Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

I am not sure how I feel about this film to be honest. A sort of love story of an aging drag queen. ON paper the story is interesting and to an extent it really is, but I thought the film was stretched way beyond it should have been, plus there are certain elements of the film that it could have easily done without. The film starts in bleak darkness where we see two soldiers first fighting and then leading to gay sex and accidentally stumbling upon a house where two trans women live. One of the soldiers then kills the other because he makes some comment. Change scene and we meet agin drag queen Tonia. She is head over heels in love with Rosario, a gay man half her age, who makes her dresses. Rosário is a drug addict, a thief, and a generally abusive partner – but as the film progresses, the sheer volume of interaction between the pair begins to wear you down. You wonder why is Tonia so much in love with this toxic man, but you stop asking questions. Eventually you're forced to beli...

A film about sexually and love confused individuals, this film explores a very toxic love stories between a few group os people linked somehow, where they claw their way towards each other's love and approval to the point of death and destruction. The first half intriguingly depicts the characters’ various stages of secrecy, denial and bewilderment; while the second half felt like a very confused screenplay to me where the film maker was not sure where to take the film. I am gonna use the roles instead of names, otherwise it will get very confusing for me. The film starts with two men on a trip where they spend time and make love with each other. Turns out they were being followed by a 'photographer' to follow her 'husband' and the 'lover' because she suspected him of having an affair. What completely shocks here that this person will be a man. Out of anger and respite, she barges into the 'lover's' office and creates a scene. This makes the love...

Reality TV has become part of our everyday life now and most people are used to all kinds of content. But think back to the days of non smart phone, modem internet, technology just coming up with online chats and videos. College Boys Live is, I a documentary feature that follows a group of young gay men living - and performing- in a Florida house in which the inhabitants are under the constant scrutiny of multiple cameras. The footage from the house’s cameras is streamed live on a website.  College Boys Live gives many of its subscribers and performers a chance to experience a truly gay community. The site according to its owner, Zac, is not just about sex and sex chat. He states its main aim is self-empowerment: both for the boys and for the site’s members. Three new members join this house where they have to live minimum of 6 months. Zac likes to give the impression he is doing this for philanthropic reasons, and perhaps he is, we wont know. But the boys, all young and skinny and...

This beautiful queer sitcom from early 2000's from BBC Two caught my attention only because it has my favorite Olivia Colman in it. Spanning over 2 seasons with 6 episodes each, the sitcom is unapologetically happy, camp and very, very gay. The show is based on the book by Simon Doonan, who is Creative Ambassador of the New York clothing store Barneys. The book tells of his upbringing in Reading during the ‘50s and ‘60s intertwined with his adult life as a gay man. So the show writers took situations from the book and relocated the setting to the more contemporary 1990s. Each episode of the series 1 opens and closes with the adult Simon, working as a window dresser in America, and the lion’s share of the story set in his teens. In season 2 Simon moves back to England after his relationship with his American boyfriend ends, which allows us to see interactions between Simon and his mum as adults. In a typical sitcom style. The show is a big and brash exploration of identity and the c...

Having somehow endured the first season of the show, I was dreading g the time, when I will somehow be forced (by myself) into watching this second season. Thankfully the expectations after first season were so low that this season two fits perfectly the bill. The story sort of continues but even if you haven't seen the first season, you will not miss any context. Maykel not has his own work business, which is not important in the context of larger story. Him and Johannes seem to have broken up, but it feels like they both still love each other but are afraid to do anything about it. Thanks to Johannes' friend; he thinks maybe if he makes Maykel jealous by pretending to be with someone else, Maykel will admit his love. Somewhere during this tine, on a drunken night, Maykel ends up sleeping with J's friend. When he and Johannes are back together as a couple, he don't tell him the truth. Enter a new girl, who happens to be Johannes' old friend form younger days, who i...

