THEGAYUK

Category: Film

  • FILM REVIEW | Stranger By The Lake

    ★★★★ | Stranger By The Lake

    Alain Guiraudie’s intriguing new thriller is about as homoerotic as can be without crossing the divide into soft porn. It’s set on a tranquil isolated lake in a beautiful corner of the French countryside where the beach front is sparsely occupied by a handful of men sunbathing in the buff. Behind them lies a small wood which is a busy cruising area for gay men.

    Young Franck is a regular visitor to the lake each summer, and as he is currently unemployed now hangs out there most afternoons. He befriends Henri a sad overweight man who is more interested in just chatting and sitting on the rocks rather than getting his rocks off. Franck is however obsessed with a handsome hunk called Michel who with his Tom Selleck bushy mustache is another element that insinuates a distinctive 1980’s look to the whole movie.

    Michel however already has a young man in tow who he takes off to he woods at regular intervals.Then at dusk one evening as Franck is leaving the woods after a quick hook up with another man, he turns to look at the lake and is horrified to witness Michel drowning his date before swimming back to shore.

    Instead of being put off by the fact that the object of his affections is a killer, Franck actually uses the absence of he young man to make his moves on Michel. It gets hot and steamy and although this excites both of them, the mysterious Michel refuses to continue when it’s time to leave the lake or even give Franck as much as a hint to what his real life is actually about. The fact that the dead boy’s clothes are still lying on the beach and his car is in the car park doesn’t seem to concern anyone at all until his body resurfaces and a police Inspector comes around asking questions.

    The policeman is shocked at the callous indifference he encounters and when Franck is even unable to name the man he was having sex with to support his alibi, the Inspector comments ‘you have a funny way of loving each other’. Franck prefers to keep silent so that Michel will keep having sex with him. However Franck’s love is only Michel’s lust and when the older man suspects that Franck knows what happened that fatal night, things start to look decidedly dangerous for the younger man.

    Asides from the cold-blooded murder, Guiraudie’s story is as much about carnal desire and as such he doesn’t shirk from portraying that with some very explicit sex scenes. There is no effort here to disguise the fact that these very blatant hook-ups are purely sexual and an escapism from the reality of the men’s lives. What the men will do for some momentary passion is very obvious here, but why it spurs Michel into becoming a killer is left to our imagination.

    This is a wonderful erotic thriller, well-written and beautifully photographed in a way that belies the fact that this idyllic looking spot hides such violent and deadly deeds. The story places passion before danger and proves that it is not always a wise choice.

    Winner of both the prestigious ‘Queer Palm Award’ and ‘Un Certain Regard Best Director ‘ at The Cannes Film Festival. Highly recommended.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | GBF

    ★★★ | GBF

    When Tanner is accidentally outed in school, whilst the other boys in his class may resort to taunting and bullying him, the girls start to seriously compete for his attention.

    Three of the most popular teen girls in particular believe that if Tanner would be their G (ay) B (est) F(riend), which their favorite fashion mags say is ‘the’ must-have accessory of the season, then this would seal their election to become the next Prom Queen. There is Fawcett a very pretty buxom blond, ‘Shley the slightly serious good-time Mormon girl, and Caprese the African/American drama queen.

    Whilst Tanner glows in his new-found popularity as the girls fall over themselves to capture him for themselves, his best friend Brent who is still stuck in the closet, is so jealous of all the attention that so starts to plot Tanner’s downfall.

    This rather charming ‘boy-lit’ high school comedy is peppered with some very good performances by a very professional young cast who have cut their teeth on TV :Michael Willet as Tanner (The United States of Tara), Paul Iacono as Brent (The Hard Times of RJ Berger),Xosha Roquemore as Caprese (The Mindy Project),Sasha Pieterse as Fawcett (Pretty Little Liars) andAndrea Bowen as ‘Shley (Desperate Housewives).

    It is however the adults that inadvertently steal all their scenes particularly Jonathan Silverman and Rebecca Gayheart who play Tanner’s supportive parents. However even they are trumped by a wonderfully funny turn by the ever delightful Megan Mullally (‘Karen from Will & Grace’) who is hysterically funny trying to drag her son out of the closet. The two of them watching the ‘Brokeback Mountain’ movie on TV together is unquestionably the best scene in the entire film.

    It’s all very cute, has a few really good one-liner’s like the one on Mormon’s ‘they smile to your face, then Prop 8 you in the back,’ but it is a squeaky clean teen-movie that is meant to be for the young… or at least the young at heart.

