Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

This seemingly long stretched film is like one big hallucination. In almost 80% of the film, there seems to be no point of story. Its just events that are joined together, not easy to follow at all and whats up with all the video game flashes, neon images etc. Sadly you don't even get to see the faces of the leads properly. I mean, why would anyone make such a film. David sees Lucio at a dance party and it catches his eye, But Lucio disappears and they meet again one year later but this time David disappears. He has a girlfriend who lives far away. Using her help and exorcism, David tries to find him in parties and similar situations to that of their first encounter. Yes, thats pretty much the summary of this one hour long film. The film has lot of voiceovers, weird topographies including mountains, karaoke, parties, discos, video games etc. and none of these make any sense whatsoever. Is this about time travel or space travel or just a weird imagination of film makers. I se...

Something New (USA) After breaking up with a cheating ex-boyfriend Jonah has been satisfying his sexual needs with a hot man he met on Grindr. But Jonah is thrown when the man asks him on a "real date." Is Jonah really ready for something new? L’Américain (France) A chance encounter unexpectedly leads to an unlikely friendship when a young, reserved Parisian takes in a mysterious American backpacker for a few days. !Que te den por culo! (Spain) [Get It Up Your Arse] One night he boyfriend tells his girlfriend how a friend asked him whether he’d take it up the arse, for a huge sum of money. And this is when the girl starts asking the same question for him to prove his love for her. Tell Me How (Canada) Damien and Matt have been romantic for a couple weeks But Matt identifies as straight or bi and his flirting with a girl leads to a fight that will challenge their future commitment for one another. They find themselves fighting for their love but who knows what...

Amit Khanna is back with the sequel to his mostly entertaining web series All About Section 377 which I reviewed here . Both that and this series and freely available on youtube to watch. The series comes at a time when India's supreme court gave a verdict in favour of LGBT community decriminalizing homosexuality in the country. This series continues from where it left. Rohit's partner Sid is back in his village and has no courage to come out to his parents. He breaks up with Rohit over phone and agrees to marry a girl. On his cousin Suresh's insistence (who now has become a TV star), Rohit, Suresh and Chhotu decide to come to the village to win back over Sid. Sid lives in a joint family and the bride's family is in the neighbourhood. Slowly, Rohit takes over himself to win hearts of everyone in the family while hiding the actual relationship between him and Sid. Sid's girlfriend slowly realizes the truth and supports them. After a bit of drama, the relationshi...

This is the first LGBT film from Kosovo on my blog. I am not sure if this is the first LGBT film from the country itself but if this film is any benchmark, then I will have to look for more options. This film, by the way, was Kosovo's official entry for Oscars. I will talk about this in details, but the chemistry between the lead actors is something I have not seen in a long time in movies, especially between two male leads. Also what's important to understand is that the film is set in and after the Kosovan war. We meet Bekin and his fiancé Anita in an opening scene where Anita is looking for her missing parents. The dead bodies come from Serbia. This sets the history of the contested nation-state of Kosovo. Bekin and Anita are soon to get married and are very happy and in love. Through a couple of flashback scenes we see how they met, started courting and have reached this point today. Enter Nol, who has just returned from Paris, where he is a successful musician and the...

I am not sure if I should roll my eyes after watching the film, laugh at the absurdity or actually applause the makers for trying something different in the queer genre. Probably part of me wants a little bit of all three and hence the confusion. This film uses a lot of sex and porn to dive deeper into the themes of desire, abandon and sexual repression. Set in 1979 in Paris, we meet Anne who is a gay porn film producer. She has just broken up with her editor girlfriend Louis and pours all her energy into work. We realize that her porn films work because she takes a leaf out of real life situations and turns them into gay porn. One of the make actors from her films is murdered pretty quick and the police calls her for interrogation. She uses that situation and creates a porn film out of it. But soon there are 3 more murders in quick succession and her cast and crew start questioning her on how can she not be affected. Since investigating murder of gays is not a police priority, sh...

