Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Every year we see at least a couple, of not more, holiday gay films; so imagine my surprise when I was wondering how come I did not see anything for 2025. I started doing research and it turns out that no TV channel came up with an exclusive gay theme holiday movie. The only film which had a prominent gay character and storyline was this one, which in its usual style, Hallmark channel makes sure that it is for family viewing (concept of a happy straight family, I guess). I will give broad story but for the scope of my blow, will focus on the gay couple only). We are introduced to Keller family who are scheduled to leave for a Danube river cruise over Christmas. We are quickly introduced to their 3 children. Oldest son Cal isa football coach is disappointed that the woman he’s been crushing on is moving across the country. He was too late in confessing his feelings. Second son Dylan just proposed to his long term doctor boyfriend William but he neither accepted nor rejected, leaving him...

So I know I should be liking this series since it has been getting rave reviews everywhere, A historical with Chinese style fights, revenge, love, this one had everything going for it, but I just could not get into it. Honestly in the very first episode itself, there are so many characters introduced, kingdoms, servants, kings, prince etc that by the end of it I was totally confused. I watched 6 more episodes to see if I can making a sense of it all but the visual opulence somehow kept over powering the emotional core of story for me. I might be an exception here because every single person online is raving about it all. Anyway, the series is 12 episodes each of about 35-40 minutes. The story is about a long war between two kingdoms, the South and the North, and how it destroys two men who love each other. Xiao Shu He is the Sixth Prince of the South. He is kind, smart, and gentle, and he never wanted power. He dreams of a free life where he can travel, make music, and create art. Duan...

At the onset this series feels like a simple gay love story (which it is), but at its core, the show is more about the courage it takes to be honest about who you are, how to you continuously evolve love and how you bring families on this journey, reconcile with your and their beliefs. You wont get to see much intimate moments because this show focuses on more companionship. 12 episodes of about 25 minutes each, the show does have some good but also some very basic and dull moments, but I have to say. That the heart of the show is in the right place. The drama is about two childhood friends who reunite on a rainy day. Kanade and Mashiro were always friends and Kanade has string feelings for Mashiro but he could never confess because he was afraid. Unable to accept his own sexuality, after graduation, he left his hometown and stopped keeping in touch with Mashiro. On a rainy day When they have a chance meeting again, Mashiro recognizes him right away and lights up with excitement and th...

One more vertical drama and all I can say is that this was one of the silliest, bad and a story that just randomly ended. I dont even know what was the point of making it. It almost felt like a school project with caricatures, no proper storyline, no development and random snippets just joint together. A young thief Bunny is runny away from mafia when he meets Marcus. Turns out Bunny owes 100k to the mafia, which Marcus agrees to pay but in return he wants Bunny to become his slave. In the next scene we see Sebastian, who is torturing Bunny into finding out some of Marcus' secrets. Seb is supposedly Bunny's cousin. At the same time Sebastian is trying to get into some kind of business deal with Marcus. During this time, Marcus continues to use Bunny as his pet but is also starting to suddenly fall for him, even though Bunny makes it clear that he is not into men. The story continues with random twists and as expected towards the end Sebastian kidnaps Bunny, threatens his life a...

A comedy about a gay British-Pakistani man navigating commitment issues in a world that frequently lapses into the cartoonish colors of his imagination is back with the second season. Focusing yet again on its lead Mawaan Rizwan, as the fun-loving commitment-phobe Jamma, he channels the archetypal man-child vlogger from his real life personality. Puppyish and relatable, he wears his insecurities on his sleeve, and his attempts to conform to the expectations of adulthood. Total slapstick! Continuing from season 1, having been fed from his job and breaking up with therapist boyfriend Guy, Jamma is living with friend Winnie and working as a clown in a care home, who is also best friends with his brother Isaac, a budding artist. Jamma is more interested in sleeping around than patching things up with lovelorn Guy. But after their paths cross again, he becomes determined to win him back. In the second episode, which focuses on Guy's new home and Jamma needing to care of it, it is done a...