    P.S. Don’t miss the ‘bloopers’ at the end!

    BUY FROM iTunes | Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | A Most Violent Year, Playing it straight can work – Sometimes

    Abel Morales wants to pursue the ‘American dream’ the right way. However, his pushy wife Anna thinks otherwise. She is the daughter of the Brooklyn mobster who sold his small Heating Oil business to Morales in the first place, and Anna is well aware that if they are to be successful they will first have to effectively deal with thugs who run competitive businesses by far means and foul. Mainly the latter.

    It’s obvious from the start of the movie when yet another of Morales’s tankers are hijacked and the driver is badly beaten that whoever is behind these incidents means to put the Morales out of business. As Anna keeps nagging to remind him, they are effectively at war. The trouble is they are not quite sure who with.

    It’s the 1980s and in a crime-ridden New York City it is tough for a business like Morales not to have to resort to play dirty tricks to survive. He has signed the biggest deal of his career to date when he agrees to buy an Oil Terminal from a group of savvy Hassidic Jews, and if fails to complete the purchase on time he stands to lose everything, including the oversized ‘macmansion’ he has just bought in the suburbs. When news of the deal goes public, then the campaign of terror against him is stepped up to try and ensure that he will not have enough funds to close the deal.

    If that is not enough trouble, the Assistant D.A. is out to make a name for himself and be seen to be cleaning up the ‘dirty’ oil industry and is looking to charge Morales with multiple offences. This includes fraud and cooking the books, the latter being one of Anna’s more accomplished talents.

    This taut multi-layered tale of corruption and treachery is the third feature from writer/director J.C. Chandor who made such a splash with his debut movie Margin Call in 2010 that became a sleeper hit. Chandor keeps the tension packed until the final credits roll when Morales, determined to keep to the moral ground, realises he has to be tougher than both the thugs out to ruin him but also his wife who has no problem at all resorting to whatever it takes to keep her family together and the business in tact.

    With a really compelling performance from Oscar Isaac looking more like a new George Clooney matinee idol in every movie he stars in, who with his heavy Brooklyn accent is perfectly cast as Morales. He has such a commanding presence and its clear to see how he has jumped up into leading man status since his breakthrough performance in Inside Llewyn Davies. Plus Jessica Chastain forsaking her copper tresses and going bossy blond, is splendid as the matter-of-fact tough cookie Anna.

  • FILM REVIEW | Dallas Buyers Club

    ★★★★★ | DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

    The very scary fact thing about watching Dallas Buyers Club is always knowing that this is sadly a very true story.

    Not that we have anything except unfettered admiration for Ron Woodroof and his wild unorthodox schemes, but it is the reminder of the sheer number of countless deaths that could have been avoided if it hadn’t been for the complicity of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration Agency with the greed of the Pharmaceutical Companies that still rankles even now.

    Woodroof was a working-class Texan hedonist living in a Trailer, hanging out at Rodeos and partying very hard indeed. He was also a serial homophobe. When he collapses one day and is rushed to the ER the Doctors discover he is HIV + and with such a minute T cell count, they tell him that he has no more than 30 days to live. The year is 1985 and there is very little hope for anyone that gets full blown AIDS.

    At first he is in total denial and continues his life of drugs, drink and unprotected sex with hookers until his body starts to give up. When he finally accepts the truth, he also sharpens his resolve to beat this rap. He drags himself to the library and consumes all the information that is in the public domain at the time, which is very little. It is however enough to know that there is about to be a trial of AZT a new anti-retroviral drug …. the first if its kind … and because of the rapid explosion of AIDS, the FDA have agreed to fast-track it without its usual safeguards and checks.

    Woodroof pleads with the Doctors at his local hospital to be allowed some of this new wonder drug, but he is rejected on the grounds that he doesn’t qualify, so he seeks out an Orderly and bribes him to steal a supply. When this dries up, the Orderly recommends that he tries a Doctor in Mexico who may be able to help.

    He checks into Dr. Vass’s rundown Clinic over the Border and it is there that he first learns the enormous potential harm that unchecked toxic drugs such as AZT cause. At the supposition that they may stop the virus expanding, they also do such harm to the body that they expose them to countless opportunistic diseases. Vass’s solution is proteins and vitamins that will actively improve the general health of a person with AIDS making them in better position to be able to deal with the virus.

