Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Finding one's identity and the search for love can be a difficult undertaking. For many in the queer community, the art of drag is used to gain a deeper understanding of oneself. Putting makeup on, dressing in glamorous outfits, and sporting luscious wigs can unlock an inner confidence. This French Canadian film Solo is not about a drag queen's journey but it explores the passionate highs and destructive lows of a doomed relationship, unravelling a fraught love affair before our eyes. Simon is one of Quebec’s premiere drag queens. His persona, is known for her fierce dance numbers and awe-inspiring outfits that are mostly prepared by his sister who he is extremely close with. His family including his father is also very supportive of his artistic endeavors.  He is also a successful makeup artist, so it appears that he has it all. But like most of us, he is also looking for love. Enter Oliver, a new performer in the same club and the duo very quickly fall head over heels in love...

Once again, I watched a film of Marco Berger not knowing that it was directed by him. And the funny thing is, while I watched this film, all I could think of was that the director of the film is so inspired by Marco, because this is so much into his zone. It's only when the film ended and it said 'Film by Marco Berger', I smiled and laughed so hard. So clearly I have figured out what this guy likes to direct. Movies with extreme sexual tensions and guess what, he is sooo good at these. Pedro, openly gay, and Maxi, happily straight and single, begin a close friendship and pretend to be a couple during a summer by the sea. Fill this with extreme dick and sex conversations with parallels of being an astronaut and in space, the film leaves you feeling extremely horny by the end of it. Pedro returns to Buenos Aires to spend a holiday with his cousin and a group of his friends, including Maxi who he hasn’t seen since his school days. As they catch up there is a flirty energy betw...

As a gay twenty-something living in the modern world, navigating the realm of dating and love can be messy, but fun. Meet Derek, the definition of "messy." Is he fun? Jury's still out on that one. The season 2 continues to follow the turbulent, funny, and undeniably messy dating life of Derek as he encounters a host of quirky, lovable, and sometimes questionable characters in his quest for love and self-discovery. I reviewed the season 1 of this show which had just 3 episodes of barely 10 minute each. But three years later, this time we have 4 episodes of 20 minutes.  Felix: Derek meets a cute guy at a party and hopes to get lucky. Little does he know, this Halloween is about to turn into an actual nightmare. Secrets unfold as finds out that Felix's dad is the same older guy who Derek has been in love with from the last season. It leads to hilarious but profound conversations. Noah: Wanting to blow off steam after Thanksgiving dinner with his family, Derek meets up wi...

Oh man! This film is not an easy watch. The topic of paedophilia is a tough sell, especially stories centered around the paedophile’s POV, no matter how sensitively they are handled. As a topic, we are just not ready to see or hear things. Especially when you touch upon a topic of a young 15 year old who is himself discovering that he may be paedophile. This film wont leave you for a while.  We meet 15-year-old boy called Gabo, who seems like a normal teenager spending his days at school, seeing friends and playing video games. But he’s not, as we soon find out that he is developing uncontrollable tendencies. He befriends a forty-something man, Dave online, with whom he explores a friendship and we soon figure out what's going on. Dave like young teen boys and he has a crush on Gabo. Meanwhile, to our shock, Gabo is in love with his best friend’s 8-year-old brother Sam and knows that something is wrong about this. Rather than seeking counseling, Dave becomes his support, but Dave...

When a series brings a smile on your face every time u see a protagonist smile or when you see a couple's romance blossoming with heartfelt exchanges, you know that something has been done right. This 13 episode Taiwanese series of 25 minutes each is one such show. The show balances love with practicality and some funny moments that keeps you wanting to watch the next episode almost immediately. Zi Xiang is from a wealthy family an dis in Taiwan from US to complete a real estate deal. He is there with his assistant Jonathan, but Zi Xiang doesnt want it. He is not interested in family business but it seems he has no choice. But to things in Taiwan are different. This deal comes with risks and Zi Xiang is attacked a couple of times because of high they both have to now live in a safe house. Jonathan is irritated by his employer's behaviour and refuses to help with non-business matters. We also meet Shao Peng, a deaf and mute person who wants to be a caretaker but no one gives him...

