THEGAYUK

Author: Roger Walker-Dack

  • DVD REVIEW | In Bloom

    ★★★★ | In Bloom

    This is the rather gritty story of a hip very young gay couple in Chicago’s ‘Boystown’ coming to terms with how tough one’s first love can be.

    Kurt is a small time drug dealer who supplies pot to his peers, whilst Paul his boyfriend of two years has a dead-end job in a local grocery store that he can hardly tolerate. When the long summer starts, they are having fun and very much into each other and seem the perfect couple, but some seven months later they have separated and can barely talk to each other.

    Everything had been going well with them until one night one of Kurt’s good-looking customers puts the moves on him, and although he initially resists Kevin’s advances, it does open his mind to the possibility that there is more to life outside of his cosy relationship with Paul. Suddenly that relationship starts to look painfully inadequate to him and in a fit of impulse, he starts a ‘break-up’ that he will only regret when it is far too late.

    If that is not bad enough, the real world outside is even scarier than usual right now as there is a serial killer on the prowl whose victims have all been young gay men from the area. With Kurt making late night deliveries to hip parties all over he is probably more at risk than most.

    This look at contemporary edgy youth culture is the work of filmmaker Chris Michael Birkmeier who based this work of fiction on his own story of when he broke up with his first ever boyfriend. The plot is steeped in innocence and naivete and full of well-meaning intentions. It’s a remarkable debut feature and as such one can overlook the slow-moving story line that almost grinds to a halt at times.

    Credit too for the great wee cast full of untried talent, and very good photography too.

    The comparisons between Mr Birkmeier and the French/Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan who picked up Awards at Cannes for his first movie at the tender age of 19, are natural. Especially when Birkmeier makes no bones about the fact that he is a big Dolan fan. But there is very little similarity in their work and this movie is of a much simpler construction and far more straightforward. The two young filmmaker’s works complement each other, rather than complete.

    No doubt at all that C M Birkmeier (as he bills himself) is one to watch in LGBT cinema, and I for one cannot wait to see how he follows this fascinating first movie.

    Available from Amazon and iTunes

  • DVD REVIEW | Interior Leather Bar

    ★★★ | Interior Leather Bar

    Director William Friedkin claims that he had to take his notorious movie Cruising about the gay S&M subculture to the US Ratings Board on 50 occasions before they would give him a ‘R’ certificate that permitted it to be shown in cinemas. Whether that is totally true or not is part of the myth around the over-rated but little seen psychological thriller released in 1980 to great controversy. The gay community was its fiercest detractors, but the critics slammed it too.

    To appease the censors Friedkin was forced to cut 44 minutes of what one assumes from his inference were graphic sexual acts. We will never be sure how accurate that is and gay filmmaker Travis Mathews and actor James Franco never bothered to check with Friedkin when they set about trying to reimagine what the footage may or may not have contained to make this curious new documentary.

    Heterosexual Franco has a growing reputation for his limitless fixation with gay culture and he used his celebrity to pull this very spurious event together. On a day and a half, he and Travis gathered together a bunch of actors – some gay and some straight – stuck them in a warehouse with a script treatment and told them very vaguely to simply get on with it. Franco himself copped out of recreating the main role played by Al Pacino in the original movie and instead persuaded Val Lauren (who has just starred in Franco’s directorial debut ‘Sal’, about yet another gay figure Sal Mineo). Lauren was either alarmingly nervous about playing gay, even for pay, or just following a script, we never really know. But he was uncomfortable to watch, and like others annoyingly kept repeating that he had only agreed to the project because of James!

    The gay members of the cast had joked that they had only agreed to take part in the hope of seeing Franco naked, but that wasn’t going to happen. He pontificated excessively before the shoot intellectualising about sex, but on the day itself, he part filmed a scene where a couple of guys are going full at it, before totally disappearing. Incidentally, most of the hour long running time is taken up with all the behind the scenes angst than the actual ‘missing footage’.

    This is not the first vanity project by Franco, He made an experimental film from scraps that Gus Van Sant cut from My Private Idaho, and the main question I can only raise about his intentions with all of this, and the making of this film is, WHY?

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon

  • DVD REVIEW | The Way He Looks

    ★★★★★ | The Way He Looks

    The lazy summer is over and Leo and his best friend Giovana are back in High School for the new term when curly headed new boy Gabriel joins the class for the first time.

