THEGAYUK

Category: Film

  • 10 LGBT films you definitely need to stream on Amazon

    Looking for something to watch today? Amazon Prime has the biggest selection of LGBT films and TV programmes of all the streaming services.

    Here are our 10 favourites from Amazon Prime. To see all LGBT films available on Amazon click here.

    Read our top choices for Netflix.

    A Single Man

    Drama centres on the day in the life of a gay college professor who is coming to terms with the death of his long-term lover. Highly rated on IMDB and Netflix, this film stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

     

    Carol

    In the film Carol, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett play two women who fall in love at a time when it was not accepted and actually frowned upon. Blanchett is magnificent as Carol, who risks losing her daughter yet has strong feelings for a much younger woman. Mara is even more superb as Therese, her innocence and naivete in full display. Both actresses are excellent, yet it’s Mara who ups Blanchette in the acting arena. The movie basically revolves around Therese and her coming of age not just with her career but with her sexuality as well. REVIEW: Tim Baros

    Dallas Buyers Club

    The very scary fact thing about watching Dallas Buyers Club is always knowing that this is sadly a very true story. These clubs like Woodroof’s (there were others in other cities) which provided drugs to those who contracted HIV, played an important role alongside the wonderful ACT-UP movement to continually put the FDA on notice, and without their unceasing pressure, demands and activism so many of the drugs that would eventually help with people with AIDS would never have been made available in time. REVIEW: Roger Walker-Dack

    Gays In Prison

    Gays in Prison is a documentary featuring Latrice Royale, the popular star of RuPaul’s Drag Race, as she reveals her own experiences in jail and explores the stories of other former and current LGBTQ prisoners, who face special challenges, violence and discrimination in the criminal justice system. The documentary is a joint production of Rogue Culture and Logo TV.

    The Imitation Game

    Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, The Imitation Game portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. The script is actually very funny as well as being poignant and thrilling. This is a must see film of this autumn/winter. REVIEW: Chris Bridges

    I’m A Porn Star

    Filmmaker Charlie David‘s light-hearted rambling review of the burgeoning gay pornography takes us through the history of porn from the 1930s. The documentary focuses on four of the most successful performers today. All of David’s subjects are very affable men and happy enough to candidly share their views on controversial topics such as barebacking, HIV, social stigma, fetishes and escorting. The whole question of gay-for-pay was also discussed by them and not always in a positive manner. REVIEW: Roger Walker-Dack 

    Milk

    Powerful, heartfelt and a strong testament to a force with that was Harvey Milk, the first openly-gay political powerhouse that ran for major in San Francisco in the late 70s. It is easy for us of a certain age, to forget or not to acknowledge those who went before in the equal rights cause and I say films like this need to be produced more and more, so that we never forget, how and why we are able to live in the western world freer that we’ve ever been able to. REVIEW: Jake Hook

    Please Like Me (seasons 1-4)

    You need to discover this gem of an Australian comedy, created by out actor, writer and comedian Josh Thomas. Follow Josh as he comes out as gay finds his first (second and third) boyfriend and discovers the joy of cooking, dog handling and straight-roommate disciplining. One of the best shows to come out of Australia in years. Fresh and full of heart. REVIEW: Jake Hook

    Rock Hudson’s Home Movies

    From his days as an obscure contract player to the revelations about his “gay life style,” the film provides an innovative and exciting look at the life of a legend: Rock Hudson.

    Transparent (seasons 1-3)

    When the Pfefferman family patriarch makes a dramatic admission, the entire family’s secrets start to spill out, and each of them spin in a different direction as they begin to figure out who they are going to become. Brilliantly thoughtful and wonderfully acted from all quarters.

  • DVD REVIEW | The Pass

    DVD REVIEW | The Pass

    ✭✭✭✭ | The Pass

    Two footballer players end up scoring with each other in Ben A. Williams feature film debut The Pass which is now out on DVD.

    The Pass take place in a ten-year time span which tracks the relationship between two Premiership football players. There’s always been some kind of chemistry and attraction between James (an electric and very good Russell Tovey) and Ade (Arinzé Kene – Hollyoaks – also very good). We meet both of them while they’re sharing a hotel room in 2006 in Bulgaria right before one of their first big matches. They’re both very young, and they’re also both very fit, masculine and extremely sexy, and they spend the first third of the movie in their tight white underwear. James and Ade are talking lads stuff, having a laugh about other players, and watching a video that was taken of another player having sex. The sex talk continues, and the banter goes something like ‘getting as hard as your sister sitting on my face.’ They’re playing around with each other; it’s hot, it’s erotic, it gets brutal and homophobic, plus, we find out later, it leads to more than just talk.

