Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Set in Limerick city in Ireland, Cowboys and Angels depicts the growing friendship between two very different men and looks at the anxieties and challenges faced by young people trying to establish their identity in a modern city. It came almost 22 years ago, so of course in today's time the visual aesthetics feel quite dated, but it is a good mix of sexual freedom and youthful energy, friendship, drug, criminal presence during that time. 20 year old Shane, has just got anew government job and kinda. New roommate in Vincent, a gay fashion student. The duo slowly warm up to each other and niece friends where Vincent tries to make the shy Shane come out of his shell slowly by taking him out clubs and enjoy the vibrant night life in the city. Shane starts to like this barista girl, who happens to be Vincent's best friend but she is not much interested in Shane. Vincent wants to move to New York after studies. One day by accident Shane discovers some drugs in his apartment building...

I remember enjoying Durango series a lot and was hopeful that there will be follow up to this. I got my hands on second season titled "Rūrangi: Rising Lights". In addition to the tile we also saw some actors changing from original season. Caz's friend/boyfriend Jem and his father are now played by different actors; but that doesn't impact the show negatively in any way. At 5 episodes of about 20 minutes each, this show is still very much worth a watch. The first season concluded on a cathartic, hopeful note. And, while it was clear the characters would still have significant external conflicts ahead, they seemed to have resolved most of their inner turmoil by the season’s end. Season 2 focuses less on main character Caz but in the town and its issues more. We see the struggles of town mayors modernizing the town while Maori people trying to fight for their motherland. We slowly see the town starting to get behind banning of the chemical fertilizers. We still see Cam a...

A high energy, over the top comedy is one way to describe this film. Part fantasy, part thriller and part love story, this is essentially story of one man, a transvestite who has always liked to dress up as a girl and his survival story after immigrating to France. Clearly the film is meant to showcase the immense talent of the lead actor, who single handedly shoulders the film and does an incredible job with it. Chouchou arrives in Paris migrating from Chile (although I feel from looks and setting that the arrival should have been from somewhere North Africa, but that detail is irrelevant). Trying to find place to stay, he is taken in by a kindly priest Father Leon and Brother Jean, who also help him get a job in a psychoanalyst office as a receptionist and cleaner. The lady doctor is very friendly and one days asks what Chouchou's wish is. He tells her he would love to b a woman from head to toe. Unsurprised the doctor asks her to come dressed as woman and be herself. Chouchou is...

This 2003  documentary is about 4-5 gay men, who are living on the countryside of Swabia (a rural area in the south west of Germany) far off from the big cities, where it is easier being gay and not being scrutinized at every given point. Being alone as Gays among an entirely heterosexual environment, they still try to live a rich and happy life. Even though this may be universal story, the reaction of their fellow villagers are unique, allowing us a rare peek of real life in the small villages in rural Germany. The film starts with a group of older people sitting together and eating and one of the guys giving his honest opinion on what he thinks of gay people. We are then slowly introduced to our protagonists of this documentary. Hartmut, HIV-positive, kept his homosexuality secret in Germany until his diagnosis, but he traveled to Thailand, where he indulged in sex tourism. He now wishes he had started his life much earlier. Heavyset mid-20s forester Stefan would like a steady ma...

The film, inspired by true incidents, is based on an early 18th century court record from Cape Town, exploring the romantic relationship between two male prisoners, one black and one Dutch, at Robben Island in South Africa in the 18th century. I am guessing most of the story is fictionalized version put together around the historical court hearing that happened in 1735. Trying to Steal cattle, a local black man Claas Blank is arrested and shipped for 10 years imprisonment in Robben Island. Being a servant before, he is able to speak good English as well along with Dutch. The black and white inmates keep themselves separate and Blank is too to stay away from a white Dutch sailor inmate Jacobsz, who is a 'faggot'. When an English botanist Niven stations himself on the island to develop exportable flower strains, Blank's sills help him find favors with him. Both Blank and Jacobsz are drafted to help with Niven’s project and they end up spending unsupervised time together which...

