Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Mom's the Word (Canada) A short and funny comedy of a conversation between a gay son and his mother when she finds a cock ring and mistakes it for a napkin holder. How should a son tell her exactly what the toy is? The Last Leatherman of the Vale of Cashmere (USA) An aging leatherman makes a weekly pilgrimage the cruising destination of his youth, when leather and cruising was in thing. Paul (USA) Paul, a young man diagnosed with HIV in the late 1980s, attends a dinner with a family he's never met. A very poignant and dignified film about what feelings and loss of self dignity that the individuals went through through 80s because of this virus. One Last Chance (USA) Bed conversation between two fuck buddies, where one wants to know how come the other person has never been interested in him outside of sex! In The Paint (USA) College basketball player Kollin is preparing to enter the NBA Draft. He must decide if he wants to continue playing the game down low o...

Finally I finished watching all 3 seasons of this web series. Apparently the show started on youtube with its first 2 episodes and now the season three premiered on Netflix. This itself tells us the growth and trajectory that the show , cast and story has followed. I try to keep my expectations real low when I am watching US based gay content, because more often than not, it disappoints. The hugely popular show “Looking” had left a void which I think a lot of folks are trying to fill in. This series comes to a very close and I would highly recommend. Touted as a dark-comedy, the show primarily focusses on the couple Cal & Thom. Cal is an artist with a very rich mother and Thom is a writer. The series starts with Thom’s admission that he has been cheating on Cal with another guy Jeremy. Not sure how to deal with this, a series of events lead to both Thom and Cal sleeping with Jeremy separately. Jeremy likes them both but eventually they both don’t want anymore to do with him , ...

When I started watching the film, I wasn’t aware of it being a sequel. Only 15 minutes into the film, I realized the fact and so had to go read my review of the original film to jog my memory. Now that I remembered the original story, this film started to make more sense. This time, however, the focus of the movie isn't really the gay guys; but it's the women dealing with the aftermath of how the first movie ended. Of course, gay characters are still integral to this story. The new gay on the block Eli, kind of accidentally rents himself Corin & Jake’s old apartment. He interviews with Judith (Elliot’s mom) and somehow starts getting injected into Eliott’s life. Judith’s negative attitude toward her son's sexuality in the first film was a chief ingredient to the tragedy that ensued. Enter an old man, George, who is introduced as Eli’s father, starts dating Corin’s former co-worker Nancy. But something doesn’t feel right. Neither father-son relationship and nothing ...

This film was probably not an easy film to make and I can only imagine what it would have taken to get it a proper release at least in South Africa. The subject is controversial and deeply personal to the rituals of a tribe. You can never know how much of truth is gonna be in there vs how much content was added to make the film controversial. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful piece of cinema, something very different that we have been used to seeing. Xolani is an isolated factory worker. He takes a break from work to go into the mountains to mentor a city boy for his initiation. Initiation is the act of circumcision thereby welcoming the boys to manhood. This young boy is Kwanda, and Xolani is chosen as a caregiver for him because he has the temperament to deal with “city initiates”, known to be “softer” than their country counterparts. Kwanda is a rebel, who questions age old customs and the gathering of men. The initiation is also an opportunity for Xolani to meet up with his long...

Finally, a small yet a very powerful film on the stories of trans people. There are so many goods about this film that, only if you watch it, you will be able to relate and feel it. Inside us all is the person we need to be, and this beautiful film about a transgendered teen helps us become aware of it. Not for ourselves but for everyone around us. The best thing about the ilm is never at any stage does the film get over dramatic. Handled with grace, sensitivity and delicacy, this subject is gender dysphoria needs to be seen by a wider audience. And the best thing is that it i snot just Charlie’s story but also about struggles that people around him are. Charlie is a young football star with a strong chance of moving into premiere league. His father, Paul, whom he has always been very close to, is over the moon, especially he never could achieve this position in his younger days because of his injuries. But Charlie has a secret. He feels he is trapped in a wrong body and constantl...