    The Pass takes us beyond the hotel room to tell us the story of the relationship between these two men, but especially about the relationship James has with himself. He’s all man, a star footballer, with all the trappings of stardom; money, women, celebrity, and eventually a wife with two kids. But he’s also battling with his sexuality, and even though he buys whatever, and whomever, he wants when he wants it, the thing he wants most is out of his reach. And when he’s questioned about his sexuality by a woman who has been paid to videotape having sex with him, he wants to go through with it, just to prove to the world (and obviously to himself) that he’s not gay. He’s a man who is not able to accept who he is and who he really wants to be with.

    The Pass is 88 minutes of purely charged up adrenaline. It’s a movie that’s full of dialogue, dialogue that goes from playful banter to sexually-charged hi-jinks, up to and including the final third scene of the movie, which involves a hotel bellboy that’s a bit over the top. But it’s not to take away from a movie that brings up a real issue – that there is not one out gay football player in the game now. Let’s hope this film opens up the dialogue that it’s fine for a player to come out of the closet. Originally produced for the Royal Court Theatre in 2014, The Pass makes an excellent transition to the big screen. Kene brings a real toughness kindled with a bit of softness to his role, but it’s Tovey who owns the movie. He’s never been better; his James is battling with his sexuality while at the same time trying to uphold his image. Tovey is electrifying and is at the top of his game (he will soon be seen at The National next month in the play Angels in America). This is one pass that you will want to catch.

    The Pass is available to stream and buy from Amazon and iTunes

  • Film REVIEW | I Am Michael

    ✭✭✭✭ | I Am Michael

    I Am Michael Review
    CREDIT:

    James Franco is very convincing as a man who renounces his homosexuality to lead a religious straight life in the film I Am Michael.

    Franco is one of Hollywood’s busiest actors. One look at his IMDB page shows an incredible 21 upcoming projects with a mix of indie and blockbuster films. He also likes to mix up his repertoire (and keep his fans guessing) by playing gay characters. He was a gay porn producer in King Cobra, and he directed and produced the 2013 controversial film Interior. Leather Bar. And now in I Am Michael, Franco has his gayest role yet.

    It’s based on the true story of Michael Glatze, who claimed he was no longer gay and became a straight pastor. But in 1999, Michael was in a gay relationship with boyfriend Bennett (Zachary Quinto) and was the editor of the successful real-life XY Magazine, while at the same time living in San Francisco – it was the ultimate gay life and gay lifestyle. But Bennett’s father has a job for him in Halifax, Canada, so they relocate there – it’s a city with not much to do, but they end up hooking up with the young good looking Tyler (Charlie Carver). But after a few panic attacks, and memories of his late father and mother, Michael starts to question his homosexuality – he starts to re-evaluate his life, loves, and takes up to reading the bible for answers, until one day he leaves it all behind for a new life.

    Shot in just 20 days in New York, on a budget of $2.5 million, I Am Michael didn’t get the proper cinema release that it deserved. It’s done the film festival circuit and it’s only now being released, on video on demand. Writer and Director Justin Kelly keeps the movie flowing, and it never once loses the faith of its subject matter. Franco superbly carries this film (though his hairstyle seems to change in every scene) and the rest of the cast excellently support him. It’s a highly recommended watch not just for it being a gay film – it’s Franco’s performance that is more than worth the watch.

    I Am Michael is out now.

     

  • 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.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story Of Aaron Swartz

    ★★★★★ | The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story Of Aaron Swartz

    This is the story of a charming and selfless information prodigy that strived to use his talent to make this a freer and better world for which he ended up paying for with his life.

    Aaron Swartz was born in Chicago, the middle son, of successful middle-class Jewish parents. Inquisitive from birth, he taught himself to read by the age of three and by the time he reached High School he despaired of his teachers who he complained taught him less than he could read up in an hour. At 13 he won a competition for young people who created non-commercial websites for which the prize included a trip to M.I.T. From then on, there was no looking back for him.

    From there the young genius played a major part in the development of the basic Internet protocol RSS and also co-founded Reddit which became the most popular social news website in the world. His work brought fame in the online communities and also wealth (when Reddit was sold) but this affable young man couldn’t have been less interested in either. What did excite him was social justice and political organising that focused on working to free up inaccessible information online that he believed belonged in the public domain and should be available to all without charge. It was what would prove to be his undoing in time.