    Suddenly the cosy closeness of the two old friends is threatened when Giovana discovers that the newcomer will not be her longed-for first romance and that in fact, he will usurp her major role in Leo’s life. Leo has been blind from birth and lives with his overprotective parents in their very comfortable middle-class home in a suburb of Rio, and Giovana has played the part of his ‘seeing eyes’ for years. His mother almost suffocates him by insisting on controlling his every movement and she is reluctant to leave him alone for one single moment.

    Gabriel’s arrival seems to coincide with Leo’s quest to finally break free and see if the school-exchange problem will also accept him so that he can live and study in another country. The news of this sends his mother into a fit, but his more amenable father is at least open to considering the idea which he tells Leo in one of the most touching of scenes in this very gentle coming of age story.

    Leo’s quest for independence is part of his journey about discovering who he really is, and he seems totally surprised when he realises that part of this is his attraction for Gabriel. As the boy’s friendship grows into something much deeper, neither of them can trust their judgments in revealing their feelings to each other, even after a stolen peck on the cheek after a drunken party.

    There is nothing at all extraordinary in the plot lines of this wee movie, but somehow it has the most endearing quality that makes it so immensely enjoyable. There is a remarkable innocence to this group of young people who all seem never to have even been kissed, and even the inclusion of Leo’s taunting by the bullies in his class has no hint of any real hatred. There are some really nice touches of humour and tenderness, none more so than when Gabriel insists that Leo learns how to dance. What does make it all so compelling is the captivating performances of the three young lead actors, particularly Ghilherme Lobo who was so pitch perfect as the blind boy.

    This very cute debut feature from Brazilian writer/director Daniel Ribeiro was based on his award-winning short ‘Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho’ with the same actors and has gone on to, quite rightly, win two major accolades from the Berlinale: the FIPRESCI Prize and The TEDDY for Best LGBT Feature.

    Available to buy on Amazon and iTunes

  • First date questions that men really want to ask

    Those very funny people over at BUZZFEED’s created a video is actually all about straight men, but we know that we also often want to ask most of these very same questions on our first dates.

    That’s if we only had the balls too do so!

  • Want a Stronger Penis? Then drink more Coffee

    Want a Stronger Penis? Then drink more Coffee

    Your daily cup of Joe could keep you up in more ways than one. A 2015 study from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston suggests that caffeine could reduce your likelihood of having erectile dysfunction (ED)

    CREDIT: Feel Photo Art / Big Stock Photos

    Researchers found that guys over the age of 20 who consumed the caffeine equivalent of 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day were less likely to report ED issues than men who steered clear of the stimulant.

    The connection was strongest in overweight guys, says study author David Lopez, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., but he plans to dive further into how the caffeine/ED link can affect different weight groups.

    Co-author Dr Run Wang added,

    “Caffeine has properties similar to ED drugs like Viagra. The stimulant triggers a series of effects that cause the arteries in your penis to relax and your blood flow to increase—both keys to a strong erection”.

  • Watch these straight guys try to explain gay sex toys

    Have you ever been in a sex store and seen an interesting looking toy and were too shy to ask the sales assistant what it was?

    (We have!) Then you will like this video from funny gay vlogger Davey Wavey who asked a bunch of (hot) straight guys to try to explain what they thought of a whole selection of ‘toys’ that we gay men love to play with. The results are hilarious and quite illuminating.

  • FILM REVIEW | Unhung Hero

    ★★★★★ | Unhung Hero

    When Patrick Moote proposed to his girlfriend on camera at a baseball game the video of her brusque rejection went viral on YouTube within days.

    It wasn’t the fact that he had been so unceremoniously dumped in public that upset him, it was the reason she gave for her refusal. It really hit poor humiliated Patrick below the belt when she told him it was just because his penis was too small. It’s the nightmare scenario that every man, straight or gay, lives in fear of. Our genitals are after all, how we measure our manhood.

    Patrick, despite earning his living as a stand up comic in New York, didn’t find his predicament funny in the least but it did empower him to embark on a quest to discover how small is small, and what could possibly be done to make his member more memorable. Full credit for him for going so public on an issue that most men would totally shirk away from, and he started his journey by going back and re-visiting old girlfriends to get their take on his love tool.

    They only confirmed the opinions of what medical professionals he later consulted, diagnosed as a ‘smaller than average’ penis. Patrick bared his soul (not body though) to total strangers to get a pop vox on their take on what stigma this ‘affliction’ would mean to them. And in an awkward conversation, his embarrassed father admitted that it was probably a hereditary condition anyway.

