Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

This is an anthology of 8 short films, each of approximately 15 minutes. Most of them are too short to matter, but always end in a kiss (hence the title, I suppose), and you're usually left watching characters kiss before you even know who they are. Only a couple of the stories have potential and some genuine chemistry. Even though they are all so short already, you still feel there is a lot of fluff for no reason at all. 1. Raise Me? Since Seokmin is never home, he goes on an app and hires a freelancer named Jaeho for one specific job to look after 'Gamdong', his seven-year-old plant. Jaeho takes the gig even though he knows absolutely nothing about gardening. Before long, Seokmin starts getting annoyed because Jaeho won't stop blowing up his phone with endless questions and random updates about the plant's progress. The two leads don't know much about each other and they end up kissing which feels so not organic. 2. Folding? You! Woonhee is a university studen...

Toad Song (China) Eight-year-old Letian is called to bring his parents to school after getting into a fight and bringing tadpoles. He feels he now needs to find new home for tadpoles, but in the process he realizes the strange setup of his family. Mom and dad don'ts sleep together and an "uncle" stays on. One night he sees his dad with the other guy and he is confused. This new info while working on finding new home for tadpoles brings this small family closer. In the film makers words - "a child helping a tadpole find a home, a story of a child growing up in a marriage of convenience and defining what 'home' means to them" The kid was great and its nice beautiful film. My Senses Are All I Have to Offer (Portugal) Lourdes and Lana met telepathically using “sensory pills,” a technology that allows access to other people’s sensations from a distance. After months of relationship, Lourdes decides to visit the country house of her gay parents, Vicente and Ca...

Blackout (UK) In a shoebox flat, Reuben prepares a birthday party for his partner Harry. However, when Reuben starts hearing violent noises from the couple living next door, his morbid curiosity takes over. Harry deeply loves his boyfriend Reuben, but after being humiliated by a failed birthday party, many drinks consumed, shows us that none of us truly knows what we are capable of. For Reuben he comes to realize that violence isn’t always on the outside, sometimes it’s with us all along. A very powerful film. Rainbow Girls (USA) Three young black trans women pushed to the margins of their community decide to push back by staging a robbery targeting San Francisco's most exclusive luxury brands. The movie highlights the pervasive nature of anti-Blackness and, particularly, how the evils of capitalism affect the Black community. An interesting film for sure (based on a true story), but are we justifying the actions here? Meat Raffle (UK) When his visiting son Jackson sits down with h...

Squared (USA) When hopeless romantic Tate, prepares to get hot and heavy with a man he meets off a phone app, things take a turn for the worse when they both discover they’re both tops. What starts off as a potential bedroom tango ultimately ends up in a battle of wits and strength to prove who’s pitching and who’s receiving. A bit racist since the white guy assumes that Asian guy will always bottom. The competition goes into muscle, who is hung, wrestling etc. Nao Precisa Pedir Desculpa (Brazil) [You Don't Have To Apologize] Rafa is a young transgender and gay man living in a small town. He has resigned himself to the belief that he will never find another man who accepts him, until he meets Henrique, a boy from São Paulo who seems to see Rafa for who he truly is. However, after the events of one night that lead to Rafa's death and subsequent return as a supernatural being, he realizes that he will never be accepted by cisgender society. Fueled by this realization and the circ...