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The Dying Gaul

Oh what a movie! Even though the climax of the movie left me a little confused, I still cannot deny the fact that it was a brilliantly made film. The casting, the acting, the story, the filming; everything was almost perfect. Robert is a screenplay writer whose script "The Dying Gaul" is being appreciated by a few studious. At one such meeting he meets Jeffery from a big production house who wants to buy his script. The script has been inspired by Robert's boyfriend who died of Aids. Jeffery and others love the script but he can buy the script only if Robert changes the gay guy to be a woman because as per him Americans "hate gays". Robert refuses initially but later gives in when Jeffery proposes one million dollar for the script with the changes. Robert after hesitation gives in because he plans to invest that money for his son (from the days he was married). Robert now starts visiting Jeffrey house where he meets Elaine, Jeffery wife and mother of 2 kids. Th...

Più bel giorno della mia vita (Italian) [The Best Day of My Life]

A nice movie after seeing a couple of bad movies. My faith was restored in gay cinema. This movie reminded me so much of another movie that I had seen which showed the problems of all individual family members when they meet at a family reunion. This movie has good acting, nothing over the top, no right or wrong about love. It just had different individual's perspectives. Irene, a grandmother lives by herself in her house. She has two daughters, Rita and Sara and a son, Claudio. Sara's husband passed away after 2 years of marriage and she can now not trust any other man. She always worries for her son. Rita, who has two daughters, is living the end of her marriage and is in love with a veterinary surgeon. Claudio is a gay and his mom doesn't know it. He has a lover Luca who lives with him but still he cannot tell his mom. Rita and Sara know about this though. The family meets every occasionally for lunch.The movie is shown through the eyes of Rita's daughter who is soo...

Just Can't Get Enough

Let me clarify. This is NOT a gay themed movie. I saw it because I was under the impression that it is but thats not true. I am still going to review it just for giggles. Steve Bannerjee is just another club owner until he stumbles into the idea of male strippers playing to a women-only audience. His cash register is flowing specially after the choreographer Nick joins them and the shows are more organized than random. Chad is just another worker in the club who does not like the idea of dancing but he is ready to do anything apart from that. But when it comes to manipulations, Bannerjee proves Nick's equal and then some: the sex, drugs, and rock and roll atmosphere of the club quickly gives way to a headlong rush into murder, and the ride is straight down all the way. The movie was full of flesh display of both men and women. Chad was soooooooo hot. But thats all there was to this movie. Not worth my time. (2/10)

Chun gwong cha sit (Hong Kong/Argentina-Mandarin) [Happy Together]

I had read a lot of positive reviews about the film and hence my expectations were quite high from the movie but sadly I have to say that I was disappointed. Not by the content but by the presentation aspect of the story. It had a nice and engrossing story idea but had it been handled more maturely, I would have personally liked it more. Yiu-Fai and Po-Wing arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong and take to the road for a holiday. Their relationship is always under stress because Po-Wing keep disappearing and resurfacing again. Fai is more stable. They drift apart while they are on road but end up being in Argentina. Fai starts working first as a doorman to a local bar and then in a restaurant. As shown earlier he is more stable of the two. On the other hand all Po-Wing does is hustling. ONe day Po-Wing gets beaten up and he shows up at Fai's door steps. Fai starts taking care of him but something keeps him away from getting close physically with him again. Fai says that the best time ...

Outing Riley [If Dad Only Knew]

One of my close friends recommended the movie to me. He knew my taste and was sure I will like it. And yes! I did like it. Its the kind of movies I prefer to see. Comic, drama, emotions, family etc. It was nice... very nice. Bobby Riley is one of the four brothers and 1 sister Maggie in a Irish catholic family. Except his sister no one knows that he is gay. After their father's death, Maggie wants Bobby to come out to his other brothers Jack (priest), Connor (obsessed with Internet porn) and Luke (the prankster). Bobby though he lives with his boyfriend Andy, still doesn't have the nerve to tell his brothers even though he tries hard to come out to them on a weekend getaway. One evening Maggie throws the bomb out in open by showing everyone Bobby's and Andy's pictures and telling everyone that he is gay.From here starts the tribulations that Bobby, Andy, his brothers and Maggie go through and they eventually accept Bobby and Andy. Bobby's dilemma functions on both c...