    Without Swartz’s involvement it is most unlikely that the Stop Online Piracy Act would have been defeated in Congress, but when he set about copying almost 5 million academic articles from JSTOR (Journal Storage) Database at M.I.T. events did not go his way. Swartz maintained that as these articles had been financed from public funds they should be freely available. When he was caught, JSTOR chose not press any charges but the Federal Government did and very aggressively pursued Swartz and indicted him with a total of 13 felonies. To its shame, M.I.T. just stood on sidelines and did nothing.

    The beauty of Brian Knappenberger’s rather wonderful documentary of this extraordinary young man is that he makes a concerted effort to show not only why the online community was in awe of his seemingly unlimited talent, but by including his very supportive and proud family and friends, he showed what an exceptionally nice person Swartz was too. This very unassuming man was magnanimous and both reserved and quiet but he seemed to blossom as more people called on him to help. He was a passionate thinker who used the same logical approach he employed when programming also in how tackled any social injustice he came across.

    Why he took his own life is never really explained in the movie, but what is very clear from listening to all the evidence is that was a wasted life cut short. However his memory just doesn’t live on with his loved ones, and with the online community who are in awe of all his inventions and achievements. In 2013, a Bill was introduced to finally reform the ambiguous and outdated Anti-Hacking Law that the Government used so mercilessly against him. The Bill is called Aaron’s Law, as well it should be.

    Unmissable.

    Available on Netflix

  • WATCH | War For The Planet Of The Apes Trailer Is Here

    Watch the brand new trailer for War For The Planet Of The Apes

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5gtl41

    Get ready for the most epic battle this summer.

    In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

    Matt Reeves is once again in the director’s chair and the film is set to be released in the US and UK on 14 July.

    Discuss this movie and more in our movie club.

     

     

  • The best at BFI Flare – London’s LGBT Film Festival

    The best films of BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival 2017

    It was always going to be hard to choose. There were so many wonderfully well-done, and in some cases, amazing films that were shown at the film festival – one of the biggest, and best, in the world. There were over 50 features and more than 100 shorts shown, as well as a wide range of special events, guest appearances, discussions, workshops, club nights and more. And while it was virtually impossible to watch all of the features and shorts, I did manage to catch most of them. So herewith is my non-exhaustive list of the best of Flare:

    154 1

    1:54 is an explosive film that stars the excellent Antoine-Olivier Pilon (Mommy) which goes from a simple gay love story to an unexpected and shocking direction. It touches on all the relevant themes (bullying, young love, etc.) and first-time director Yan England excellently pulls it all together. A must see!

    Pushing Dead, directed and written by Tom E Brown, is a lighthearted comedy about an HIV+ man (a very good James Roday) and his trials and tribulations in getting his medication, finding love, and dealing with his boss and female roommate in San Francisco. It’s bittersweet, funny and lighthearted and will tug at your heart.

    Dear Dad is an excellent Indian film about a middle-aged father who comes out to his son while driving him to boarding school. It’s heartwarming and funny, with great performances all around.

    Eight long-term HIV+ survivors discuss their fears, challenges and milestones in the relevant and timely documentary Last Men Standing. With the HIV+ population getting older, these men celebrate life as they remember the past.

    The Trans List is an important documentary where several prominent trans and nonbinary people get to tell their story. Well known celebrities Laverne Cox, Caitlyn Jenner and Buck Angel are featured, but it’s the less well-known who make more of an impact; lawyer and activist Kylar Broadus, teenage student Nicole Maines who won a landmark lawsuit in America after she faced discrimination for wanting to use the girl’s bathroom, and Bamby Salcedo, founder of the Los Angeles-based TransLain Coalition and who faced lots of issues growing up. There are a total of 11 interviews in this documentary, but I could’ve watched a dozen more. It’s an important and relevant documentary.

    Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four, another important documentary, is about four Lesbians who were tried and convicted of sexually abusing children in the 1990’s. Fast forward and the women are finally exonerated for their alleged crime, and this documentary shows – through interviews and news footage – the women’s journey of their nightmare. Gripping, and bittersweet.

    Chilean film Jesús starts out as a buddy movie where the two young leads hang out with their friends and then have sex with each other, but their lives are changed, and the film takes a surprising turn, when they are involved in a crime. This event will tear their lives apart and the ending packs a wallop!

