Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

This documentary was telecast on UK’s Channel 4. Being gay has never been easy for anyone past or present included. When you are asian, it is a bit harder because of culture and if you are asian and Muslim, then the difficulty goes on more level up. This documentary very effectively follows life of gay asians, specifically Muslims and drag queens. Narrated by Sir Ian McKellan, the documentary’s focus is on young men who are unable to publicly reconcile their sexuality with their cultural identity and traditions. Asif, is a good looking young Muslim man who loves to dress up in drag and perform. The documentary starts with him showing us the death threat emails that he has received. He is popular and successful as his alter ego Asifa Lahore. But behind the expertly applied make-up, she is fighting a major battle on behalf of all those who don't dare to wear their sexuality so openly. Then we see Imran, whose alter ego is Zareena Khan and i looking of love everywhere. She gets l...

A good concept which could very easily be shown in a 20 minute short film and I can bet you that the impact that this short film would have had is much greater than the impact that this film will ever have. The title pretty much tells us what the film is going to be about but in the process it becomes tiring and lethargic and you start to wonder whether anything concrete will ever happen or not. Herman and Franco are an older gay couple who have been together for 8 years. They meet Fede, a very young man in his early twenties, online and have a few raunchy conversations about a threesome. Finally they invite Fede for dinner and more. A very nervous Fede arrives anther home and obvious discomfort is seen between the trio. Slowly as the three men eat, chat, and drink plenty of wine, they become more talkative and open. In due time, they are revealing intimate aspects of their lives and histories. Soon after dinner, the romantic encounter starts which ends up in a threesome (a really...

What was the point of this almost 2-hour long film? Really!! Surely, we do see a very unflinching account of the life of a drug addict but then thats all there is to it. Its like we are following a drug addict and seeing what he is doing on a daily basis between trying to find money for drugs (mostly be being a hustler), getting high and then finding a place to sleep. I personally couldn’t find any more logic or reasoning to the whole film besides what I just said. The film starts with a steamy and graphic sex and drug abuse scene between our protagonist Alex and Bruno. Exact nature of the relationship is not known until Bruno reappears towards the end of the film. After a couple of nights of intense drug use and sex, Bruno leaves and now Alex has to find to make money and get more drugs. He makes friends with his drug dealer and his girlfriend who use Alex’s car to distribute drugs to their customers. This goes on for about 30 minutes or so till they all get arrested. Alex gets r...

This film came out in 1999 and is a light hearted comedy. I can imagine that in that time it was probably a risqué subject, only because its the story of an traditional Indian family as a background. Ideally I wouldn’t have classified this as a film in LGBT realm because there is so much more to it, like family, responsibilities etc. but it is still definitely worth putting up on my blog. Reena, an Indian-American is a henna tattoo artist and lives with her lover Lisa. She and her sister Sarita were single handedly brought up by their mother. Like most Indian families, the mother and even Sarita are obsessed with babies. Few months into her marriage, Sarita finds out that she can’t get pregnant and about the same time Reena’s family make her feel that she is selfish and doesn’t do much for her family. Without discussing with Lisa, Reena offers to be the surrogate mother of the baby for her sister and her husband Mitch. Narita is not to keen on the idea but because Mitch seems real...

I was starting to wonder how come my recent stint of gay films have been quite decent and chances were quite high that I would son be watching a real crap movie soon, and behold here it is. This film is an attempt to mix vampire craze with tons of sex, wafer thin story line and expect to do wonders for everyone involved. James and Andy are a perfect couple, until Andy loses his job suddenly. In order to make their ends meet, James recommends they allow a lodger to stay with them. In comes Sebastian, a loner, good looking, tall, muscular but weird guy. Andy goes through all kinds of dreams every day and begins to wonder that Sebastian is hiding something and is very scared of him. He suspects that Sebastian could be the killer who has been stalking the streets of their neighbourhood and responsible for so many people seemingly disappearing into thin air. James on the other hand doesn’t notice anything. The film ends at a bizarre note something similar to how it started in the first...