In & Out

Funny! Funny! Funny! This movie was so much fun. I had a hard time controlling not to laugh at various occasions while watching this movie. The film gets into the mood right away and bears front the plot which is simple but hilarious, specially with the way things are handled in the movie. A high school teacher Howard is about to get married to his fiance of 3 years, Emily. Everything changes in one night when a former high school student of his, named Cameron Drake, now a famous actor, makes an acceptance speech after receiving an Academy Award for his portrayal of a homosexual army soldier and 'outs' Howard Brackett as his inspiration for his role. Here begins the whole media circus where suddenly everyone in media is interested in finding out if what was said is true or not. Howard desperately tries keep his life from falling apart by protesting that he is not gay and that the whole thing with Cameron's speech is a simple misunderstanding. Everyone except one of the TV r...

Glue (Argentina-spanish)

This Argentinean film was a BIG disappointment. The director tried to portray the boredom in life of a 16 year old boy Lucas from a dysfunctional family living in the middle of nowhere. It also delves a little bit into his sexual experiments with his friends, the hunky Nacho and the mousey Andrea. Lucas' parents' relationship is pretty unstable, but he doesn't want to be confronted with it. So he decides to spend his time hanging out with his friends, just talking about life and experimenting with drugs and sex. He wonders about his physical development, compares himself to his buddy, and begins to explore his sexuality. Not much happens in this dull observation of teen behavior in a small town in the boonies of Argentina. The events are mundane. The characters uninteresting. The overall quality is not much better than the home-video your friend did about distant relatives. The only good scene that I enjoyed was when Lucas plays with the monkey with banana. And the intimate...

Buah, Ha (Israel-Hebrew/Arabic) [The Bubble]

My first experience with Israeli cinema and I must say I was pretty impressed. The movie part in Hebrew and part in Arabic shows what the people have to go through because of war and extreme political situations. The movie starts with a scene from a checkpoint on the Israeli-Palestinian border. This confuses the viewer as to what kind of movie is this. But very soon the whole plot is established. Naom, one of the guys from the checkpoint lives in Tel Aviv with a girl Lulu and a gay roommate Yelli. Lulu is in search of the perfect guy who does not want just sex but wants much more to life. Yelli works in a cafe and is shown as a fun loving guy. The story begins when Ashraf , a guy from the border while Naom was working shows up at his door. He lost his id and had found Naom's id. There is instant spark and the 2 guys ended up sleeping together. Their love slowly starts to grow even though knowing that because of Ashraf being Arab and Naom being a JEw , there is absolutely no future ...

Sheng xia guang nian (Taiwan-Mandarin) [Eternal Summer]

The tagline of the film is very apt "No One Wishes To Be Lonely, Neither Do We.". Its so story not just in the context of the movie but even otherwise for every individual. Jonathan and Shane are best friends from school. They were forced in school to pair with each other but eventually turn out to be best friends who hang out with each other always. Jonathan meets this girl Carrie and they date for a while until one day he chickens out when they try to go physical. He realizes that he has hidden feelings for someone else. and that some one else is his friend Shane. Jonathan tells Carrie about it and she understands but there is air of discomfort between the two. Oblivious to all this, Shane starts falling for Carrie but there is a conflict of interest with his friendship with Jonathan. Seeing this Jonathan realizes that probably he cannot remain friends with Shane for his and Carrie's best interest. Shane has always seen Jonathan as his best friend and is very scared to ...

Defying Gravity

This is the kind of film that I personally prefer on most of the movies. Its difficult to put this movie in one particular genre. If I had to say, I would put it as coming out/romantic movie which is totally my cup of tea. The movie per me is almost there where I cannot find a fault with it. Right from the story telling, to the characters portrayed, acting, friendship between the 2 boys, love and affection, acceptance by parents and community; it has just about everything with the right sentiment and right emotion. I have seen the movie twice already.:) The story is about 3 friends Griff, Todd and Pete. Griff and Pete have certain sexual encounters without Todd knowing about it. Griff just wants to enjoy and live with the moment whereas Pete is falling in love and wants something more meaningful which obviously Griff is opposed to. Things take a dramatic turn when Pete is seriously injured and hospitalized after he is gay bashed. Griff stars questioning himself, obviously having these ...