I have quite mixed feelings about this one. Set in a ranch somewhere in the American southwest where a gaggle of LGBTQ+ folks ride and train horses, ride bulls and put on drag shows, the film has no significant story to say, but is about the lead who eventually becomes comfortable in his skin and proud of who he is and rises to a sexual awakening that he was not aware of. 21 year old carries responsibilities far beyond his years. His mother spends her nights drinking and bringing men home, leaving the care of Cassidy, his much younger brother, to Dylan. Dylan works as a day laborer, cooks meals for his brother and has conversations with him about things. He is tender and patient with his brother. He yearns for freedom but is too young to figure out how. On a 2 week gig, he goes to a ranch called House of Splendor. The ranch is filled with queer folks, gay, lesbian, trans. People work there but are also extremely happy. Dylan gets an instant-crush on one of the horse-riding trans woman ...

A tender yet flawed coming of age story by a first time director, this film feels more like an ode to the city of Miami than anything else. A lot of young film makers these days are trying to capture the uncertainty, restlessness and disorientation of today's youth using various subject. This film encapsulates the grounded, down-to-earth reality of making amends with the city that built you up, broke you down, and made you who you are, using a young 23 Latin protagonist who just broken up with his ex-boyfriend. It exposes the inherent need to cling to someone to feel loved and supported when you haven’t even learned how to do that yourself. Alex, a young man, moves back to Miami with his family after breaking up with his ex boyfriend in New York. Though it's early, he is a bit aimless and can't find a job or purpose in Miami. He feels lonely and c complains about traffic, almost hitting rock bottom and depression. He finds his father's camcorder from his childhood and s...

This Thai series of 8 episodes of 50 minutes, may have a simple straight forward love story, but it feel simple and natural and nice without any melodrama. In one of my favorite scene the characters say to each other towards the end "Only if we had talked to each other all these years ago", and thats precisely what I keep saying in my reviews that communication is always the key.  We meet Dr Jirawat (Ji) taking a break and going to his hometown in Chiang Mai for his school reunion. Unexpectedly he meets the latest pop icon and teen heart throb Achi. Turns out they were school mates form 10 years ago and best friends and but for some reason Ji is harboring some resentment towards him, despite secretly being happy. Achi doesn't give up and continues to pursue Ji on multiple occasions hoping for them to talk about the past and rekindle their friendship. Ji is clearly happy about this and has secret feelings for Achi but what's stopping him? Through flashback scenes in in...

I somehow missed the fact that that season 2 of this rockumentary style show came back in 2021 and I only just now go try hands on it. I remember liking the short 10 minute skits about the doctors dealing with STIs in a Melbourne sexual health clinic, educating the general public at the same time. It's really hard to make a subject like this funny, entertaining yet educational. Season 2 continues from where it was left off with 6 episodes of about 25 - 30 minutes each, but this time rather than focussing specifically on the STIs itself, the show focuses on the characters, their growth, their insecurities while still keeping tabs on their patients's sexual health and awareness. In summary, Sexual health doctors Langdon Marsh and Steph Huddleston must do whatever they can to prove their worth and save their clinic – all during a sudden outbreak of sexually transmitted infections in Melbourne. A hilarious and heartfelt comedy series, ‘Metro Sexual’ is Australia’s first sitcom led ...

Love in the Big City is a Korean BL series about a gay writer and his dating experiences. Over the course of 8 episodes, each lasting about 50 minutes, our lead character, a single young man is looking for romance. He meets guys in bars, clubs, hobby groups, and hookup apps, each from a different walk of life. Some relationships end as short flings, while others develop into emotional journeys. Through the highs and lows of his love life, the protagonist discovers valuable lessons about himself. Every 2 episodes focus on one of his relationship, so we see 4 distinct guys/love stories that our man deals with. We meet Go Young, a young carefree guy who loves clubbing with his friends. Over the course of time, he becomes close friends with a schoolmate, a girl named Mi Ae, who has a reputation for sleeping around with guys. Since the two get along so well, they find lot of common things, they decide to live together. Young moves out of home and becomes roommates with Mi Ae. Young meets a ...

