

As expected a lot of films are being made set during the covid times. Taking the imposed restrictions around the circumstances of hotel quarantine, where when you travelled, one had to do a mandatory 14 day quarantine in a hotel, the film maker uses that as the story idea behind making this psychological horror thriller. I am not a big fan of horror and this wasn't really a scary horror film per se, but still at places it just felt to overstretched, which was bound to happen when you have a film which is almost just one character. Toby is an Australian actor living in US. He finds himself in a mandatory two week quarantine in a Brisbane hotel and is here to attend his father's funeral. He is trying to keep himself busy by doing online rehearsals for his play. Trapped inside this tiny room on his own, with no living soul in sight, Toby tries his best to stay on top of work and keep himself occupied. He also had to leave behind his boyfriend and it seems they are going through a ...

One of the many problems with this series is that attires to do too many things in little time. It wants to ta all BL tropes and add them all to this series. There is no real character development, shallow characters and motives, total lack of depth and many such. I think had I seen this 4 years ago when it came out, I might have thought of it a little better, but watching it today when there is so much evolution in asian BL, this just comes off as laughable.  A cafe owner has just been dumped by his girlfriend. He passes out but he bumps into this ‘girl’ who helps him get home and they end up having sex. He somehow cannot get her out of his head. The reality is that girl is actually a boy who occasionally dresses as girl to make online content o make extra cash. Incidentally, through his 2 other gay couple friends, he ends up getting a job as a waiter at the same cafe owned by the boss. We discover that this cafe owner is quite ‘lascivious’ and really treats females merely as sexu...

Trade is a dark love story that focuses on self-identity, exploration and one's fight for acceptance, which hits home with so many individuals today who fear from the backlash of being gay or transgender. It shows us the story of two men, one a streetwise hustler, the other a straight-laced lawyer, who meet and form a relationship that brings to light who they really are. ON paper the idea sounds good, but the biggest problem of the film is that the director doesn't know when to cut a particular scene. Some scenes in the film go on and on, while other's do not get proper closure. More on that later.  Shawn is a black gay man, who works on the street as a trans hustler Coco. He lives with his aunt. Then we meet Michael, a man married for 10 years, whose wive desperately wants to have a child, who is rich and a successful lawyer, but he has been hiding his identity of being gay and wanting to dress up as a female. The two have a chance encounter when Shawn is being harassed b...

This was a simple film addressing the issues of homophobia that is still prevalent in many parts of the society but the film takes a very comical take on it. Some folks may find it demeaning or putting gay community down, but if we cannot take a joke on ourselves, then we have a problem as a society. So, I would say that to briefly enjoy this film, do not look for much logic, just sit back and relax and try and smile and laugh for few minutes. Carlão is a prejudiced man who works in a car dealership. Since he was a kid, he was engrained in his Brian by his father who being a 'fairy' is not what a man should be. So when he is with friends he is always making homophobia slurs and jokes around. In fact when the new manager at car dealership show up, they all do not take him seriously as well. He is also part of the football team and together they frequent a bar where a fem gay man work and they all make fun of him.  Carlão always boasts of being the greatest soccer and mechanics s...

What a fascinating documentary. It s a wildly entertaining and a very refreshing perspective on black trans life. We har from four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City, who unapologetically break down the walls of their profession. Holding nothing back, the film vibrates with energy, sex, challenge, and hard-earned wisdom. The start itself is a bombshell. One of them telling us a story about a time she thought she was going to die at the hands of a guy who hired her for sex. about a time she thought she was going to die at the hands of a guy  who hired her for sex, but it’s not the story that immediately catches  the audience’s attention and this immediately grabs your attention and you wanna see what this film will offer you next. In addition to Liyah (from Decatur), we meet Daniella Carter (from Queens), Dominique Silver (from Manhattan), and Koko Da Doll (from Atlanta), and their stories are all different. Koko, for example, started when her family was...

Taps (India) As they embark on a year of long-distance, a misunderstanding threatens to derail the domestic idyll Akshay and Rohan have built over the last four years​. It puts a microscope on a couple who navigate the journey to finding their way back to one another after unraveling. How are they gonna spend their last evening together? Fighting, loving or being naughty with one another? Decent attempt but not great! Read Aloud (USA) Justin is a film editor surrounded by performances. Sick of sitting in a dark room watching others, he starts to envision ‘70s cabaret style performances of his own. When a new relationship starts to develop, Justin has to decide how badly he wants to come out from behind the camera. This short film is about performance on and off stage - how Justin performs his roles as a gay man, as an editor, and as a twenty-something sexual being when he meets different guys for hookups. The Surf Report (USA) A ghostly love story unfolds as two men look for answers wh...