Breaking the Surface : The Greg Louganis Story

Its hard to classify this movie as strictly under gay genre. Or maybe its not. Because our primary character is gay and it does show the real hardships faced by him in his life. Based on the diving champion Greg Louganis on his book, the movie takes us deep inside how Greg's childhood was, how was his relationships with other people, how he became the great Olympic champion that he was and much more. Greg Louganis is adopted child in his family. His father is not particularly fond of him as a kid but his mother does notice that he is passionate about diving. WIth proper coaching and mentoring, they make sure he gets to do what he likes. Greg's mother is always shown close to him and his father always being that angry man who is not too fond of him because he is not good at reading. Down the line Greg starts living in with a guy Keith and after living together for a while, Keith moves out because he is not comfortable with the fact that Greg would not accept that he is gay in pu...

The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me

This film experience was a very different one. Whether it was god or bad, we will decide a little later. The movie is different in the sense that it is a one man show throughout the movie which is more like a theatrical event converted movie for audience. One man talks about his experiences through various phases in life starting from when he was 6 to when he is in his mid 40s. It includes experiences going to the gym, clubs, gay bashing, secret dreams etc. Personally there was nothing for me in the movie. It started ok. I was a little interested initially because I had never seen any such thing earlier. In the initial portions I tried hard to understand and was getting into it. In fact the scene where he acts as he is visiting the gym was hilarious. I laughed a lot in that but after that it just kept going boring. The movie doesn't awaken you or make you curious and sit back and think because most of the issues are known to everyone. You just feel that this one man is very self in...

Mil Nubes de Paz (Mexico-spanish) [A Thousand Clouds of Peace]

Gosh!! Was this movie slow or what! In a movie of about 80 plus minutes, the time where there were dialogues was maybe about 20-25 minutes max.There were just scenes and emotions just shown were extended period of time in individual screens. Not that I mind them but then there has to be a limit. I tried to bear with all this for first half an hour but after that I was like, this movie is just not going anywhere. From a story point of view,Gerardo has just finished his relationship with his boyfriend. Then all they show is him wandering around the streets of the city and being tortured by images from his past about which he can do nothing. He just wants to keep whatever he can of his dying love. Like I mentioned earlier, the plot has no relation to the lines the characters were speaking, acting was poor and it was a very aimless movie trying to go nowhere. None of the things in the film really connect to each other. The guy in the movie is as confused as probably the director was. Just...

Creatures From the Pink Lagoon

Yet another gay movie where they show a couple of friends spending a weekend at a getaway place for some reason or naother.The difference in this movie being is that there is some thrill element involved. Thats a different story altogether that the thrill was more like funny for me and by the end of the movie, I wasn't sure whether the movie was supposed to be comedy, scary, thrill or wanting to give you a message. Near a chemical factory, there are 2 exits. One goes to the pink lagoon and other goes to a rest stop where men cruise for anonymous sex. It is rumored that some virus is near by the rest stop which makes you eat human flesh which is later discovered to be eating just gay flesh. Essentially they are gay zombies. At the same time, in one of the homes in pink lagoon, a group of friend are meeting to celebrate Philip's birthday (who is way too sissy). It includes Satn, the home owner, his impulsive hunky boyfriend Billy, his shy nerdy cousin Joseph and 2 others. They ar...

Blue Citrus Hearts

This was a hands down bad bad film. Poor production, awful actors, terrible sound, very poor picture qulaity. Frankly I failed to understand the whole point behind the movie. Like someone mentioned "Think of all the horrible poetry you read in junior high, and turn it into a 91 min film. This movie was horrid". I finished the entire movie in like 20 minutes. I just had no patience to see the film as it was going nowhere. A few minutes of my life wasted !! The story is of Sam, a young, dorky high school student in Memphis who writes his thoughts in a notebook and finds his homelife and his relationship with classmate Ariel spiraling out of control. The one good thing in his life is his new friends hip with Julian, a long-haired, pimply-faced, fey classmate who begins to spend a lot of time with Sam. I don't care how many festivals this movie has gone into and how many people liked it. This on was just not my cup of tea. (1/10)