I actually never knew and to behest, didn't expect to see an Indonesian film with gay characters at its center. The film released almost 19 years back, so I can only imagine what a scandal it must have been to release this in mainstream cinema. Compared to other Asian countries, whose tolerance for LGBTQ members is much higher and accepted, countries like Indonesia and Malaysia are still struggling. The film is primarily about two best friends. Meimei is a successful working woman married to an equally successful man. But them not having children is starting to cause e stress in their relationship. We then meet Sakti, a young charming man, one of the most eligible bachelors in town, her colleague. Sakti has been dealing with his gay feelings and has been seeing a psychiatrist for this. Although he does a good job of portraying himself straight. A grow pf successful wealthy housewives have a weekly/monthly gathering where they gossip and Meimei is invited to these gathering. One day...

I will have to take away your gay card if you haven't heard of one of the most critically acclaimed HBO series, Angels in America. I had seen this show almost 17 years back, so it was fun for me to revisit his after all these years and finally getting an opportunity to review it here on my site. Set in New York City and touted as one of the best show/film of the whole AIDS crisis, this almost 6 hour long series is set in 1985, and the film revolves around six New Yorkers whose lives intersect. The show has elements of fantasy inter spread throughout, especially when one of the leads Prior Walter is occasionally visited by an angel. We meet two couples. Gay couple Walter and his Jewish boyfriend Louis have been together for four years. When Walter sees first signs of lesions on his skin depicting that he must have contracted AIDS, his partner Louis spends no time in running away in opposite direction, with no intention of being a maid to his dying boyfriend. IN Brooklyn, we meet a s...

This film is a train wreck. I felt angry wasting my time while even reviewing this crap. You read the title and you think oh! Maybe there is gonna be something interesting, but surprise surprise, the film starts bad and it only keeps getting worse with each passing minute. Billy Lee Tucker is an awkward young farm boy whose private parts got severed in a freakish accident. He is a former porn star now reduced to being a fluffer. But when he develops addiction to pain killers and gets out of shape, his career is in the tank. After Billy accidentally injures an actor, he finds himself out of a job altogether -- just in time for his hometown newspaper to run a story commemorating the 20th Anniversary of his accident, which sends a handful of people he'd just as soon never see again on his trail. With the neighborhood pharmacist, Billy is trying to get his life back on track. In between all this, we meet one of his girlfriends, his younger brother an admirer who likes having sex with h...

If you thought you had seen all terrible gay movies out there, wait till you see this one. If you are feeling generous enough, maybe you may classify this as a soft porn, but the tragedy is that the makers are under an impression that they have made a cult classic. A young teenager comes to America from Vietnam in search of his father, who is touted to be this 1th richest man in the world. While waiting for his father to accept him, he ends up spending a romantic night in the woods with a stranger he met. Lots of sex follows but in the morning they are found by 3 guys who beat him up real bad. The father, who is a kung fu practitioner will go to any length now to avenge his son. The midst of all this, there is this homeless young attractive boy who is gong around sleeping with random strangers in return for their kindness and at some point some guy (not sure if that's the same young guy or someone else) reaches out to the kung fu to revenge his sister who was rapped by a priest. Tr...

A gay love story with the theme of reincarnation. Now this is something I was really looking forward to. A love story well done is alway s pleasure to watch, and I personally am all about believing in reincarnation and past life and second life, so ideally this should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, even though the story was quite decent, the execution was actually pretty bad to the extent that it just didn't make much sense. Christopher has recently lost his wife Savannah of 22 years and slowly getting alcoholic. But at the same time, he is also getting obsessed with the idea of past life ever since he interviewed a psychic for an article 'The Singing Forest'. He is convinced that he is reincarnation of Jo, a German resistance fighterhafged by Nazis for helping Jews. One day he gets an invite for his daughter Destiny's wedding. As soon as he meets her fiancé Ben, he is convinced Ben is reincarnation of Alexander, Jo's lover from the previous life. As Be...