    Lauren (Velinda Godfrey) has to deal with the death of her girlfriend in the film Heartland. She also gets kicked out of the house they shared, so she has to move in with her bigoted mother, while her brother and his long-term girlfriend are visiting in order to set up a local wine business. But Lauren and the girlfriend develop more than a friendship in an event that tears the whole family apart, and brings up bad memories.

    Blow Job 2017 is a reimagining of the Andy Warhol classic, directed by Charles Lum and Todd Verow, that, for it’s four full minutes, focuses on David J. White, getting, as you guessed, a blow job. Why remake the 1963 classic? Because it was time to do so, and Lum and Verow do it in an excellent, grainy style.

    A film with commercial potential is Handsome Devil. Out gay student Ned (a wonderful Fionn O’Shea) is faced with another year in boarding school. His new roommate, lucky for him, is the star rugby player. But most memorable is Andrew Scott who plays a gay and sympathetic teacher. Scott is brilliant (and extremely handsome) as always.

    A film that will astound you is the documentary Out of Iraq. It’s amazing that this film was even made as it’s the true story of two Iraqi soldiers who fall in love, but of course, living in a country where gay men are killed is not the ideal place for a gay relationship. So one of them is lucky enough to move to the U.S. and it’s a four year wait for them to be back together. Their long-awaited reunion, and eventual wedding, will leave you in tears.

    This was just a few of the highlights of the BFI Flare film festival.
    The entire program can still be found on the link below and hopefully, some of these films will find their way to the cinema, or to the BFI website, or anywhere online. Let’s support and celebrate gay cinema.

    http://www.bfi.org.uk/flare

  • Film REVIEW | Nocturnal Animals

    Film REVIEW | Nocturnal Animals

    ✭✭✭ | Nocturnal Animals

     

    NOCTURNAL ANIMALS film review
    Credit: Merrick Morton/Universal Pictures International

    Tom Ford’s highly anticipated second film, Nocturnal Animals, is both brilliant and confusing, no thanks to its three stories in one arc.

     

    Amy Adams is art dealer Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) who lives high above the Hollywood Hills in a seemingly loveless marriage to her philandering husband Hutton (Armie Hammer). One day she receives a book called Nocturnal Animals written by her ex-husband Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal, in one of his best performances in years). It’s been 19 years since they broke up, well actually Susan broke it off with him, and she hadn’t heard or seen of him since then. So it’s bit unusual for her to receive a book from him, knowing that he’s been a struggling writer all his life. While her husband is away on one of his many business trips, she settles down to read the book. It’s then that Nocturnal Animals the book becomes a whole second movie, a second movie so brilliantly written, acted, and told that it should’ve been the movie that is Nocturnal Animals.

    The book is a tale of revenge, rape and murder, brutal and in your face and it’s directed wholly at Susan. While it’s obvious it’s a work of fiction, it’s brutal and horrific. The book as we see play out tells the story of fictional character Tony (Gyllenhaal) with his wife Laura (Isla Fisher) along with what could be (or not) their daughter – this plot point is not very clear, driving in Texas when they’re menaced by a gang of rednecks led by Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson in a performance you will never forget which won him a Golden Globe Award). The menacing turns much much worse, but only towards the women, and it’s too much to give away here to explain what happens to them. Suffice it to say you will be on the edge of your seat while this story is unravelling. And Oscar-nominated Michael Shannon is the cop who is roped in to investigate the grizzly crime.

    Nocturnal Animals also replays the beginning of the relationship between Susan and Edward – how they met on a New York City sidewalk, then had a loving relationship, only for Susan to drop him (it’s not clear why she leaves him).

    All of this is played out in just under two hours. Nocturnal Animals is a haunting romantic thriller with tension throughout, but it’s also a bit of a letdown after the brilliant A Single Man. Adams doesn’t have much to do except read the book in which the most exciting scenes of the film play out. A couple plot points are head scratching – a phone call Susan makes to her daughter – a real daughter or it she a hallucination due to Susan’s lack of sleep – (nocturnal), and Edward’s grudge for 19 long years – really? Nocturnal Animals is a movie that is so cruel and cynical, a story so much about disloyalty and especially about revenge, and it becomes very very violent and very very dark, and Ford dedicates it to his husband Richard and their son Zach. A bit narcissistic if you ask me.