This was surprisingly a very interesting film. It was mainstream, it was emotional, touching and a story of obsession and love. Interestingly, the topic if depression has become quite mainstream all over the world, and seeing a queer film handle the topic interwoven with a gay love story makes it even more interesting and something very novel. It is slow, but a film of this subject needs that focus as it was given. The story is about Kevin and Jamie. Kevin is the kind of boy who gets bullied in school all the time. His only close friend is Jamie, but even Jamie does not acknowledge their friendship in front of rest of the classmates. When Kevin tells Jamie that his mother has decided to move to Australia, the two boys finally give in to their feelings and kiss each other. Their passion is broken by local cops after which Jamie decides to play it safe. Years later, Kevin is now in a group home dealing with depression in Australia. Jamie makes a surprise visit. The two old friends r...

I can see this movie being a talking point way back when it came out in 1995. But so much has evolved since then in stories, story-telling and overall cinema that it is hard to sustain interests of today's audience. This film explores the underground, less explored territories of desire in its darker manifestations and hence makes for an uncomfortable watch. Also the events sometimes don't feel linear. The film constantly goes back n forth between present and past and makes it difficult to keep a track. Dennis is big time into S&M. He is on this path between what is real and what we can only hope is surreal. We get to follow his journey that he has written to his friend and former lover Julian and his younger brother Kevin, an object of desire to Dennis. We are told how as a teenager he is drawn to the extremes of porn and sex via a bookstore owner Henry. When he hears that Henry has been the victim of a grisly murder, Dennis fantasizes carrying out increasingly elabor...

I have seen a few transgender stories and in fact have reviewed some here as well. This film was interesting in the sense that it was an interesting blend of drama and comedy. Most trans theme films have a very serious approach to the subject, which is definitely needed to bring attention to the audience; but this film take s a different route and brings in an interesting twist alongwith some laughters along the way. I am not sure if the ethnicity of the protagonist just happened or was there a very specific purpose behind that. Sid, an Indian by origin but born and raised in Canada, is a transitioning woman. She is already dealing with judgements not only from colleagues but also within the family. Her life is turned upside down when a pre-teen boy Ralph shows up claiming to be her biological son with her college ex. Ralph thinks having a transgender parent is pretty cool and is very upbeat about it. But he has not told his mother and stepfather that he had tracked down his biolo...

This is another one of those badly made gay horror films, which I still cannot fathom why it was made. I would be seriously surprised if there wad any audience for such shoddily made films with bad script and even worse acting and direction. Roderick throws a masquerade ball inside a creepy mansion with a dark past. An infamous mass-murder happened there fifty years ago to the night, but that's part of the fun for the posh hotties who show up for some boozy partying. 2 of his friends show up early to prepare for the ball but they get murdered by a man wearing Raven mask. He finds out hat one of his arch nemesis David is also going to attend the ball. Very few guys show up and they start getting murdered one by one in badly executed scenarios and murders. We are later told that during the college days Roderick was a shy but rich kid who was befriended by a farmer's son David, whose aim to get rich. He dumps Roderick as soon as he finds another rich boy. But Roderick gets be...

This recent French film is a very detailed character study of a young gay hustler in the streets of Paris. He is very lonely and vulnerable, yet situations around him have hardened him and he has figured out ways of survival. This is not an easy film to either act in or make. There is always a fine balance here and I think the director does a good job. Leo is a 22 year old male prostitute practically living on streets, doesn't change clothes, picks food from garbage or steals. We also later find that he keeps coughing and probably has some signs of TB. He along with quite a few others look for clients day in and night. One of his closest friends, is an Arab looking hustler just like him who also proclaims he is straight. Leo is very much in love with him but he treats leo as a very good friend and is always available for him. But when an older ex-client shows up, Leo's friend moves back with him and Leo becomes alone again. But Leo is still in love with him. He later meets...

