Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

In Between Men (USA) In Between Men follows four friends in NYC who live "in between" a gay world, whose cliches they don't relate to, and a straight world they don't belong to. They are successful, professional men not defined by their sexuality. Through wild adventures, racy story lines, joys and pains, underscored by the pulse of New York City. From acting to story to presentation, this one is pretty bad. It is nothing but a guilty pleasure but at least it did make history by being the first gay web series. (2/10) Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho (Brazil) [I Don't Want to Go Back Alone] I absolutely loved this film. 15 year old blind teenager Leonardo is good friends with Giovana. She is his best friend and drops him home every evening from school. A new guy Gabriel joins the school and Leonardo's life changes. He starts accompanying them and Leonardo starts to have feelings for him. Giovana has o struggle with finding out about this new found feeling of his bes...

The fact that this film had Javier Bardem was the primary reason for me to watch this film. I had no clue that this film was based on a real character of that of late Reinaldo Arenas, Cuba's most charismatic literary voices. The film is made in a documentary way and it touches on his childhood, but concentrates on the '60s and '70s, during which time Arenas was considered a counter-revolutionary by the Cuban government because of his writing, as well as his homosexuality.  As a young man, Arenas is singled out by his teachers and encouraged to further his skills as a writer -- no easy task, considering the Castro regime's censorship of any work considered to be subversive or anti-authoritarian. Still, the author manages to smuggle his work out of the country through friends, who arrange for one of his novels to be published in France. Not only persecuted for his creative beliefs, the openly gay Arenas is jailed on a bogus sex charge; he escapes internment only to be ca...

This one was a pretty lame movie. I am so glad that I did not waste my time in the Philly QFest on this film and rather watched it in the comforts of my home on dvd. At least I was able to take breaks and yawn and be amused at stupidity and absurdity of the film and the characters. The acting was so pathetic especially for Eddy, it just blew my mind. As much as I would like to promote indie films, it is senseless films like this that just dont cut the deal with me. Clark is a work-obsessed gay man who seemingly has it all. Not only is he one of the hottest young men in West Hollywood, he has managed to turn his first client, Eddy Malone, an eccentric party girl, into one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood. He throws a dinner party at his new condo and invites his friends and colleagues, including TJ, a powerhouse lesbian publicist, who's quickly losing patience with Eddy's wild ways. With TJ comes longtime friend, Pierce, a slightly awkward, down to Earth, spirit...

This movie was a visual treat and complete with all emotions of love, romance, drama, betrayal, angst, war, everything. The costumes, the sets, the acting, cinematography, everything was spot on. I had absolutely no expectations from the film but I must say that I was completely bowled over by the film. As the story was progressing, more and more surprises were thrown and it completely kept me hooked. The story though fictional was very new and something that I always appreciate. The film is set in Goryego dynasty. The king when younger had appointed personally selected 36 young boys to be trained as bodyguards. When they get older, king gets fascination for Hong Lim and he favors him. Hong Lim is the chief of the bodyguards. Him and the king some a lot of quality time together including sleeping with each other. With the arrival of the queen, pressure mounts on royal family to produce an heir, otherwise a successor from outside will be appointed. But the king is completely gay, do...

I had heard a lot of good things about this movie. A lot of people who saw it at the Qfest said nice things about it. I purposely did not see it in the festival since I wanted to watch it on dvd. For some reason this film looked to me like a more homo-erotic film rather than a one with stories and emotions. The film kept going in and out of being good to bad to doesn't make sense. But it still was an interesting view into the Hong Kong gay life. Daniel, an openly gay banker can't decide whether to stay in Hong Kong or return back to Australia until he meets Kafka. Kafka is a straight swimming instructor. Somehow the 2 men develop a bond of friendship, admiration and even love for each other but Kafka cannot get physically intimate with Daniel which he doesn't mind because he is in search of true love. Kafka is a rebel and has a troubled past which we later find out that when he was trying to save a girl, he was raped by 4 men and left to die and this is the reason he can...

