THEGAYUK

Category: Film

  • FILM REVIEW | Exposed: Beyond Burlesque

    Director Beth B brings us Exposed: Beyond Burlesque, an expose of the ‘new’ burlesque scene, which seeks to challenge traditional ideas of body, gender and sexuality.

    A mixture of interviews, glimpses backstage and filmed performances, we are introduced to an engaging group of individuals, who might also, in other circumstances, be called misfits.

    According to Mat Fraser, an English performer with phocomelia of both arms due to his mother being prescribed thalidomide during her pregnancy, burlesque is an honest and sometimes brutal art form. It can also be extremely vulgar, which is I suppose the point.

    There is a lot of naked flesh on show, though very little in the way of titillation. Maybe, to fully experience the power of these acts, one has to be in the audience, but most of the interest really comes from the interviews, and the performers’ often quirky view of life; at its heart a touching little love story between Mat Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz.

    Truth to tell, it is a little long and could have done with some judicious pruning. I found my mind wandering quite a bit after the first hour.

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

  • FILM REVIEW | Unbroken

    ★★★★ | Unbroken

    For the third time in the last couple of months, THEGAYUK reviews another film starring the remarkably talented young British actor JACK O’CONNELL. We can tell you now that Hollywood now agrees with us; Mr O’CONNELL is going to be a MAJOR STAR. Remember you read it here first.

    For her third time behind the camera actress/ superstar, UN Special Ambassador, Honorary Dame of the British Empire, and mother of countless children, Angelina Jolie plumped for a rather old-fashioned WW2 drama. With a script from Oscar winners Ethan and Joel Cohen (who rarely write for other directors) adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling biography, ‘Unbroken’ is the inspiring story of the Italian/American Olympic Athlete Louis Zamperini who became a War Hero.

    Jolie starts her overly long movie with an exciting aerial gun battle somewhere in the Far East with Zamperini as the Bombardier helping to get his crew’s partially destroyed plane safely back to base after they have successfully bombed their target.The next time they are flying on a mission, they are not so lucky and end up floating in the middle of the ocean after their plane totally disintegrates.

    In a series of flashbacks Jolie fills in Zamperini’s young life up to that point, where as a troubled teenager constantly picked on for being an immigrant in small town California, and so his older brother persuades him to join him in his school’s track team. Zamperini shows such real talent at running that he is soon winning enough races to actually qualify to represent the USA in the 1936 Olympics in Munich. The next Olympics however in 1940 were due to be held in Tokyo, but little did Zamperini know at the time he would end up being in that city then, but for entirely different reasons.

    Zamperini and two other men, include Phil the pilot, survive the crash and floating aimlessly on a life raft have to deal with hunger, the relentless heat, dehydration, sharks and the occasional storm for 47 days adrift in the middle of the ocean. Zamperini who never stops praying, vows that if he ever gets home again he will devote his life to God.

    He and Phil are the only two survivors who are eventually picked up by the Japanese and held prisoner in the most horrific conditions and forced into hard labour. When they are transferred to a larger camp the two of them get separated and Zamperini gets singled out regularly for unprovoked and merciless beatings by a young sadistic Japanese guard nicknamed ‘The Bird’ who appears to have some fixation with breaking this American soldier who he obviously somehow feels threatened by.

    When the war looks like it is ending, the Japanese retreat taking all the Allied prisoners with them to an even more remote island, and the men fear that they will all be killed before they can rescued. The impending defeat encourages ‘The Bird’ to even increase his brutality of Zamperini to the point where he has the beaten young soldier holding up a heavy railway sleeper over his head which eerily looks like a cross at a crucifixion.

    The movie ends with the war and with Zamperoni being hailed as a hero as he finally arrives back home to his family in California. In real life he evidently became a Born Again Christian and tutored by the evangelist Billy Graham, he went back to Japan to spread the Gospel and forgive his captors. He died at the age of 91 years old earlier in 2014.