If you are a queer film lover, you have been likely hearing about this film for a while now, and I was also anxiously waiting to watch it. Having read some glorious reviews about this film, having seen the trailer, about this BDSM "Dom-com" gay romance, I was naturally quite excited abut it. However, I have to admit that overall I was a bit underwhelmed. I know critics all over are going ga ga over the film and to be fair, technically the film is brilliant. But for me, if I have no intention of rewatching this film ever, then was it really that good? More on that later. The one thing you have to keep in mind while watching this film is that you have to resist the urge to categorize desire as either healthy or harmful. The film is not interested in preaching, diagnosing, or condemning. Instead, it simply watches two people find something they didn’t know how to ask for, and asks us to do the same. Young man Colin works as a traffic enforcement officer. He is fragile, quiet, or...

Now that I know who Mawaan Rizwan is and how popular he is, I found out about this documentary that he did years back and something that I have been somehow delaying watching. The man is popular, openly gay man of Pakistan origin in London and he starts this documentary telling us about coming out as gay to his family last year: it was “the worst news ever for Pakistani parents”. Now he wants o go on a journey to Pakistan to seek an answer to the question: What would his life be like if he’d stayed in Pakistan as a kid? He decides to take on a journey  exploring how LGBT+ folk are perceived and the danger they face for being open about who they are in Pakistan. Starting in Karachi, the central subject he picked was the transgender world of Kami, and her partner Sid: they were the nightclub party-givers in Karachi for the LGBTQ community, though their home world looked far from affluent. Their dream was to be married in South Africa by an Imam who apparently endorses homosexual marr...

This is an anthology of 8 short films, each of approximately 15 minutes. Most of them are too short to matter, but always end in a kiss (hence the title, I suppose), and you're usually left watching characters kiss before you even know who they are. Only a couple of the stories have potential and some genuine chemistry. Even though they are all so short already, you still feel there is a lot of fluff for no reason at all. 1. Raise Me? Since Seokmin is never home, he goes on an app and hires a freelancer named Jaeho for one specific job to look after 'Gamdong', his seven-year-old plant. Jaeho takes the gig even though he knows absolutely nothing about gardening. Before long, Seokmin starts getting annoyed because Jaeho won't stop blowing up his phone with endless questions and random updates about the plant's progress. The two leads don't know much about each other and they end up kissing which feels so not organic. 2. Folding? You! Woonhee is a university studen...

Unlike the other time travel shows, this series is different because it takes our protagonist back in time to fix things/events that could change his future after he dies. Its a BL so romance and drama are abundant and the main storyline is mostly towards the beginning and end, while mid is filled with growth of love and some problems arising here and there to keep the drama going. The show is 10 episodes, each almost an hour long, give or take.  Successful superstar Armin has just won major award is having a party, He finds out his longtime partner is cheating on him, gets into a fight with the rival, and dies during to the scuffle. But he is actually poisoned. Surprisingly Armin wakes up in the past, when he was still a single struggling nobody in his early 20s. In this confusion, he is about to be run over, when he is suddenly saved by mysterious handsome Tada, a secret fan of his form previous life, whom Armin never met and knew him only as TD. Armin is now suspicious of everyo...

Yet another enemies to lover story in the BL world, this series has some charm to it, thanks to its two main leads. The setting of a resort and a very grounded life-like romance between the two makes it a relatable yet swoon-worthy watch with realism and chemistry. The fact that it's only 6 episodes adds to the charm and the story doesn't stray into unnecessary sub plots. Each episode is about 35 minutes and the principal photography is very good to look at. The story is straight forward. In the setting of a resort that plans events for its clients, we see that the General Manager has decided to resign to focus on his health and in next three months, he needs to pick a new GM. Drew, who has been working with him for a while seems natural choice , but a new employee Shawn mixes things up. Shawn is nice and friendly but Drew sees him as a competition and trie to avoid him. Also given Drew has a family to support, this promotions is really critical for me. One day they both realiz...