    Now Patrick decided to visit any corner of the world where there may be a solution to his dilemma. His trips to Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Papua New Guinea were both funny and stressful as poor Patrick witnessed all the bizarre treatments that seemed to result in no more inches but a great deal of pain. Our hearts are in our mouths as he tried lifting weights by his testicles and also when he is on the verge of actually injecting some dodgy looking serum into his balls. Ouch!

    The documentary of Patrick’s search is nothing less than a sheer delight: mainly because he has this endearing quality of naiveté and unfiltered honesty publicly exposing himself on a topic most men would never ever dream of even mentioning to their closest friends. It ends up being so much more than the size of his phallus but the importance of Patrick being comfortable with who he really is. It was a brave undertaking and one that was so worth sharing, especially as it ended on such a high note.

  • FILM REVIEW | 71

    ★★★★★ | 71

    Getting left behind by your Army platoon when you go on a dangerous military mission is not exactly a novel idea in the movies, but this new version with rising star Jack O’Connell, this feature debut from TV director Yann Demange is certainly one of the best.

    Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the height of ‘the Troubles’ and just one year before the infamous ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre in 1972, O’Connell plays orphan Gary Hook who had joined the Army as a route to being independent and self-sufficient. He had expected a cushy first assignment and so like the rest of his platoon is shocked to be suddenly deployed instead to be part of the peacekeeping forces in Ulster.

    The first house raid backing up the police in a hostile Catholic area of Belfast that Hook’s unit takes part in, goes dreadfully wrong and the lieutenant in charge orders a hasty retreat when the large crowd of onlookers start getting very violent. In the mayhem to hot-foot it out of there in one piece, Hook and fellow soldier Thommo are left behind. When the two men are cornered by members of the IRA, Thommo is shot dead at point blank but Hook manages to escape into the darkness.

    Totally lost in the warren of backstreets of a hostile alien city the young soldier tries to find a way back to the barracks but meanwhile he is being hunted not just by his Commanding Officer, but also by a covert British Intelligence Unit who are anxious that he doesn’t stumble into any of their operations, and also by two fractions of the IRA who are fighting amongst themselves in how to resolve the situation once they capture him.

    As Hook makes his way around avoiding flying Molotov cocktails seemingly hurled everywhere in the scary streets full of upturned vehicles set on fire, he is aware of being very much alone. He falls into the hands of a young kid who takes him to the HQ of the UDF the Protestant paramilitaries.

    It’s obvious that come to the final showdown when Hook is finally reached by one or all of the parties out to locate him that there will be more mayhem and shootings in this conflict that never shows the slightest indication that it would ever cease.

    Full marks to cinematographer Tat Redcliffe and production designer Chris Oddy for making the streets of Blackburn (in the North of the UK) standing in for Belfast, look so utterly menacing and full of fear. It’s a very impressive story and is directed with such remarkable style that it earned Demarge a British Independent Film Award for his work.

    It is, however, young Jack O’Connell’s dynamic performance as the scared young soldier immersed in a bloody struggle that he neither understood or could even relate to, that makes this movie so very compelling. His fight was for his own life and to simply ensure that he would survive and be there to support his kid brother still trapped in the Orphanage back home. O’Connell’s talents lie in convincing us with his steadfast bravado and his powerful physical presence, yet somehow at the same time never letting us forget he’s still a big kid at heart. This role follows his outstanding performance in the prison drama ‘Starred Up’ and with his starring role in Angelina Jolie’s ‘Unbroken’ about to be released, this young British actor is clearly destined to be one of THE next batch of Hollywood’s leading men.

    This review was first published in Dec 2014

  • FILM REVIEW | The Theory Of Everything

    ★★★★★ | The Theory Of Everything

    The remarkable life story of the world-renowned physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking who was diagnosed with motor-neurone disease at the age of 21 years and defying medical prognosis of an imminent death went on to publish world-changing theories of relativity and quantum mechanics turns out to be one of the most tender and romantic movies of the year.