    When Woodroof learns that none of these are available in the USA, he starts an import business to supply them to other patients back in Dallas. He partners with Rayon a Trans person with HIV who he met in Clinic once as she can introduce him to all the people who would want to get their hands on these new drugs.

    At every step of the way, he is aggressively pursued by the FDA as even though none of the drugs/proteins he sells are illegal, they have not been officially approved and the FDA, egged on by the Drug Companies who fund them, want to keep total control of every aspect. One of the ways to get around the Law is not to actually sell the drugs themselves, but sell memberships to his Club (for $400 a month) and this entitles each member to have whatever drugs they want.

    As supplies get tougher to obtain, and new drugs come on the market, Woodroof widens his search worldwide to anyone and everyone who would sell to him. And the FDA would use every legal loophole and obscure law on the Statute Books to seize all his supplies and issue countless fines. Meanwhile at the local hospital it is getting very obvious that patients on the AZT trial are doing much worse than other AIDS patients, but the Authorities anxious to keep receiving the much need Payments from the Drug Companies are happy to suppress all the official reports that confirm this, and the one Doctor that dares to question her Bosses’s ethics is fired.

    Woodroof unquestionably started this venture purely to keep himself alive and to make money. He succeed with his first aim and lived 6 years after his initial diagnosis of just 30 days, and as he gradually got less paranoid of the gay community, he started allowing some people to have the drugs even though they couldn’t afford the Fee. It wast as much that he was any less of a homophobe, but as his own friends totally rejected him out of sheer fear, he started to be able to relate to being an ‘outcast’ like his fellow AIDS sufferers.

    This film has been a long time coming. Scriptwrters Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack based it on the hundreds of interviews they had with Woodroof, and then waited 20 years for the movie to finally get made. Several directors and stars were attached to it until it ended up in the hands of Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee who’s claim to fame (so far) is C.R.A Z.Y. a very neat gay coming of age so far. His two principal stars lost a ton of weight for the parts Jared Leto as Rayon dropped 30 lbs and Matthew McConaughey a scary 50 lbs. They both gave powerful dazzling performances which will has got them several acting awards including Oscar Nominations for them both. It was definitely a stunning change in direction for McConaughey in particular who has established his career so far mainly in rom-coms, but for my two cents (!) it was Leto’s heart-breaking turn as the drug-addicted Rayon that totally bowled me over. It makes one appreciate that Leto has been off our screens far too long (5 years whilst he was touring with his Band)

    These Clubs like Woodroof’s (there were others in other cities) 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.

    It’s a compelling story told with such passion and authority that both disturbs and delights. Unmissable.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | Teenage

    “This is a story that ends with a beginning…”

    Great phrase and one that captures the content of this documentary perfectly. The film, by Matt Wolf and based on the book, ‘Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture 1897-1945’ by Jon Savage, charts the rise of the teenager as we know it.

    It shows its earliest form, as it emerges as a distinct period of human evolution. Initially we had childhood and adulthood, sometimes a grey area in the middle that the industrial revolution may have put paid to as child labour became the norm.

    When this was stamped out, or legislated out, what did we have? We were left with a chink of development in a child’s life, the passage into adulthood, the piece where weird things happen to your hormones and lets not even discuss the downstairs rumblings!

    This film doesn’t really explore the sexual side of development, it doesn’t need to because that is so wrapped up in everything else we do or did as teenagers. The way we looked, the way we dressed, what we did, what we listened to, who we attracted, what friends we chose – all part and parcel of being that thing, that developmental period with no real name.

    And thats the point of this film, right from the industrial revolution, world wars, depressions, racial integration, right up to the point when the New York Times printed its Teen-age Bill Of rights in 1945 and an entire culture was born and christened.

    With the end of WW2, almost as if the dropping of the bombs had brought this subculture to prominence, the teenager was born – and born worldwide. With GI’s spread across the globe, Hollywood churning out the movies in glorious technicolour, and big band swing and jazz the hottest thing around, the US was the main influence not just for adults, but also for those too old to be children and too young to be adults.

    This film charts the rise of the teenager using amazing footage, touching narrative – especially when discussing what effect war had on all sides or charting racial inequality.

    The film could come across as a little too “worthy” but manages to avoid this by engaging you, helping you remember what it was like to be that age, the awkwardness of it all, the emotional turmoil, but showing you that we all go through it, we all share that experience, and that history can teach us something.

    History shows us the struggle others went through so that we can whine about not having the latest phone, or whatever the teenagers today moan about… but I bet you, the teenagers featured in this film whined and moaned too! It’s part of being “that” age.