In the late 1980s and early 1990s a series of violent murders took place near Sydneys famous Bondi Beach. Three innocent men were attacked and thrown to their deaths from a cliff top. The murders were part of a much wider wave of violent hate crimes as gangs of youths roamed Sydneys inner suburbs randomly bashing and killing gay men for sport. This series, Crime Investigation Australia is an Australian true-crime series, in which one of the episodes featured these gay killings. Among the victims at Bondi was Wollongong television newsreader, Ross Warren, a gay man who disappeared while visiting friends in Sydney in 1989. Ross Warrens case was dismissed by police as a probable accident. But his mother conducted a long campaign to have her sons disappearance finalised. Then, some ten years after he was first reported missing, Ross' police file finally came to the desk of one courageous investigator who started to dig a little deeper. Detective Sergeant Stephen Page quickly realised t...

This documentary came back in 2009 where before the 30th anniversary, Vancouver's Gay Pride Parade director Ken Coolen, examines relevance of Pride celebrations internationally. He travels to places where Pride is steeped in protest to experience the powerful oppression that still exists. Pride is more than a parade, it's a giant step on the road to equality. Ken Coolen recognizes that the ride celebrations had started to overshadow the whole activism situation at the pride parades and hence he decides to travel to places like Sri Lanka, Moscow, Poland, Canada to understand what its like there. He finds the situation a lot different in Sri Lanka, where just flying the rainbow flag can get you 10 years in jail or the lesbians are sometimes subjected to "conversion rapes". In Poland, where the European Court only recently ruled that pride celebration must be legalized, Coolen encounters anti-gay violence first-hand, as hoards of Catholics (mostly young men) angrily stom...

Although touted as an erotic drama, this film, in my opinion, is nothing but an extended version of a porn film that lasts 90 minutes. Sure the makers can call it an experiment film, or crossing the film making boundaries or an experiment of human desire; nothing can change the underlying factor that this film is nothing but porn. The premise is simple. In an attempt to make a film about the nature of desire, director Claude Pérès invites porn star Marcel Schlütt to have sex with him. They will sleep together while the cameras roll. No contract, no film crew, no boundaries. The end result is a film that challenges viewers to look into the heart of human desire. The makers argue that this is not just porn but an act or experiment of desire and their reasoning is that because they engaged in sensual touching, kissing and stopped to talk about it. So what? That doesn't take away the fact that we see almost 45 minutes of hard core man to man sex. Look, I am not complaining about the se...

Apparently, there were a series of posts published online on some Thai website which became so popular that someone decided to make a movie out of it. I have such mixed feelings about this film. One part of me enjoyed this very basic and sort of emotional bromance/love story but then there were many places where the silliness of the whole proceeding just didn't make sense. And I think this is primarily to do with some amateurish direction nd real poor editing. There are quite a few long drawn shots with nothing happening that just bores the audience. More on all this later. Ped's girlfriend Kai leaves him for another successful man. Heartbroken Ged tries to move on and gets a new job at the airport cargo. To his surprise, a male colleague of his named Oi, makes a very public declaration of how he loves him. Despite constant reminders by Ged that he is not gay, Oi likes to hang out and be with him all time and slowly they become real good friends, while Oi continues to flirt wit...

I am not sure why this film got such great reviews and press at the time when it came out. Agreed that it is an interesting mix of poetic and erotic cinema at the same time but with hardly any spoken dialogues, you really have to focus hard to understand what's actually going on, what the storyline is and what is it the are trying to actually say. Shot in black and white, I want to say that cinematography is excellent and there are plenty dreamlike sequences, but with a duration of over 3 hours, it tests your patience like no one has ever done it before. And I am not ashamed to say that I am definitely not one of those who was willing to venture into this 3 hour of sensory world. I have better things to do and I just had to fast forward at many places just to make sense of this film. The official synopsis says this about the film "Youthful Kieri and Ryo share a deep and passionate love for each other. Kieri sets off in search of his soul mate after Ryo is kidnapped. A female s...