I would not call this series a true BL. It is more of a murder mystery by taking in a hot Korean and a Thai guy combo, and sprinkle in some dose of one way liking and. Couple of kisses here and there. It is a weird dish mash of college comedy, but the end results is just bizarre. The lead actors look good, maybe even have decent chemistry, but it doesn’t matter, because the story is too silly, and makes no sense. The series is 12 episodes, each of about 16 minutes. Jay is a Thai international student who is close friends with Sung Hoon. Sung Hoon and Jay are excited to enroll in an elective course together. This health and fitness class is famous for being easy to complete. They both join gym, to work on body and get easy marks. The gym trainer is good looking and popular and Jay wonders of he can train him. As the two work out together, it causes jealousy in Sung Hoon who starts to realize he has feelings for Jay. In the class they befriend two other guys and the four make a quartet. ...

Based on the title, I was hoping that the film would be half decent, but seriously, the makers took a paper thin plot and I am amazed how they managed to make a full fledged film out of it. This film could easily have been wrapped up in a very quick short film. The film explores themes of sexuality, relationships, and identity 32 year old busy banker Roberto has a decent life going with his girlfriend Elia. Roberto is very well dressed, doesn't like clutter, neat freak etc. Things change when he meets a young college going kid Cris through an app. Cris comes over to his house a few times and they talk about multiple things while having drinks (assuming it's a way of Roberto delaying the moment of sex) and Cris making him rethink of his sexuality because maybe he is gay. One weekend when Elia is away, Cris spends the night and Elia shows up unexpected the next day. She doesn't think much but clearly this makes Roberto very uncomfortable with the situation and meanwhile Cris ...

This is a “mean-kids” comedy horror film incorporating several tropes. The film packs bullying, homophobia, high school cliches, romance, mental illness, self-identity, revenge and the paranormal etc. This film doesn't offer anything new and one would feel that you have seen this film before, but this film stands on its own because of the two solid performances from actors playing Javier and his best friend Bianca. The premise is that in high school, the seniors are about to graduate. A few weeks back, a murder happened in the school but people have moved on. We met Javier, a young Mexican American gay teen who gets bullied by a few kids in school. He’s smart, sarcastic and knows exactly what he’s up against. His best friend Bianca is his loyal sounding board. She is constantly trying to keep him calm and out of range of the bullies. Also Javier had been secretly hooking up with Brad and no one knows about it. The only sympathy he gets sometimes is from his English teacher. And we ...

I feel like maybe I did not understand this film completely. It is the story of a gay Latin man and his childhood trauma coping up now with mental illness while he is in relationship. The horror for me started to become repetitive with no deep insight into what the resolutions are, what ws real and what was figment of imagination. The film starts with a young boy and his mother in house. It feels like the mother has some mental issues and in a lot she tries to strangle her son. When the father is back, he does nothing much about it. Circa many years later, The boy is a grown man now. Will is now a potter in an upscale boutique. He is in a committed relationship with Luke, and even with their differences, both young men are virtually certain what they’re feeling for one another is nothing less than love. Will avoids talking about his family, especially mother all the time. He has not mentioned that years ago, his father had committed his mother to a mental asylum. Now Will avoids his mo...

Oscar Wilde has had quite a few films made on him covering various chapters of his life. I was looking forward to this film hoping to learn something new again, but this film really could've done with a round of storyboarding and editing and maybe a script or even a premise. This pseudo documentary style film reimagines the famous novelist’s 1882 tour of America as taking place at a present-day coast-to-coast road trip. According to the makers, the film is an optimistic reflection of contemporary life in the U.S., where the flamboyant Wilde can find the self-liberation and acceptance that eluded him in his own era. In 1882, the 27-year-old Wilde embarked on a 150-city tour of the United States, which set records for ticket sales at many of the venues he appeared and made nationwide headlines. Despite never having been to America before, Wilde was hailed and welcomed as a literary genius with an unflagging spirit and a unique wit — both of which are conveyed in the film. This romp r...