    This new biopic from James Marsh (Oscar Winning Director of the documentary Man On The Wire) is based on the second biography written by Stephen Hawkins ex-wife Jane and focuses very much on how she enabled him to lead a full and rich life in spite of his crippling illness. Their story really starts when Hawkins, having won a First Honors Degree at Oxford University, chooses to transfer to Cambridge to do his post-graduate doctorate. Here he meets and immediately falls in love with Jane despite the fact that they seem like total opposites: she is studying poetry and is a devout churchgoer. When Hawkins discovers this last point he dryly remarks that he has a problem ‘with the whole celestial-dictator premise’. Somehow their marked differences seem to actually unify them, partly because one of the Hawkins’s strongest traits is his ability to be open to changing his opinions. None so more apparent when later on in life when he contradicted one of his most important theories and did a complete U-turn and actually proved that he got it wrong the first time around.

    When Hawkins is forced to realise that all his clumsy physical missteps that culminate with him hitting his head during a sidewalk fall are because of the fact that he has this debilitating illness, it’s Jane who has the inner strength to push Hawkins into both marriages and also into not giving up. Despite the fact the Doctors have declared that he will be dead in two years, the couple starts a family whilst Hawkins finally starts his Dissertation.

    Hawkins rapid physical deterioration makes him completely dependent on Jane for even the most basic daily bodily functions. The only parts that seem untouched by this particularly pernicious illness are his brain and his wit, both of which sustain and enable him to be the brilliant and very funny quick-witted man that he is. However, with both her husband needing 24/7 help and two children to bring up too, Jane needs some support and relief. She finds this in her local Church after joining the choir led by a handsome newly widowed man. Jonathan, still bereft after his recent loss, is at a loose end so is happy to help Jane out with some of the tougher tasks keeping her family functioning which inevitably draws the two of them closer. So much so that when she later gives birth to another son, there is talk about who the real father is.

    By the time that Jane hires a nurse to help Stephen after he can no longer speak, their marriage which had finally been strained to near breaking point, now slowly moves to a separation and eventually divorce just as the movie reaches its end. There is one final scene of a graceful reconciliation when Hawkins is invited to Buckingham Palace to receive his Order of Merit from the Queen, which seems a fitting finish.

    Marsh doesn’t discount the vast body of Hawkins’s work in the story but he places it a context that makes it easier to understand for those of us that cannot comprehend the many complexities of ‘A Brief History of Time’ and all his subsequent intellectual theories. He clearly shows the vast importance of Hawkins findings on black holes and the boundaries of the universe with the reactions of the academic world and the acclaim and fame that accompanies all of this.

    By focusing on the highly personal story of this remarkable man who could never have any of his achievements without the unselfish love and devotion of the exceptional woman, he gives us one of the most unique and compelling behind-the-scenes biopics ever. What raises it to be such an awe-inspiring movie, however, is the electrifying impassioned performance of young Eddie Redmayne as Hawkins.The defining trait of how brilliant he is in this role is that he has captured the very essence and soul of this great man as his body stops functioning. Without even realising it, you quickly appreciate that he has gone way beyond just capturing Hawkins’s physical decline in this deeply thoughtful career-defining performance that is nothing short of breath-taking. He is so wonderfully brilliant that the images of him lighting up the screen remain with you for days after. He should start practising his acceptance speech for the many Awards that he will now be showered with.

    Felicity Jones gives a quiet and powerful performance as Jane Hawkins, and there is an impressive list of talented supporting actors like Charlie Cox, David Thewlis, Emily Watson and Simon McBurney.

    The script by writer (and novelist) Antony McCarten is peppered with some perfect moments of real humour and wit and it makes this such an uplifting tale even in the darker moments of the story. Evidently, Jane Hawkin’s first biography was written immediately after the divorce was not quite so full of sweetness and light, so it’s probably a good thing they passed on to the happier, and presumably the truer, version of this story.

    First published in Dec, 2014

  • Top 10 Favourite Meryl Streep Movies

    OUR TOP TEN FAVOURITE MERYL STREEP MOVIES.

    (C) Depositiphotos

    (In alphabetical order)

    ANGELS IN AMERICA (2003):

    Technically this film of Tony Kushner’s stunning political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties is a TV mini-series BUT it would remiss not to include this as Ms Streep gave unforgettable performances as three different characters (including a male Rabbi) in a piece that is the defining play of that tragic moment in our history.

    DANCING AT LUGHNASA (1998):

    In this adaption of Brian Friel’s play, set in rural Ireland in 1936 when times were very tough, Ms Streep plays Kate a schoolteacher and the oldest of 5 unmarried sisters and the one in charge of all their lives. She’s as strict with her siblings as she is with her pupils but always puts their happiness before her own.