This film feels very intimate, something personal (I Hope its not). With just under an hour of run time, the film interestingly explores relationships. Bond between two people related by blood vs two strangers anyhow sometimes it can feel very similar. Selim is a very handsome young man of Algerian descent who has some sort of strained relationship with his father, especially Ince his mother's death. He longs for love and acceptance form his father which he rarely gets. Selim, along with his closest friend Luise, are hustlers, who go out at night drinking looking for clients and mostly going as a couple. One night when they find an older customer who takes liking for Selim, things change. That man provides love and warmth of the kind he was expecting from his father. Selim saves enough money through his work to help with his father's surgery but he refuses to accept his son's money. When he gets bashed for homophobia, he ends up overdosing himself and dies in his hotel room...

Films on AIDS are more often than not tear jerkers. This film is almost in the same mould but with added debate about euthanasia. There is a reason that this topic is still debatable, because who decides what's best for you when you are already dying. The film seems like a low budget film, but it keeps your attention. When few AIDS patients die under similar circumstances, The DA's office believes they may her been due to assisted suicide, which is illegal in New York State and so Nicola (Nick) is assigned to investigate this case. She picks Matt Shapiro's case who recently passed away and starts interviewing people he was connected with. She meets Brian, who was Matt's caregiver and lover who runs Chelsea's HIV support clinic. She then reaches out his family and talks to his mother and his sisters. Every interview raises more questions than answers and in between all these conversations we see flashbacks of Matt's life, his coming out, telling family about him ...

Even after watching quite a bit of gay themed characters and films from both China and Japan, I don't know why, every single time I am surprised. Maybe, because in my mind, the subject is so taboo there, that I look forward to anything from these two countries. Sadly, its been mixed bag so far. This film deals with the study of gay make hustlers in contemporary China, a theme that could have been interesting but this film is utterly bland. In modern-day Beijing, two boys from the same family end up on opposite ends of the same moral spectrum. Xiao Bo turns to a life of prostitution because he has this idea that men, like women, have a duty to fulfill their destiny as mammals by 'feeding' others.. His brother Dabin is an Evangelical Christian who wants to save his brother losing himself completely. Scheming to convince the boys of Beijing to reform their ways and find a path to happiness that doesn’t force them to sell their bodies on the streets, Dabin himself gets involved...

In late 90s and early 2000's there were quite a few hour/zombie movies that were combined with some sort of gay narrative or better still homo erotic stuff, to entice gay audience. More often than not, these films were plain trash, and once in a while some decent ones would come along, though they would still be not good. Five years ago when Christian sold his soul to the dark powers of Samuel he was promised a life free of guilt and no recollection of his sins. A world where a small cabal of handsome killers, Zombies, seduce and pray upon innocent men at will. "Zombies" follows Christian on a downward spiral as his memory awakens from the numb life he's grown accustomed to. His past causes the line between madness and sanity to blur. Taunted by the young men he brutally killed, misunderstood by his best friend, Jason, and victimized by his chief rival, Cain, Christian seeks refuge in the supporting embrace of Matthew. Christian is forced to choose between a life of a...

US and its early years low budget gay themed films justifies creating something so horribly bad and stupid that it's almost unbelievable. I mean why do we need such crap. This film can best be described as a soft porn where the main storyline is barely 10 minutes and rest of the duration is our protagonist watching different men dreaming about them in complete nudity. 25 year old Clayton is gay and virgin, and he is love with his straight room mate Brian, who, of course, has a girlfriend. Blinded by passion, every time he sees a guy, he visualizes him naked and  his desire for Brian is crossing limits. Seizing a perfect opportunity one night, he kills Brians girlfriend and kidnaps bBrian so that he can have sex with him and make him fall in love with him. The plan doesn't go very far as Brian refuses to ever love him like this except as his brother. eventually, Brian is successful is bringing Clayton out of his desire. If you like the kind of films, in which 5 or 6 HOT guys in ...