There was a series that played out in China called "Mr X & I". It was a few films shown and I have reviewed them here separately rather than anthology of the series. This series was aired with 9 episodes each of about 10 minutes each, so a substantial amount was spent in watching this. Sadly it was a huge waste of time. Feng Yi Chen and Run Yi are medical students. Feng is the quiet type and Run Yi starts falling for him. They both separately run into each other at a gay party with Run Yi's best friends who happen to be a couple. About 8 of these guys are kidnapped and when they wake up, they find themselves locked up in a huge house. Soon they realize that a killer is on the loose (maybe amongst themselves) and 2 murders happen while more attempts are done. 2 new members come in home after 3 days. Soon it is revealed that an anti-homosexual organization ASAS is out there to kill gays and this is part of this. Apparently Feng Yi Chen is part of that organization ...

The first thing you will notice while watching this film is that ho it is shot very differently. Part cinematic, part theatrical, it is very obvious it has been shot on very nicely designed sets and not real locations and this gives it a very different perspective. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea. A small town boy, 18 year old Jim arrives to London looking for adventures. He has an angel face and perfectly sculpted body. He soon meets four international young male escorts who call themselves  "raconteurs" who take Jim under their wing. According to them, their speciality is in the post-sex intellectual conversation, when older educated rich men crave for intimacy. The talks most often involved literature, arts, paintings and painters. Jim commits to his course of study, reading books about painting and sculpture, until he's ready to start entertaining clients. Jim starts working but soon relaizes that he has a problem. When Jim stares at a great work of art,...

I wanted to like this movie. It has some good reviews online and of course I do like French films. I tried my best but I just could not connect. Neither to the characters, nor to the way of story telling with constant jumps between time lines. It was hard to keep track after a while and when movie watching becomes tedious, I as an audience lose connect with the film right then and there. Marvin as a young boy is an outsider. He is bullied for acting like a fag and even his home atmosphere is not condusive for him to be himself. Alcoholic father and an indifferent mother makes his life not easy. Told us in non-chronological order, we put pieces together of various events in Marvin's life. A chance meeting at school with drsama teacher brings new zest in his life as he proceeds to acting and enjoys it. A regional drama academy comes next, where he enrolls to study after growing up. Marvin meets a visiting author Abel, whose book sounds very similar to his own life and becomes fr...

I can't believe that this is the seventh and final season of this hugely popular crowd-funded web series. Self-admittedly it is not a path breaking series and great by any standards but it has been my guilty pleasure for all the previous seasons and I have secretly enjoyed the  jibber-jabber between the 4 main protagonists. Getting my hands on season 7 was fun but after watching the final episode and finding out this is the last season brings some bittersweet emotions. This season is different in the sense that no major murder happens this time and its not about the murder mystery, instead it focuses on 2 different aspects. Someone out there is sending threatening notes to out foursome that he/she will kill them. Also this is the time for the annual Mr. Bear America and someone wants to sabotage the entire contest. At the same time, Reggie is promoting his latest best-selling book and judging the parade of hairy hunks! Wood too is busy self-promoting, by hosting a pool party a...

After 2 back to back just average films which seemed to have big potential failed to impress me, 2019 had not started on a very good note for me. I am glad I saw this film then. The film seems very authentic, seductive and romantic and something that as an audience you can connect with given the political climate around the world. Although t he film reminded me a lot of one of my fav films "God's Own Country" but this film itself has enough merit to stand on its own. The story is pretty simple. Leevi, a handosme young Finnish guy has been living and studying in Paris and has just returned home to Finland for the summer to help his father renovate their old lake house. Leevi’s relationship with his father, is strained since he is an old-fashioned man. I believe he knows of Leevi's sexuality and doesn't approve of it. The father hires a young man, Tareq, through an agency who can help renovate the house . When Tareq arrives, he doesn't speak any Finnish and...