    Now available for Digital Download, Blu-Ray™ and DVD
    From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

    BLU-RAYTM, DVD & DIGITAL BONUS FEATURES:
    The Making of Nocturnal Animals – Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Ford, and other cast and filmmakers recount how they brought such a unique story to life including:
    -Building the Story – Tom Ford and cast examine the central characters and how they fit into the story.
    -The Look of Nocturnal Animals – Filmmakers and cast discuss how the cinematography and costumes give the film such a distinct and rich feel.
    -The Filmmaker’s Eye: Tom Ford – See how Tom Ford’s attention to detail adds layers to the two interwoven stories at the center of the film.

  • 5 LGBT films you need to stream on Now TV

    5 LGBT films you need to stream on Now TV

    If you find yourself at a loose end and just don’t know what to watch, here are five queer films on the streaming service NOW TV for you to enjoy.

    Boulevard Robin Williams

     

    If you want to read the full list of LGBT+ movies on Now TV click here.

    Boulevard  ★★★★

    The late Robin Williams is bank branch manager Nolan Mack. He’s literally just going through life’s motions – working at a bank, with a longtime wife (Kathy Baker) and a very sick father in the hospital. Then one late evening after visiting his father, he drives through a derelict part of town and almost runs over a young man, Leo (Roberto Aguire), who turns out to be a male prostitute. Williams gives a delicate performance as the lonely and subdued Nolan. He’s a man whose conflicted, despondent and depressed until Leo comes into his life. REVIEW: Tim Baros

    Brokeback Mountain ★★★★★

    After a short stint trying to re-craft the comic book blockbuster in his own image, Ang Lee returns, gloriously, to more familiar ground. Based on Annie Proulx’s celebrated short story, Brokeback Mountain is a grand epic, a heartbreaking love story of two Wyoming ranch hands who fall for each other. In Retrospect: As soon as it ends you’ll want to watch it again. Even if it meant putting yourself once more through the emotional wringer. REVIEW: Catherine Wray

    The Danish Girl ★★★

    Based on the book of the same name by David Ebershoff, ‘The Danish Girl’ tells the real life story of Einar Wegener (Redmayne) who never felt right as a man so transitioned into a woman, being one of the first known recipients ever of reassignment surgery. It was with the support of his wife and fellow painter Gerde Wegener (Alicia Vikander) that gave him the courage and hope that helped him through transition. REVIEW: Tim Baros

    The Rocky Horror Picture Show Original ★★★★

    Camp as hell and forever stuck in a time warp, Richard O’Brien’s cult gothic-comic musical lures wide-eyed lovebirds Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) into the mansion-laboratory of fishnet-clad loon Dr Frank N Furter, played with obvious relish by Tim Curry. Can the hapless couple escape Frank and his freakish minions or will the ‘sweet’ transvestite have his wicked way with them? You can almost smell the antici…

    Deadpool ★★★★

    Special forces agent-turned-mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) undergoes what he believes to be life-saving surgery under the knife of a crazed scientist (Ed Skrein). However, the operation does not go as planned, leaving Wade hideously disfigured and embarking on a violent course of revenge. Dark, sexy and extremely engaging. Ryan Reynolds plays a sexually fluid superhero.

    Get signed up with NOW TV now!

  • Running on Empty Dreams

    Sydney has played the part of a devoted wife to her husband for years, but her world is shattered when she meets Jane and is instantly attracted to her. She is quickly overwhelmed with the intensity of her love for Jane and the lustful passion that they share. Now Sydney is faced with a choice between the forbidden love that she craves and the undying love of her husband.

    Starring: Kathleen Benner, Rachel Owens
    Runtime: 1 hour, 59 minutes
    Release: 2010
    IMDB: 4.6/10

    Other Genres: Action | Biography | Bollywood | Comedy | Drama | Documentary | Horror | Lesbian | Musical | SciFi | Short | Thriller | Trans | TV Series

  • Revealing Mr. Maugham

    Documentary film on the life and work of author W. Somerset Maugham. His life and work discussed by writers such as Armistead Maupin and Alexander McCall-Smith and experts such as Selina Hastings.

    Starring: Armistead Maupin, Alexander McCall Smith, Pico Iyer
    Runtime: 1 hour, 23 minutes
    Release: 2012
    IMDB: 6.1/10

    Other Genres: Action | Biography | Bollywood | Comedy | Drama | Documentary | Horror | Lesbian | Musical | SciFi | Short | Thriller | Trans | TV Series