    All in all, this film is a fascinating glimpse into an age before the “Me” generation, when youth clubs were dry, before injecting Cif into your eyeballs before a night out was cool – or whatever else hip cat teenagers are doing these days. It shows a more naive time, when teenagers were first pushing against those boundaries and sensing some freedom – and it’s a blinking good watch for it!

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | Free Fall / Freier Fall

    Free Fall (or Freier Fall, to give it its German title) is an award-winning drama from director Stephen Lacant. It has been branded a sort of German Brokeback Mountain, and indeed there are parallels between the two movies, but in some ways Free Fall is more gritty, more rooted in the present day.

    Marc would seem to have his life sorted out. He’s doing well in the police force, his girlfriend is having a baby, and they have just moved into a house, next door to Marc’s parents. He is happy (or he thinks he is) and everything is going well for him. He meets Kay at a training camp and the two men become attracted to each other. Though Marc tries hard to fight his feelings, he later starts a relationship with Kay and subsequently finds his life spiralling out of control.

    I suppose the basic storyline has a certain resemblance to Brokeback Mountain, but there the similarities end. Whereas in Brokeback much of the romance is played out against the magnificent scenery of Wyoming, this relationship is much more claustrophobic, harder to hide as so much of their life is in plain view; not much chance for the men to get away from their colleagues and Marc’s family.

    Ultimately the movie is not just about Marc’s coming to terms with his homosexuality, it is more about whether he will allow himself the freedom to walk away from the life that has been set out for him by his parents, his colleagues and his girlfriend. Marc finds it impossible to choose between Bettina and Kay because he can’t decide between the two lives they represent, between comfortable domesticity on the one hand, and freedom, with all the danger and unpredictability that suggests, on the other.

    Ultimately that choice is made for him, and though we do not know how life will pan out for Marc, there is a suggestion that he will eventually break free.

    With superb performances from the two central actors,Hanno Koffler as Marc and Max Riemelt as Kay, not to mention Katharina Schuttler as Marc’s girlfriend Bettina, it is an engaging and involving movie beautifully filmed and subtly played out. Lacant directs with a sure hand which is honest and true.

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Inside Llewyn Davis

    ★★★★ | Inside Llewyn Davis

    Poor Llewyn is both a loser and a user. Nothing is safe in his hands as his life careers from disaster to disaster whilst he goes from crashing on couch to couch in his long-suffering friend’s New York apartments. He even manages to lose one of his host’s cat that he lets escape into the streets.

    Inside Llewyn Davies is the Coen Brother’s wonderful take on the early 1960’s folk music scene in Greenwich Village that focuses on good-looking 30-something year old Llewyn whose songs are as bleak as his very messy life. He treats everyone so shabbily that it is a complete surprise that anyone puts up with him at all. There’s Jean, who sings with her husband Jim when she is not sleeping with Llewyn and half of the folk club circuit. She blames Llewyn for her pregnancy and although he unquestioningly accepts responsibility for paying for an abortion, in reality it may not even be his child.

    There’s Joy his resentful sister who allows Llewyn to crash in the Long Island house that had once been their childhood home just so that she can nag him to give up singing and go back to being a merchant seaman. And in uptown Manhattan, there are the Columbus scholars the Gorfiens whose cat he loses, but it also turns out that they were the parents of Llewyn’s late singing partner who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.

    Everybody on the folk club circuit is enjoying more success than Llewyn even though he think he has much more talent, but he fails miserably to earn their respect or worthwhile gigs or even a decent Agent.

    Why such a depressing tale should be so watchable is totally down to the Coen’s obsessive attention to detail. It’s a glorious period piece shot in smoky hues that makes it feel like a black & white movie that has been hand tinted with some color. The acting from this incredible ensemble is top-notch but the production design and cinematography deserves star billing too. The fact that we get so engaged in watching the story of a loser is because he is played by a remarkable relatively unknown actor Oscar Isaac (and local Miami boy) who was nothing less than sensational in this his first ever lead role.

    Rounding out the cast were the superb Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake as Jean and Jim, Garret Hedlund as Johnny Five, and John Goodman playing the obnoxious loud-mouthed Roland Turner.

    My initial reaction after viewing this, was one of stunned silence as I had simply not been prepared for what a downer the actual story was. Now on reflection, and I am wallowing in the memory of the sheer pleasure of what a powerful character study of such a flawed character it was in such a magnificent set piece. And lest I should forget there was all that music too that had been ex-produced by none other than T Bone Burnett.