I had no idea that this film was based on a real life story. As it is, I was thinking that this film is an important milestone and inspiration for gender identity and sexuality. The fact that it is based on a real story makes it even more special. The movie chronicles the real life story of Parinya Charoenphol, a Muay Thai boxer who underwent a sex change operation to become a woman and shows us her life from a young boy who likes to wear lipstick and flowers to her sensational career as a kickboxer. Toom is a young boy, one of the two sons of a farming family. Very early as a young boy, he finds himself experimenting with make-up after a witnesses a Thai dance performance and he is fascinated by the graceful movements. As per tradition, he and his brother are sent to a Buddhist monastery, and also because his parents are financially very poor. As an adolescent, just by chance, Toom enters a Thai boxing contest for which the prize is 500 baht. When he wins, Toom realizes that coul...

I watched this documentary completely not knowing anything on what its about. Actually I didn't even know that this was a documentary. It follows the conflicts that arise when gay white professionals move into a black working-class neighborhood. I am still not very sure if this needs to be reviewed here, but what the heck! Focusing on the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, there is a neighborhood called "Olde Towne". When economy hit hard in 80s until later, White Homosexual homebuyers were attracted to the neighborhood because of the cheap, beautiful, historical homes in the area. These new incoming residents in turn displaced older residents which primarily consisted of poorer African-Americans. The main focus is on two people. An older gentleman who is ordered by the city to take down a sign on his entrance. And then on an older lady, who has been summoned by the city for building code violations due to lack of maintenance. Also she is in no mood to sell her property. We ...

This BBC mini series is definitely not a gay mini series but the fact that 2 of the 4 principal characters of this series were gay, makes this series qualify for me to write a review about it here. This series chronicles the lives of the four Russian spies from 1934 to 1951. The series shows us how the 4 characters, Philby, Burgess, Maclean and Blunt are recruited and why they feel compelled and obligated and wanting to do this with Russia. Each series focusses on an individuals life and the interactions between the four people. Blunt is the reserved one who occasionally is allowed to show emotions and is also gay. Guy Burgess is witty and charming, who enjoys picking up men in public toilets. Maclean is a man of privilege who feels guilty for what he has, yet is aware of his limitations. And finally we have Philby, the most enigmatic, fiercely loyal and intelligent, devious and filled with angst. There is a lot of information that is thrown at the viewers and you just have to kee...

I can't believe that this film was made for TV. Although these days you can reach out to a much larger audience through TV than films. Its a funny, lovely, touching love story about a God-fearing rural small-town Midwestern couple and the film manages to capture the nuisances of small town life very well. Its definitely a sensitive topic that the makers have tried to deal with and they really need to be applauded for that. And Tom Wilkinson for being so brave to take up the main role and portraying it so beautifully and with respect it deserves. Roy and Irma have been married for 25 years and have a son and daughter together. After their 25th anniversary, Roy tells Irma that he has long felt that he is a woman trapped in a man's body, and wishes to do something about it, no matter the consequences. Irma, an avid member of the church choir, naturally finds this a little disconcerting. She feels as if she has been lied to through out the whole relationship and her life is fa...

This film is a provocative insight of the world of several disenchanted, tattooed youths rejected by their own families and sidelined by the mainstream of society, all 15 years of age. Shot in a disjointed MTV and voyeuristic style with mixed paces, this film is a semi-documentary of a lost generation. The plot, consists of short stories which fell into 3 acts. The first, being the brotherhood between 2 friends who ponder the meaning of their aimless lives. They know that they are condemned in the eyes of society, and find solace in the company of themselves. The second act was a bit comical, as 2 friends helped an ex-enemy to look for a building to commit suicide in. And the last act continued with examining the lives and friendship between the same 2 friends. There is really nothing more to the plot. I was solo ultimately bored with the concept, idea, direction and everything, I didn't even bother to know whats going on and what not!! I read all over favorable reviews of t...