    Just like in the current ‘The Imitation Game’ Ms. Jolie and Roger Deakins her multi Oscar nominated her cinematographer makes her wartime setting a tad too picturesque a la Hollywood (Australia was used for locations). Despite the very detailed graphic scenes of the horrific violence that we expect these days, it was hard not to escape the notion that I expected Clark Gable or Errol Flynn or any other 40’s heartthrob to burst onto the screen at any moment. If I could pinpoint a particular reason why this very entertaining movie was not nearly as good as the hype, it would be the fact that Ms. Jolie allowed the Coen Brothers to spend too much time on the historical facts of Zamperini’s true story than focusing more on the characters that are a vital part of it.

    However there is one element that raises this movie to a much higher level, and it is the presence of its leading man Jack O’Connell. The camera simply loves this exceptionally talented young English actor who, with his matinee idol looks, is proving to be the most exciting new actor that the movies … and now Hollywood… have discovered this year. In ‘Unbroken’ we feel every moment of his pain in this raw and very natural performance that is nothing less than a sheer joy to watch. Having seen him in action three times in as many months (his second movie ’71 is still to be released in the US) I can only keep repeating my earlier claims that O’Connell is deservedly destined for major stardom.

    The movie itself may have been a tad disappointing, but O’Connell is anything but that.

  • FILM 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 sub-culture 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 were 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 re-imagine 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

  • Top 10 | Theatre Film and TV of 2013

    Well we’re at the end of 2013 and what better time to look back at my 10 best theatre, tv and film moments of the year, some of which I reviewed, some of which I didn’t.

    Sadly, my first choice only managed a run of a few months at the London Palladium, nor is it a show I reviewed myself. The original Broadway production of A Chorus Line opened in 1975 and ran for 6,137 performances, garnering no less than 12 Tony Awards. It was the longest running musical in Broadway history, until overtaken by Cats in 1997. Here in London it managed a respectable 3 year run, when it opened at the enormous Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1976. The Palladium revival was a loving re-creation of the original, using Michael Bennett’s original choreography (Bennett died in 1987 of AIDS related lymphoma), and it brought back many memories of when I was a young dancer, working in the West End. This revival was every bit as brilliant as the original production and various reasons were offered as to why it was not as huge a success this time round. Apparently it had minority interest (only dancers and people in show business could have any interest in the travails of being a Broadway/West End hoofer); at 90 minutes without an interval, it was too long and attention flagged; it lacked spectacle being set, for the most part, on an empty stage with dancers in practice clothes. But this was all true the first time round, and the show was a huge success back then. Audiences have changed, I suppose. Certainly the second time I attended this revival (on press night) the audience seemed more interested in being seen themselves than watching the show.

    I did review my next musical of choice, and am happy to report that it is still running at the Phoenix Theatre, and absolutely demands to be seen. Once was originally a charming indie film, which has been expanded and fleshed out to make a full evening at the theatre. The stage of the Phoenix has been decked out to look like an Irish pub, where members of the audience can enjoy a drink before the show and during the interval. Almost imperceptibly the show starts, while the audience are still making their way to their seats. Not really a musical in any conventional sense, it is original, charming, sublimely poetic, moving, eloquent, and stylish. Don’t miss it.

    Of my next three choices, only one is still running in the West End, though the Menier Theatre production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along enjoyed a new lease of life when the production was filmed and shown in cinemas up and down the country. Maybe it will eventually also get a DVD release. It has always been one of my favourite Sondheim shows, though its rather cynical message found little favour among audiences when it was first produced back in 1981, when it ran for 44 previews and only 16 performances. At least Maria Friedman’s debut production for the Menier Theatre did a lot better than that. Given a slightly more upbeat twist by Friedman and via a few deft re-writes by Sondheim, and with some fabulous performances (particularly Jenna Russell as Mary and Damian Humbley as Charlie) this was a sure-fire hit.

    Not to be missed was Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Alexi Kayle Campbell’s superb The Pride at the Trafalgar Studios. This superb play that juxtaposes two parallel love stories, one from the 1950s and one from today, deftly reminds us that prejudice is still here, despite the strides we have made in recent years. With fantastic performances all round, this was an extremely memorable night in the theatre.