When I read that there is a documentary about Native American gender identity, I was quite intrigued. I had recently visited Arizona and got to know about the Navajo tribe. The fact that this documentary follows the story of Fred Martinez, a Navajo boy who also identified himself as a girl piqued my interest, It helps that the documentary was just under an hour. While homosexuality and gender identities are considered more modern concepts, the Navajo have long believed in the existence of four genders. They believed in four genders and duties were divided accordingly. Besides the two common ones, they also have born male with feminine essence and female born with male essence. The latter two were revered in Navajo community and referred to as Two Spirited humans. Sadly this was lost as Western influence progressed. We learn about Fred, a much loved boy, who he was loved by his family, how he came out, how he led his life on his own terms and how eventually he was murdered in one of the...

This film was actually a very pleasant surprise that Iw wasn't expecting. I did not know much about the film, so sometimes that helps. But some very charming actors, a decent storyline (which is probably not taking it too seriously) and a duration of under 80 minutes, this film was a lot of fun to watch and I had this happy smile to my face which hasn't happend for sometime especially while watching a film. We meet Simon, a clarinet player and openly gay man. He is having an affair with his 'straight' student Raphael and they meet secretly, but he is also seeing French-Arab cross-dresser Naim on the side and he enjoys both their company. When Simon's mother breaks her hip, she has to come live with Simon, who actually doesn't care much for her and is very self centered. Somehow Naim makes hey way into Simon's house as the mother's full time nurse pretending to be Habiba. They get along really well and somehow Simon's dwindling intimacy with Naim gets...

This film is the biography of celebrated Catalan poet Jaime Gil de Biedma, which celebrates his life and work both marked by sexuality and eroticism. The firstling that strikes you while watching the film is that you really need to have. Love for language, especially poetry to appreciate this film. The fact that people like me watch it with subtitles, makes it even more complicated. But regardless, Jaime's life is so colorful, with multiple lovers laced with sexual eroticism, the film still makes for a wonderful viewing. The film starts with an impeccable and presentable Jaime in Manilla seducing local boys in Manilla for sex with his charm and money. But back in Barcelona, his father,  is concerned about the impact of Jaime’s lifestyle on the reputation of the family’s tobacco empire, particularly since the cops are not being very polite to commie sympathizers. Jaime has a lover who is good for him socially but Jaime is refused membership in the Communist Party because he’s openly...

“Dzi Croquettes,” was an all-male dance and theater troupe that had a moment of fame in the 1970s in Brazil and then Europe. Lennie Dale, a virtuoso Broadway dancer and émigré to Brazil, founded the 13-member group in 1973. Their productions were lavish explosions of creativity and imagination that had wide audience appeal. Interestingly, the group flourished in Brazil at a time of extreme repression under a harsh military dictatorship. The documentary gives us a brief history of how the group started, what was the situation in Brazil at that point and most importantly how did a group like this which was all about sexuality where male performers, in full display, out and proud of their bodies, fill of hair, wigs and makeup managed to survive and even more importantly create a name for themselves. We see interviews with 5 of the surviving members reliving their glorious days. It tells the story of the troupe’s life cycle: achieving notoriety, then being torn apart by fame, then being de...

This film is a a strange case of being a weirdly odd film yet funny in many instances. And funny not hahaha, but chuckle and situational funny comedy. Now, what Ia m not sure is that whether this was intentioned this way or not. I have a LOT of problems with the story line, but if I keep that aside for now, this wasn't a bad film, but not a great one either. Armand is a 40- something gay middle age fat guy, who's life is going nowhere. He is into older guys but is tired of meaningless sex. He binge eats and also job wise he is just doing ok. One night he sees 4 thugs troubling young 16 year old Curly. HE saves her, by paying money off to the thugs and in turns becomes an unlikely white-knight. Curly develops a huge crush on him and makes strong sexual advances. And before. You know Armand also wants to explore the bi-side of him. Since the parents would have none of this, after multiple tries, Armand manages to elope with Curly. After a few awkward sexual tries, they make it ha...