A story of teenage love. We have another series from Brazil, which, by the way, I just slowly started to build up their backlog of BL/gay series, so you may find them amateurish at some point. This series is not set in Paris, but Paris here symbolizes a young man’s fantasy image of a faraway place of freedom where you are at liberty to be yourself. With 8 episodes ranging from 20-30 minutes, this show was an ok watch, primarily thanks to its very cute leads. A troubled teenage Noel comes to live with his aunt. Only much later towards the end we find out that he was beaten and kicked out of hime for being gay, which eventually led to their parents separation as well. His two cousins Carol and Leo are very welcoming and friendly and soon he starts to feel at home. Leo's best friend is Fred and they have been friends since kids and is considered part of the family. When Noel and Fred meet, they feel a spark but obviously neither of them is going to do anything about it. Also Noel find...

Had I seen this BL back in 2021 when it came out, I might have a slightly more appreciation for the show than what I have right now. And to be honest, as of today, I don't really have much to say about the show. It just made me realize how basic were the stories that were being told in BL context from most Asian countries and makes me appreciate how we have grown both in terms of storytelling and the production efforts that are going in every year to make these stories bigger and better. This series was 6 episodes of about 25-30 minutes each and honestly was all over the place. The basic premise is between Phuc and Tung who share a on-again-off again relationship. Phuc is staying with his cousin in countryside. When Tung visits his parents who are neighbors, they are not home so Tung ends up staying with Phuc. They were likley boyfriends or had feelings before, but Tung is a bit envious and jealous by nature. He once saw Phuc hugging another boy, who was Tung's brother and sinc...

Using topics like alcoholism and sexual abuse, this B grade film mixes genres like murder mystery, slash horror, queer identity etc making it a decent watch at least once. But honestly, dont have too much expectations from this. ITs heart might be in the right places but it's rough in many places. A topic like this need to be handled with sensitivity and care and experience which is clearly missing in this film. A year after a failed suicide attempt, Alex is trying to get back his life in order. Thanks to a good sponsor, he is on his way to reconcile with his father. Alex, a gay man, has intimacy issues with men as a result of an unhealthy relationship with his father. But when he reaches there, he finds his father murdered. The shock is softened by a cold comfort; Alex inherits his childhood home so long as he can make the back payments. Enter Shane, a good looking, muscular and enigmatic Shane, who immediately swoons over Alex and despite red flags and warnings form his best frie...

This was a very cute fluffy, no frills romantic film. It focused on the core story without diverting our attention to anything happening on the side, which was good in this case. A simple, straight forward, slice of life love story between two adult men which almost feels like a teenager's first love. I can see some people may find it too simple, but for me it worked. Ayuma is a shy guy who works in an office. One day when the vendor machine refill guy is working there, he talks to him using his desire to add orange juice to the options as an opportunity to talk to the man he’s been crushing on. In turn the next day the guy introduces himself as Yamashita and gives him his business card with his personal chat id. The duo exchange a few messages. The next day Yamashita invites Yuma to join him for dinner, which they both very much enjoy. Later Ayuma confesses to him that he is gay and he wants to be honest because sending tine with Yamashita is starting to give him feelings. Yamashi...

This is a nice romantic series, full on focused on creating a cozy, warm romance between its leads with time travel aspect thrown it; which I have to say made it very appealing. There is a level of sincerity that this show tries to achieve which I really appreciated. However, there is a lot that it needs to unpack in its 6 episodes, of about 30 minutes each; so to some viewers, some of the chapters may feel rushed. For me it was fine, because I would rather have that than boredom starting to creep in. Aksorn doesn't have best relation with his father who wants him to take up something more serious as a career option rather than literature. Aksorn moves out and by luck finds a room close to the university, just made available on the third floor. The previous tenant has left a big mirror in the room. Because of the virally of meteor showers that happen that night, something mystical happens. The mirror has surprisingly become a see through window of sorts. Aksorn can now see into wha...

Silent Sparks is a Taiwanese movie about two gay gangsters and their secret relationship. But more than a gay film, I feel this film was more focused on probably the cons of being just aging member na dhow there is no getting out of it. This slow-burn film moves too slowly and takes forever to come to a point. From uneventful scenes to mundane chats, I was mostly bored. The gay romance also takes too long to develop. By the time there's a spark, the movie ends. Whatever the film tries to show could have been better achieved by a short film, which essentially shows two gangsters trying to hide their feelings from one another and everyone around them. Pua is a warehouse worker struggling to make ends meet. In addition to his regular job and odd gigs, he takes on gangster work as an underling. His mother is always worried about him. He has just come out of prison and again doesn't hesitate to break the law to make ends meet. His boss pretends to care about him. We then meet Jimmy,...