I was so excited when I saw that Hurricane Bianca had come up with a sequel, I was excited about it. The first film though campy was fun when it came to wits, sarcasm and insults and I was expecting something very similar with this film too but alas! I was disappointed. Tt lacked the comedy, the sass and the self awareness of the first and felt just a gimmick to continue the brand. It is a true sequel but hardly funny. Worse, you see the main character in drag only towards the end. In the first film, we see that Debbie goes to jail. In the sequel, its time she is released and she wants revenge on Richard (Bianca) at any cost. A news show where it shows how hard life is for gays in Russia and Saudi Arabia, Debbie cooks up a new plan to lure Bianca to Russia to accept a teaching award and a cash prize. Richard, who by now has settled in a life of no-drag, gets left with dim and slim Rex to take care of while their friend Stephen goes to try his luck in LA. Russia is not welcoming as...

Not sure if this film was supposed to be a comedy film or not, but I definitely did not laugh at any of the jokes. I guess when it came out in 1992, there weren’t many openly gay movies, especially in the genre of vampires; so it probably was a refreshing change. But watching it now, feels like a drag of time, camp film, bad direction. Although story is slightly novel and interesting. Jake Hunter has strange fascination for vampires. Even when he has a hot guy next to him wanting to hook up, all he can talk about is vampires. He is stoked by the idea that there are vampire in LA and he fancies himself as the very model of a modern-day fearless vampire killer. He goes to a count’s home in search of vampire with all his killer bag but there he meets Leslie, who is a hustler hired by the count for his servant Manfield. Jake and the count have this weird connection but its soon clear that the count is actually a vampire. Jake brings Leslie home with him when he gets too drunk at night...

I really cant remember when was the last time I saw a trilogy of films focusing on gay theme. In fact, is there any other trilogy on queer theme out there at all? I have been so busy with work these days and haven’t had much time for movies but this was a good change or break from work. The last film in this series conveys a very important message. After focusing on falling in love and then individual journeys, this film focusses on what the ultimate outcome will be for the central characters. Their internal conflict versus the conflict from church and families. The two need to decide what their future would be like. In part 2 we saw that Chris is now divorced. But RJ and him are still having difficulty  sorting out where their relationship stands and where it’s going in the future, especially as they’re living in different parts of the country. They decide to get together for the weekend in the hope figuring out where they stand and what should they do. RJ has largely rejecte...

I am not too sure about this film. It was well made but something was really odd about the whole thing. I just couldn’t connect with the characters. When the lead says, no one understands him, I was in same category, because everything weird or strange in life was somehow oddly romantic for him, including someone’s rape. I mean, we have to draw a line somewhere. The film shows three different possible outcomes when a couple decides to break up. Ryan is a struggling writer who has been with his boyfriend Joel for 3 years now. On their third anniversary, Ryan meets Leo, a college student and they hit it off immediately. Apparently Leo is the only one who understands Ryan’s off taste in movies, books etc. Though he loves Joel, Ryan feels stifled by the relationship's stability and senses that Joel doesn't appreciate his artistic temperament. Ryan decides to leave Joel and this is where 3 different scenarios are shown. In the first version, Ryan gets together with Leo and the ...

Gay cinema is becoming all too predictable and repetitive. I don’t mean to say that the films are not enjoyable, but I am craving for something new and different that I have not seen before. Till then, feel good gay-cinema is not going out of fashion and movie lovers like me are going to continue to enjoy movies like this. Luckily, we always have some good looking faces to admire and get some eye-candy. In case of this film, specifically, the print that I had was with the worst subtitles that I have ever seen. The translation was pretty bad and still it did give an idea on what the overall story was. Yad was a medical student in Amsterdam, but he was getting too tempted with the partying life, so he gets summoned back by his mother. Joris , on the other hand, is constantly at loggerheads with his mother, who has become very bitter ever since their father left them. He is now dead and all Joris has are his ashes in an urn. Joris is now supposed to find a job, and he starts as a cle...