Cappuccino (Switzerland) Despite his marginal and extrovert looks, Jeremie is a shy teenager who keeps a heavy secret: his homosexuality. While trying to find his way between his classmate and sexual fantasy Damien and his very generous but protective mother Gina, his life is about to change. A mother's love, despite her own misfortune, is expressed in a very subtle way. The title of the movie somehow did not go that well with the story. (4.5/10) Caught (USA) In 1962, police use camera surveillance to capture sex deviants in a public park. Based on a true story set in Ohio town that filmed gay men when film surveillance was very new. Lester visits the public restroom and tries to make friends, while on hidden camera by the police. A lot of people get arrested by the cops but some lucky people like Lester get lucky. (6.5/10) Little Love (USA) This film explores what happens when a new guy to the town gets very friendly with a gay couple and in moments of heat/friendship en...

The title of this film cannot be more misleading. Not only was there no nudity wrt men (by which I mean , no frontal nude shots), the title itself had absolutely no relevance to the film. I took a break from watching gay films after the Philly film festival hoping that when I start watching movies again, I will pick the ones which will be meaningful, entertaining and relevant. This film clearly did not belong into any of these categories. I am hoping the results will be better next time. Tibor is 49 year old aging writer married to a narcissistic actress who is out for work most of the time. One night he surprises himself by taking home an effeminate young street thug / hustler named Zsolt who comes out of nowhere and literally forces himself on Tibor. Always straight, there is something about Zsolt that he cannot resist and they start having an affair. Things start taking an awkward turn when his wife comes back. They need to find new places to meet. Because of this love, passion a...

This movie was definitely a surprise. Closing night film of the Q-Fest, somehow when I read the synopsis, I thought this film be more on the lines of a wannabe comedy but I was very wrong. This film was actually very realistic, to an extent scary as well specially for actors who wanna make it big in the big bad world of hollywood. It shows the dark realities of what goes on behind those closed doors, how people exploit one another and how once you get sucked in, there is no way out. Adam has recently moved from NY to LA and is living with his best gal-pal Candy, who once used to be a wannabe actress but all she now does is think of obscure projects to make more money. Her finances are stabilized only because of her fiance. Once the fiance storms out in anger, Adam becomes permanent room mate and now he needs to find a job. He tries a couple of jobs but none goes well. When he is cruised by Nick at the gym, he offers him an office job at a gay porn film office where Nick works as a p...

The Q-Fest this year has definitely been better than last couple of years. Surprisingly, the number of lesbian and transgendered movies have also seen a raise in this years film festival and thank god that most of hem have been good ones. I will see these movies any-day over crap, really pathetic gay movies. FTM transition and a love story woven between this, the film is definitely a great debut from the director. This film shows us the mindset of people transitioning and how it affects their relations with family, friends and of course how they go about finding love. This has been done in a very subtle manner. Lucas is a 19 year old FTM. He is on hormone replacement therapy and still has breasts that keep him bound and hidden. He is invariable put in a female dorm while doing community service. He is stressed there and wants to move to male dorm as soon as possible. In this time, his lesbian friend Ine is always with him and keeping his secret safe with her. Lured by Ine and his new...

I am still not very sure why was this film shown as part of the LGBT film festival in Philadelphia. A couple of characters are gay but hen that has become a very common phenomenon in recent films. It is no big deal. In any case, that doesn't take away from the fact that was a guilty pleasure to watch the trailer park white trash story which brings smile to your face and often brings the house down with laughter as well. I am glad they did make Mangus' character a pity boy.  Mangus has always had one dream; to play Jesus Christ in the musical spectacular in his high school drama thereby following the footsteps of his dad and grandfather. He lives with his father and step mom (who by the way is hilarious in a weird way in the film). When he gets selected for the part, he celebrates with his friends and get in an accident which leaves him crippled and thereby he looses the part to a gay flamboyant son of the mayor of the town. When his father has to leave town for war, the step mo...