    It won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and is unmissable, as it could even be the best Coen Brothers yet. And that is really saying something.

     

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | The Cat

    ★★★ | The Cat

    The Cat is a Korean horror film which tells the story of a young woman, So-Yeon, who is an animal groomer in a pet parlour. Following the death of one of her customers who dies in a lift, she cares for the abandoned cat found next to the body. But So-Yeon soon finds herself haunted by the ghostly figure of a young girl with cat like eyes and as people around her start to die in small spaces So-Yeon tries to uncover the truth about the link between the cat and the violent deaths of those around her.

    The Cat was very typical of the Asian horror films which have become more popular over the last ten years or so. Films like The Ring, The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters and Dark Water have brought the Asian film industry to the attention of the West and this film is a good, if standard, example of the ghost story genre. It has all of the elements you would expect in such a film – a ghostly figure, a few jumps, a slow build of the tension and an uncovering of the truth behind the shadowy figure. Whilst the structure of the story was nothing ground-breaking, it held your attention and built to a satisfying enough conclusion.

    Overall, the film is a slow burner, with the story gently unfolding throughout the first two thirds of the film before reaching its denouement and revealing the reason for the hauntings. Those expecting an all-out action packed gore fest will be disappointed, but for those who want a decent ghost story and something more atmospheric, there are some nice set pieces (as some of the characters meet their demise) and the ghostly figure of the little girl comes across as both menacing and creepy at times.

    Overall, the performances of the cast are perfectly functional and the special effects are muted but effective. However, viewers should be aware that throughout the film there are some scenes of animal cruelty, which may make uncomfortable viewing for some people (although the film very clearly states that no animals were harmed in the making of the film). Also, the film is subtitled, which may also put off some people, although it shouldn’t. If you have never seen an Asian horror then this is a decent enough introduction.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | The Wolf Of Wall Street

    ★★★★ | The Wolf Of Wall Street

    Leonardo DiCapro Shines in his latest offering The Wolf Of Wall Street.

    Despite its 3 hour run time, The Wolf Of Wall Street managed to entertain – with only one glance to the watch to check on the time.

    Following the true story of Jordan Belfort, the film documents the rise and the rise and the eventual fall (but not so hard) of a man who sells penny stocks for over inflated prices – and getting rich, very rich in the process.

    Drug fuelled, sex driven and money mad Belfort – slams from Pillar to Post, whipping up a moneyed frenzy in his wake. If you ever want to hear on how to sell anything to anyone, The Wolf Of Wall Street offers an insight into the inner machinations of Wall Street and Stock markets.

    Some are saying that the film is glorifying Wall Street and some of its seedier tradings – and I would have to agree, but ultimately, as Belfort says ‘Everyone wants to get rich…’

    There are some real comic genius moments – if you’re a fan of Absolutely Fabulous – DiCaprio pulls off a comedy fall from a helicopter into bushes and then into a pool, that Joanna Lumley’s (who also stars) and Jennifer Saunders’ Eddy and Pats would be proud of.

    Ultimately a great performance from DiCaprio, who takes on the role with an unshakable prowess.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | Ausgust: Osage County

    ★★★★★ | August Osage County

    Violet Weston is one acid-tongue angry old lady who misses nothing that goes on in her family and she insures that none of her nearest and dearest escape her unbridled wrath. Well, her husband Beverley an alcoholic and rather melancholic poet does, but his method is quite extreme as he disappears out of the blue, and then the police locate his body after he has taken his own life.

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  • MOVIE REVIEW: Having You

    ★★★ | Having You

    The two DVDs that came through my letterbox just after Christmas could not be more different, though both come from our friends over at Matchbox Films.

    The first of the two I watched was Having You, written and directed by Sam Hoare.

    There are some great performances here, from Andrew Buchan as recovering alcoholic Jack, from Philip Davis as his thoroughly nasty and unlikeable father, from Romola Garai, as Jack’s beautiful girlfriend, from the gorgeous Steven Cree as Jack’s business partner and sponsor, and from the ever watchable Anna Friel as Anna, a blast from the past who drops a bombshell on Jack that he finds difficult to come to terms with. It’s a gentle, watchable movie, which draws you in, but I confess to finding it somewhat manipulative with an ending that is just a little too pat to be convincing. None the less, worth catching if you have a couple of hours to spare one evening.

    BUY FROM AMAZON