A very interesting concept indeed. We all go through nostalgia. Watching certain scenes, places, listening to songs, reading old letters, reconnecting with friends etc brings back memories. But what if you didn’t have this luxury. Imagine having no cherished childhood memories to recall. The makers use this basic premise to come with an indie film, that touches the subject but slightly fails in passing on the actual message across. Evan is  young college going student, who spent his childhood and youth moving between an endless list of foster homes. He is in a stable relationship with his boyfriend Chris who loves and supports him but at the same time can be a bit controlling and trying to make Evan into something that he is not. One afternoon Evan finds an old 8mm film camera in a garage sale. The old owner asks him to return back in a week to collect the editing equipment. When he returns a week later, he finds that the old man passed away and now it is his son Peter who liv...

Foreign Relations (USA) Recently dumped Tom decides to take a group tour. He is randomly assigned a roommate for the duration of the trip whom he can’t figure out if his room mate is gay or not. There is lot of sexual tension in the 7 days but its only on the last day that the truth comes out. Well acted and decent directed. Fugaces (Spain) In the week of Pride, Madrid is full of new guys. And there is always one that stands out from the mass. Daddy's Big Girl (USA) Widowed & wealthy gay Cliff, has a strained relationship with his overweight adult daughter Millie. Millie feels judged as an overweight person, but does nothing to address the issue. She sees her father's life as a hedonistic one, everything is all surface and no depth. It isn't until Cliff tells Millie a story about his deceased wife that they come to a better understanding of each other. The Saint of Dry Creek (USA) Shown in animation, Patrick recounts how in 1950’s his father taught him th...

Oh no!! Why did they have to end the movie like this? I can’t watch another sad ending. According to the director, this is a film about love, or the lack of it and about the consequences of seeking out its substitutes. And as the film ended, I as a viewer was unsure of what the filmmaker intended to say with his story. Some of the characters get what they want, some of them don't, but none of them seem satisfied with the way things end up. What was the filmmaker's message? In his fifteenth year of training, aspiring champion swimmer Kuba lives a normal, uneventful life - at home with his mother and girlfriend Sylwia. He happily switches back and forth from good sex with Sylwia to the occasional back rub his mother craves. At a gallery opening one night, he is out of place and totally bored until he meets Michal. Sylwia picks up on his fascination, but Kuba has her heart. Attraction between two men is instant and Kuba starts looking for ways to hang out more and more with M...

The best thing about this film is the subtle yet very powerful story. This is a film dealt with sensitivity and feelings as we ride a roller coaster of emotions. An intense story of two 14-something boys. At that young age, the world and your own self changes at such a speed. Our protagonists feel the changes and experience love for the first time but because they are both boys, they have to keep it hidden away and given into the social pressure. 14 year old Ibra, originally Moroccan, left his country long time ago hoping for a better future in Spain. Living in shelters, fully settled, going to school, he is hoping his paper work will get done soon. Then we have Rafa, a young boy living with his parents. He hangs out with his group of friends inclusion best friend Guille. Rafa gets visibly uncomfortable overtime the friends talk about girls and going out with them. A chance encounter a nightclub is their first interaction, but the spark between them develops much later. Rafa wants...

What the fuck was this? sci-fi apparently but what utter crap. Ok, some people will call it artistic, ambitious and what not, but c’mmon; the subject of the film and premise has to make some sense for the normal movie watching audience. The film lost me completely within 15 minutes and I had to fast forward and watch the whole thing. What a sheer waste of time. Synopsis (copied from online, because I really do not have patience to write anything about this film): In a futurist world, the Thai kingdom has been transformed by ‘The Leader’ into 'the Realm of people who have done good deeds and earned merits'. It’s a nice place to be, even though the inhabitants are plagued by an indefinable nostalgia. In the old days, people could at least touch each other. Although the Realm has reached version 2.0, technical possibilities remain limited. This wondrous story of the future is interwoven with stories set in the present and past. As per the director and online forums, this fi...