There are plenty of films that I have already seen which talk about a few church priests taking advantage of young boys and the aftermath of that many years later. This subject has been presented in movies format, short films and commentaries. But sadly there are so many cases all around this subject, that I keep finding out about more and more new stuff. This is one such film that chooses to describe itself as a fiction based on known facts. It shows how grown men who had been abused by Father Preynat as young boys courageously decided to take action by bringing charges. The scale of the abuse is staggering, and there’s an explanation; the Church knew of the abuse and rather than stop it, they covered it up, allowing it to continue. The film is almost episodic where it focuses on three of its central characters, who are introduced to us through their distinctive narratives. The first is Alexandre, a well-to-do media advisor with five kids, a wife, and a beautiful home. He’s only recen...

This 6 episode, 50 minute each BL series has absolutely nothing new to offer. The plot is extremely basic, there is literally no drama element at all and each single episode just drags on forever. I mean there was no pint that the makers were trying to make, so my question is why even make a series? It felt like this show doesn't care about the plot, but about the cuteness of their relationship. Meen lives by himself and usually has a very dull life. One day he finds a stray dog in his backyard and he decides to adopt hi,. Meen’s peaceful life gets disrupted when his mother suddenly sends Tul, the son of her friend, to live with him in Chiang Mai. Being very protective of his dog, Meen doesn’t want anyone else living in the house, so he does everything he can to drive this new housemate away. But soon he realizes that Tul as much loves and cares for his dog as Meen does. His clingy, puppy-like charm starts to melt Meen’s heart, a heart that’s never beat faster for anyone before. Th...

At its core, Ladybug is an unconventional ghost story, hiding sexual trauma and murderous tendencies just beneath the surface. I am not a fan of horror films, but this was thankfully not scary horror, more like paranormal thriller/romance genre-blend. It is also quite a slow burner, so it warrants a lot of patience to watch it. The ending may be open and unclear with audiences having to do their own interpretations. The story is relatively straight forward. Grayson isa new and upcoming artist who has recently broken up with his boyfriend after he cheated on him. Tasked with creating new pieces to sell by his agent Wendy, he decides to come to a country cabin far away from the city. In the cabin he feels like he is being watched and one night he finds a lady bug on himself so he sets it free. Noticing that cabin requires some repairs, he calls in for. Handyman and next day Sawyer shows up. He is a good looking lad and they both sort of flirt with one another while Sawyer fixes up stuff....

This series was an actually quite disappointing. I fee like it had potential but the arguments, the enemies to friends to lover trope, the revenge plot; it all seemed nice but executed timidly. Worst of all, at no point was I able to connect to either of the two leads, who also did not share any chemistry at all. The saving grace is like most Japanese shows it was only 8 episodes of 25 minutes each. I think my biggest issue with the series was that it was just boring. In high school Hiro is this loner kid, who was always into flowers and plants. HIs timid nature made him an easy target for being bullied which left him with bad memories of high school. All grown up now, he has transformed himself into a stylish, professional hairstylist. Then we have Natsuo. He was in same high school, who never bullied Hiro, but his constant chatter and clumsy behavior irritated Hiro, who wanted to be left alone. One day he invites Hiro at rooftop to confess his love but suddenly other classmates arriv...

This Peruvian film is the remake of Mexican film "Hazlo Como Hombre" which I have already reviewed earlier here. I guess one advantage of watching so much content os that you tend to forget a lot of what you have seen, so in that sense, at least I didn't feel like I was seeing something I have already seen. Also given that the actors here were new in a new location helped, but the humor of the original is definitely intact here. Peru doesn't come up with a lot of LGBTQ+ context, so this is another welcome change. Raul, Eduardo and Santiago have been friends since childhood and have had a happy and “masculine” life. Raul is expecting a bay with his wife and Santi is dating Raul's sister, who complains to Raul's wife that they are not having enough sex. In a surprise, one day Santi confesses to his two friends that he is gay and decides to separate from his girlfriend. The sister tries her best to win Santi back, leading to a few hilarious scenes, but to no impa...