    DOUBT (2008):

    As Sister Aloysius Beauvier a Catholic school principal who questions a priest’s ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student, Ms Streep is all fire and brimstone with her unshakeable faith in a performance that netted her, and all three other actors in the film, Oscar Nominations.

    KRAMER VS. KRAMER: (1979)

    As the wife and mother who walked out on both her husband and child, Ms Streep is off the screen for a great deal of the movies, yet in this her breakthrough performance she wowed us all and won her very first Oscar.

    POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990):

    in this movie based on Carrie Fisher’s life, a young Ms Streep brilliantly plays a substance addicted Hollywood actress who can only get a job if she agrees to live with her mother. Naturally, the mother is worse than any recreational drug and the two have a tempestuous relationship that reflects the real drama queens that they are. Hard to believe now, but Shirley MacLaine played the mother.

    SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982):

    It’s hard to forget Ms Streep’s compelling performance as the Polish Holocaust survivor who had lost both her children and is now residing in Brooklyn and trying to find a reason to want to live. It rightfully gained her a second Oscar.

    THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995):

    Ms Streep plays an Italian War Bride who in the 1960’s finds herself supplanted in an isolated farm house in Iowa and who, totally put of character, has a 4-day affair with a photographer just passing through. She gives a tender and passionate performance in this very touching romantic story.

    THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006):

    As the monstrous fashion supremo a la Anna Wintour, Ms Streep shines as the acerbic bitter genius who will stop at nothing to get things done her way. It is one of her most joyous performances ever.

    THE HOURS (2002):

    In Stephen Daldry’s deeply moving film of Michael Cunningham’s book, Ms Streep plays Clarissa a partnered lesbian who is caring for Richard, her best friend and ex-lover, who is dying from the ravages of AIDS. After watching her performance in this great ensemble movie, there is not a single dry eye in the house.

    THE IRON LADY (2011):

    Even though the critics were split over this controversial biopic, they did all at least agree that in portraying Margaret Thatcher. Ms Streep had nailed the character of the late British PM so spot on. It was a riveting performance that snared her yet another Oscar.

  • FILM REVIEW | My Straight Son

    ★★★★ | My Straight Son

    Diego a successful fashion photographer in Caracas has commitment phobia but the very night he is about to tell Fabrizio his Doctor boyfriend that he will move in with him after all, is the same night that Fabrizio is the victim of a vicious fatal gay bashing. It is also the same night that Armando, his estranged teenage son, turns up from Spain to stay with him for a few months whilst his mother goes to London to study for a Masters degree.

    This very melodramatic first 24 hours sets the tone for a hectic story packed full of characters that deliberately sets out to tug at your heartstrings for the next two hours. Father and son are like strangers and must learn how to adapt to each other. Armando to the unknown homosexual world of a father grieving for his partner that he had never met, and Diego to the closed attitude of his adolescent son.

    Added to the mix are both Diego’s own parents and Fabrizio’s too who are completely homophobic and are obsessed with watching Venezuela’s most popular TV Chat Show with its buxom bigoted host who loves to stir up fear of the unknown with her inflammatory remarks. Plus Diego’s female assistant/friend that keeps going back to her abusive boyfriend who beats her up most days, and the penniless transsexual choreographer who has to subsidise her modern dance troupe by still doing her lip-syncing drag act at a gay club at night to pay the rent. Between them all director/writer Miguel Ferrari insures that he covers the whole gamut of social issues from gay parenting and partners rights to gender identity.

    Despite its (too) many layers and all its plot complications there is something very compelling about the unraveling of the relationship between the father and son that ensures our investment in watching to the end to see how its all going to turn out. Maybe it’s the sonorous tones of the orchestra’s lush string section that pervades the dramatic soundtrack, or just seeing a cute nervous Armando mastering the art of the Tango so that he can win the heart of his new Internet girlfriend?

    It’s sweet and funny and immensely moving with some very fine performances from this handsome and talented cast, plus there is more than a hint of Almodovar about the whole thing. The movie has been wowing audiences already and in Spain it won the Best Foreign Picture Goya (their Oscars) when it still had the original and much better title of ‘Azul y No Tan Rosa’ which literally translates into ‘Blue, and Not So Pink’, and it should do just as well as here even with its newer clumsier title.

    Highly recommended.