What the hell was this film? When it ended I had a mixed feeling of relief and regret. Relief that it was over and regret for having bothered watching it. But then, I have seen much worse films, so this one at least didn’t give me a headache and didn’t make me feel wanting to punch the director. Evan is a young journalist who works for a gay magazine that covers the local community. He doesn’t get an offer from Gazette, his dream company but they do offer him a job of writing a piece about city’s night life. He knows that his colleague Aidan isa big circuit party man who writes about these pieces and could probably give him some insight. Aidan helps Evan meet Hunter, who is the king of the night clubs and hosts the best parties in the city. In hunter’s company, Evan finds out about all the hard work that goes into making these parties successful. Hunter, it seems likes Evan but Evan’s personality is so shy that he is completely oblivious to the admiration. In between all this, we ...

Yay!! My first gay film from another new country, this time Venezuela. I am not very sure whether this is the first LGBT themed film from the country or its that I couldn’t see any film yet. Whatever the case maybe, I am so happy that this film was made and that I got to see it. Its a beautiful, emotional film that shows celebration of diversity and love and also makes a point against homophobic attacks and discrimination. A perfect combination of love, romance, heartbreak, family, friendship intercepted with just the right amount of drama and few funny moments; this film will definitely touch you. The title actually translates as "Blue and Not So Pink," but has been dumbed down to "My Straight Son." Diego is a young and successful photographer and is very happy in his relationship with is partner Fabrizio. His life is quite happy with his love and 2 of his closest friends by his side, the transgendered Delirio and the beautiful Perla Marina who is still with h...

Wow!! This movie was incredible and that is solely because of the amazing chemistry between the 2 main protagonists. As you can tell by my blog that I have seen plenty of gay films, but the style of direction and the overall story and the way things have been handled is quite unique in my opinion. When the film started, I thought this was going nowhere and it was another one of those independent self-indulgent films (which it is) but somewhere along the line, it just completely grabbed my attention. There is nothing much to the story but it still got me totally absorbed in the world of these 2 young guys. Its apocalypse time and the world is going to end soon. People are fleeing (where?) and everyone is doing their own thing. Some people are staying together, some people are abandoning their families and everyone’s deepest fears and desires are coming out. 2 best friends Alex and Diego decide to spend the day together walking the streets of their city.  Alex is gay and shares ...

There are not many road-trip movies with gay theme, so this is a welcome change in that area, but unfortunately when it comes to material and story-line, film-makers are left with just a handful of subjects handling queer issues. This film falls in the coming-out and young guys falling involve category but set in the context of a road trip. Well, this at least makes it different. I also did like the idea of splitting the film in 8 different sections, each focussed on a certain theme of the overall film. James, open about his sexuality, lives with his overbearing mother, who he believes drove his father away. Jess on the other hand, is a confused young man, who keeps changing girlfriends, even getting one pregnant. The 2 boys meet for a hook-up initially but clearly James gets strong feelings for Jess. Jess, who is really fed up of his life with controlling parents and a nagging girlfriend, agrees to go on a weekend road-trip suggested by James. This road-trip becomes a journey of ...

I think this is the kind of film where it is important for the audience to know what they are actually getting into. And by that I mean, not just the storyline of the film but also a bit of history about the film and the subjects of the film. This film specifically relies too much on pieces of information about a then well-known Russian film-maker who was quite popular. And in this film, we get to see the unauthorised biography of what could have happened when he along with his crew visited Mexico to shoot for his next film. In 1931, Eisenstein, famous Russian director, drove from California to Guadajuato, after two years of unsuccessfully trying to get a production started in Hollywood. Eisenstein in a clownish and an eccentric  man who gets very fascinated by the country and finds too much similarities and differences between his motherland and Mexico. Canedo, is a handsome academician who has been assigned to the director to show him around and be his companion. The directo...