I read somewhere online that this is a thriller but of a different kind. I can't disagree more. This is nowhere close to being a thriller. It is a tale of a mother looking for her son and in the process discovering things about him, his friends and even her own relationship with her son. This film ultimately ends up being a soul search rather than a search for an actual person. Not sure how many actually this kind of genre in the gay cinema but nevertheless it was a decent viewing. Simon has been missing for only a week but it is enough to get his mother Valerie worried. She has travelled from Germany to South France and has also called her son's ex boyfriend Jens to help her out in searching for her son. High-strung and fearing the worse, Valerie has barely accepted her son’s gayness and having his former boyfriend around only adds to her stress. Jens has his own mixed feelings for his ex. He takes excursions in search of nightly casual sex where he encounters an Arab boy who...

Gender identity has rarely been explored with tender care and nurture in queer cinema before. This is such a sweet, heartfelt story of a young girl who just wants to be a boy. She doesn't understand the implications etc but just wants to be a boy. The film is poignant and humorous at times and filled with very believable performances.  Ten year old Laure, is moving with her parents and 6 year old sister to a new town. She spends time baby sitting for her sister because her mother is pregnant. She usually dresses up like a boy. Looking to play with the children from the same apartment complex, she meets Lisa to whom she tells that her name is Mikael. They both start hanging out and even with other kids of the building and a mutual crush develops. Mikael is now enjoying playing with boys, manly games and even taking his short off while playing. Soon her kid sister also joins the fun and addresses Laure as her brother in front of other kids. When the mother finds out about this, she ...

First of all I fail to understand why would this film be shown in a LGBT film festival. Agreed that one of the 2 characters happens to be gay but still the story is primarily about Danielle, a perfectly straight girl. The gay guy just happens to be his side kick and yes there is a mall parallel track. I have nothing against the movie, at least not till I finish writing the review but I was disappointed by the choice of this film for QFest.  Danielle is a dirty 'slut' girl in the Oklahoma high school. She does not mind sleeping with every boy in the class. She is angry at the world specially her mother because she never mentioned to Danielle about her father. She meets Clarke, a fat and obese gay guy whose father gives him a hard time for everything he does and fail and specially anything to do with being gay, when the two of them are forced to do a school project as a team where they have to act parents to a flour bag and write a project report. Danielle suggests that they run ...

I dunno why but I had very minimal expectations from this film. Somehow the title, story or even the actors were connecting with me after watching the preview but of course I still had to watch this film. It was actually not all that bad. Set in 80's film takes a hilarious look at a group of friends. Agreed that this is no oscar worthy movie or anything but I have seen much worse gay cinema, so in comparison this one did not turn out to be bad at all. he setting is a Texas college circa 1982 where big hair, loud shirts and cowboy boots are considered high fashion. Kevin is a straight frat-boy who enjoys bonding with fellow schoolmates. He does not even mind helping out his friend Justin once a while. But things change when he meets sexy and charming openly gay Cesar. Kevin starts hanging out with him and his heart starts beating for him and of course Cesar is also falling for Kevin. Too many encounters suddenly make Kevin confuse and he sets out for a weekend full of beer and wome...

These brainless dead "comedies" are the kind of films that sometimes makes me wonder why do I come to these film festivals. This is an excellent example of a wannabe film. Except a few laughs here and there on some dialogues, this film is a pretty bad attempt at making something illogical and ridiculously absurd. Just putting in hot men, some hot scenes and a real life full on plastic surgery commercial actress in the end will not bring the audience. But at the same time I think that many gay men have not really branched out to see all the beautiful wonderful gay films out there that the expectation they have is very low and they enjoy these mindless , so called entertainers.  Marshall and Gabriel have been together for 7 years and now their relationship is getting stale. Marshal is cocky and very physical but Gabe always pretends tp be tied and busy and has to work. He is also turning 30 and needs some thrill and something new in life. He starts looking online and finds an a...