This is a short Thai mini-series of just 2 episodes of about 65 minutes each. With a paper thin plot (worthy of probably just a short story), I am not sure why this was stretched into a 2 plus hour version. I mean it came out in 2024. The cheesy, cliché lines the actors say, look out of place. And the climax was a long winded denial of one to then make a 180° turn to have a happy end. Athit (or Manu) is a resort owner, who has been hurt in love and stays by himself closed to the world. He is the owner of a resort which he is undergoing renovation for. Due to a booking mistake, a visitor Pe ends up coming to the resort and insists that he will stay there since he has paid in full. In contrast Athit's personality, Pe is handsome, fun of life, outgoing and gregarious. The two guys slowly start to warm up to each other. Pe is a budding novel writer and has escaped to this rather beautiful paradise for inspiration. Meanwhile, his fantasy and adept writing creates a rather interesting lo...

Set on the beaches and streets of Provincetown, this film is a poignant and heartwarming story of a young undocumented gay Brazilian named Lourenço who’s counting down his last days in town before having to leave to face an uncertain future. The film has this melancholic feel to it about a person's search for love, loss in love and a very uncertain future. Lourenço is from Brazil in Provincetown on a tourist visa who came to US with his then lover Joe who has since disappeared and fallen out of love. Lourenço still pines for him and continues to do house cleaning jobs to keep afloat. His landlord/neighbor is an older gay single guy, who genuinely cares for him and looks out for him. As he waits for Joe, Lourenço eventually meets Maurice, an attractive, soft-spoken Black nurse from Queens on his way to a residency in Angola, who is in Provincetown for a few days. They’re drawn together, spending time on beach and become briefly entangled; it’s a powerful physical attraction that mig...

In this aptly titled film 'Sex', the story unfolds against the backdrop of modern urban Norway.  Through clever wordplay, the film challenges conventional notions of masculinity and societal norms, regardless of whether the characters identify as heterosexual or homosexual. To be honest, this film would have been better suited as a theatre play. Th film is extremely heavy on dialogues and conversation and after a while, I was wondering if "can we just move on please!". More on that later. Two chimney sweeps, both in monogamous, heterosexual marriages, find themselves in situations that challenge their perspectives on sexuality and gender norms. One of them has been having a series of dreams in which he is in a passionate relationship with David Bowie who makes him feel like a woman, while the other recently had a sexual encounter with a male client, an unexpected but surprisingly wonderful experience, which gets tarnished as soon as he tells his wife about it. Neither...

Amigos De Esperma (Argentina) [Sperm Friends] A lesbian couple proposes to a friend gay couple to have a baby between the four through a fertility treatment. The thing gets complicated when they begin to realize the ridiculous problems that the situation entails and are in the uncomfortable situation of choosing which of the two men will be the sperm donor. This was a light hearted comedy and watchable. 14 Days (Philippines) Two weeks before graduating, PNP trainee Elijah is assigned to watch over Arvin, a law student and part-time tour guide who was recently exposed to a positive case of COVID-19. The story of a companionship that blooms in the middle of isolation and fear of death and disease, of self-discovery, of a different kind of love. A blossoming love in the specter of doubt, sickness and death. Decent. Asterico (Il)legale (Italy) In a world where identity is a journey of self-discovery and societal acceptance, individuals fight for freedom against cultural and legal obstacles...

To be honest, I had absolutely no expectations from the film since I did not know much about it. Sadly, given the Asian and specifically Thai BL series, I try and keep a check on my expectations. Thankfully this film was a pleasant surprise. It touches upon a topic that not many films deal with. What are "rights"? Are they something that all people are entitled to, regardless of age, origin, culture and any other circumstance, or do we earn it? Does the law have the power to dictate them or can we simply assume that we are entitled to enjoy the rights due to circumstances or tradition? Especially when it comes to gay couples, it has a whole different meaning in countries where the law doesn't recognize it. This film tries and shows a story form one such perspective. Thongkam and Sek are a gay couple who invested their life savings into starting a durian orchard. Thongkam even sold his house to help fund the business. They also get married even though law doesn't recog...