This film may not be very original but you cannot deny that the film and narrative is extremely likable and also relatable to a certain extent. Its like a show within a show. We see a film which is a musical where members are partaking in a musical called 'Adan and Steve'. Paul and Eddie are the leads of the gay musical 'Adam & Steve' but they are full of offstage drama in their personal life as well. Paul like monogamy and cuddling, something that most of his potential suitors don't get. And Eddie hasn't come out o his very staunch Christian parents yet. To top this he has never had sex yet and now they are supposed to visit his play, his debut on off-broadway on the premier night. Paul becomes disenchanted about monogamy and tries being promiscuous, but he finds this lifestyle unsatisfying. He constantly bumps into Charles, a fan that has developed a crush for him. Eddie comes out to his parents over the phone on Paul's recommendation. Despite feeling ...

Another badly made gay vampire film. I am happy that these films are no longer being made, but I guess eventually form my library, I am slowly reducing the backlog of the ones that I need to finish off. In prologue we see two monks Anthony and Florian in love. But Anthony murders Florian in a fit of repressed unrequited lust and locks the body in a trunk. Back to current times, we see a few monks living together. Ou t of them two of the monks indulge in regular sexual activity while being blackmailed by another monk. When a mysterious kid Sebastian  with no memory is found on the monastery grounds, Anthony has flashbacks of his victim. An apparition of the murdered young Florian starts appearing in broad daylight, and many of the monks start having grisly visions followed by diabolical behavior and collective hormones start raging up. He film tries to make a psycho-dramatic theory about the dangers of repressed homosexual lust, but with its over-the-top characters and mock-horror s...

A film that could have been a very nice thriller and drama on subject like a person is unable to move on from an abusive relationship, however hard you try is something new and can be very novel but as expected, the makers try to just put too much of nudity for thrill sake and lose out on a good opportunity. Ryan is an 18- year old teenager, who is trying to make his mark as an actor. He has finally landed a gig in theatre and is trying his best to make it work. One day out of nowhere, his ex Daniel shows up and asks if he can stay there. Ryan hesitantly gives in in promise for a normal and loving relationship. It turns out that Daniel has history of drugs and random hook ups. None of that has changed. No later than a day, we see Daniel back to drugs and his anonymous sexual escapades, trying to hide from Ryan. But things are not working for Ryan either. He eventually gets kicked out from the theatre and he comes back home to find Daniel having sex with another guy. Instead of getting ...

The second film in this series came out in 2009, two years after the first one, with one big change. both the lead actors playing Takumi and Gii were replaced by new actors. The film making style has also matured and there is not so much OTT acting by the leads. As the first part, this film also  tenderly displays the romance of a young, gay couple, and all the complications of their relationship. Gii and Takumi are now a happy couple, very much in love, still in school and their group of friends is very happy for them. Takumi doesn't believe in PDA which upsets Gii a little bit. Things change when a new first year student Morita joins appears in the picture. Gii wants to host a party and asks Takumi to make sure to invite Morita. Takumi goes through hall emotions of jealousy, anger and despair and thinks that finally Gii is over him and is now interested in the new handsome boy. A couple of days after thhe party and the lovers rift, Their best friend Suzuki leaves school for hospi...

Even though, in summary, this film is a collection of three short films, unlike previous mentioned, this film is an anthology of sorts which has been directed by a director duo. The movie features three stories of closeted men and how their sexual obsessions lead to violence. In Our Darkest Moments mixes wry humor and tense drama as it chronicles the sleazy exploits of a hunky, closeted married man who cruises seedy bookstores and sex dens. He begins an affair with a dangerous teenager, unaware of the disastrous effects it will have on his life. In the Darkness Softly , is a love story (of sorts), chronicling a young man’s obsession with a local serial killer. And in the final film, In Deep , the police are trying to catch a murderer who preys on lonely men and then offs them with his extraordinarily large appendage. Maybe this killer is more than he seems. After first 20 minutes, I really couldn't care much about what's happening in the film. The stories, the acting, the dire...