This is the second film is recent past that references to the ACT Up movement. I think the choice of subject was quite interesting but unfortunately the development of both the characters and the storyline was not upto the mark. I am glad someone thought about the sort of tussle between the generation who fought for LGBT rights all their life while watching their friends die of AIDS vs the younger lot, who get it all so easy. There was a lot of scope where this point of view could have taken a very interesting shape but this film doesn’t focus on this premise primarily. Sam is in his mid-50s, an artist and lives in his NY apartment. He lives in the survivor guilt, which becomes evident later, while he used to go to funerals twice a week in youth while his friends were dying of AIDS. He decides to make a documentary on his close friend who also happened to author the book called ‘After Louie’. But Sam’s friends have their own views about this project. One evening Sam picks up a 29 ...

This is the kind of gay cinema that I look forward to and my hunger keeps increasing for such movies. A lot of people would say that this film about coming out of a gay teenage is as cliched as it gets and to be honest its true; but there is something about this film that really will connect will adults and teenagers alike. Its an emotional yet funny film about sexual identity, a film that I found will be much appreciated if promoted well. I am so glad I got to see this on the big screen. Simon is your next door teenager with loving parents and a younger sister. He has a happy life with his closest friends from childhood Nick & Leah and a newcomer Abby. Everything in Simon’s life seems to be “normal” except he hasn’t told anyone that he is gay. One day a student with a pseudonym Blue posts an online confession about how he feels lonely about being gay in school. This gives Simon a channel to discuss his feelings with someone and he starts correspondence with Blue using nickname ...

Its times like these that make me frustrated. After a gap of few weeks, this is the film that I end up watching, while quietly questioning myself at every step, why am I watching this and what’s the point of this film. The whole film is in conversations between the principal characters and those talks have no meaning or reason. They are pointless. Th film is pretty much nothing about no one. Esme is having an affair with her girlfriend. We soon find out she is actually married to Eddie. Eddie’s brother Danny, who is gay, is coming to town. He is a porn film maker. So she invites one of her friends Devon, a recent surfer and a newly import to town. Eddie and Esme are going through their issues in marriage despite both in love with each other. Eddie has no idea that his wife is having an affair with another woman. Danny hangs out with Devon but he finds it difficult to read Devon to know whether he is interested in him or not. Mundane conversations continue over the period of time ...

I am not very sure if this film should be reviewed here or not. Although one of the 3 main characters is gay and there are homo-eroticism undertones, the issue or subject is never addressed head on. But then, for a film that came way back in 1968, I guess this small step was itself probably quite a big achievement. Kath is a lonely middle-aged woman living in suburbs with her ageing father DaDa. When she meets hanssome, young and very sexy Mr. Sloane sunbathing on a tombstone in the cemetery near her home, she invites him to become a lodger. When he accepts her offer and comes home, her father recognizes him as the man who killed their neighbor but is too afraid to speak anything. Eventually Kath seduces him. Meanwhile, her closeted, yet obvious gay brother visits him and also gets charmed by him. He makes Mr. Sloane his personal chauffeur (complete with a titillating tight leather uniform) of his pink convertible. Sloane takes delight in playing brother against sister and torment...

This is a 4 part mini-series, each episode of about an hour each.There aren’t many good thriller, mystery series which focusses exclusively around gay characters. The drama is based on the historical, unsolved hate murders of possibly 30 to 80 gay men in Sydney's eastern suburbs and beaches in the 1980s and '90s. Murder mystery, detective series and gay characters; now tis is a series that ticks off all the boxes that I like when I look forward to watch something. One morning, in one of the apartments on the beachfront of Bondi, a mutilated body of a young man is found. Tori Lustigman and Nick Manning are assigned the case. They soon discover that this could possibly be a gay hate crime of maybe an ex-lover or a hook-up gone wrong. Their boss wants the case to be closed soon but Tori strongly believes that this goes much deeper. With a series of investigation, she suspects that these murders go back to late 80’s and 90s of gay bashings and sudden disappearances of many you...