    Still running (though the Apollo has been closed for a while after part of the ceiling collapsed a couple of weeks ago) is the National Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Wonderfully inventive, superbly theatrical, this adaptation of Mark Haddon’s popular novel will no doubt run for years. We were fortunate enough to book our tickets a few days before the production won no less than 7 Olivier awards, as it sold out completely after that. I’m sure it’ll be around for quite a while yet though.

    Andrew Lloyd Webber and Time Rice are back in the West End this year, though not working together this time. Lloyd Webber ‘s new musical Stephen Ward is at present previewing and Time Rice’s musical version of From Here To Eternity (with music by Stuart Brayson) opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in October. In many ways a reassuringly old-fashioned musical (it is not sung through and has a very strong libretto by Bill Oakes), it is a thoroughly enjoyable, brilliantly conceived and executed new show. Let’s hope it has a deservedly long run.

    In the cinema, I got the chance to review HBO’s Behind The Candelabra, made for TV, but here given a theatre release. Stephen Soderbegh’s direction is not always sure-footed, and the film drags a little in the middle, which might be less noticeable in the context of a TV movie. He does however, get wonderful performances out of his all-star cast. Aside from Rob Lowe’s brilliantly immobile plastic surgeon, there are some great cameos from Dan Ackroyd, Scott Bakula and Debbie Reynolds (remember her?), but the movie succeeds or fails on the work of its two stars, and both Michael Douglas and Matt Damon give faultless performances. Damon is thoroughly believable as the star-struck young innocent who gradually descends into drug addiction, and Michael Douglas quite simply gives one of the best performances of his career. It would have been so easy, and so tempting, to overplay the role and come up with a clownish caricature, but Douglas completely avoids that trap, and comes up with a performance of great subtlety, which deservedly won him an Emmy Award.

    I didn’t review I Want Your Love which was granted a limited cinema release in the UK. Given the amount of explicit sex in the film, this is hardly surprising. Like Shortbus before it, director Travis Matthews breaks new bounds in how to present sex on the screen. The sex, and there is a lot of it, is real, and we get to see everything; blow jobs, penetration, cum shots, the lot. What makes it different from your bog standard porn movie is that this features real actors, and very good ones at that, pushing the boundaries of what they will do on screen in the context of a role. The sex scenes are handled rather differently than they would be in a porno, and much more sensitively; the connection between the actors, the reactions on their faces rather more important than the sex itself, though the camera doesn’t shy away from that either. There’s not a lot of plot, so it certainly doesn’t keep you on the edge of the seat wondering what will happen next. It’s one of those movies in which people spend a lot of time talking to each other; about their feelings, about their relationships, about work. I found it totally immersing and involving.

    Though I understand that many will not respond to I Want Your Love as I did, I do recommend unreservedly David France’s masterly documentary How To Survive A Plague. This remarkable movie tells the story of a small group of men and women in America, most of them HIV positive, who battled against government indifference and departmental incompetence, to save their own lives. In so doing they helped save the lives of 6,000,000. Gripping, moving, inspiring, at times emotionally draining, it is a story that demands to be told. Required viewing for every gay man, particularly those under the age of 30.

    And finally to a great piece of television, shown just this last month on BBC4. Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves, is an award-winning Swedish three parter, based on novelist Jonas Gardell’s trilogy about the impact of AIDS on the gay community in Sweden in the early 1980s. Subtly and sensitively acted, and beautifully filmed, this was great television, the last of its three episodes almost unbearably moving, so much so that I watched it through a film of tears. If you missed its network TV showing, then do not hesitate to buy it on DVD, but make sure you have a box of tissues at the ready.

  • FILM REVIEW | Mr Angel

    ★★★★ | Mr Angel

    Buck Angel is a brawny muscular red-headed good-looking bearded hunk. With his heavily tattooed body, his twinkling eyes and his infectious smile, he is in fact one very hot man. In our label-fixated society Buck is actually transgender, or as he loves to describe himself so succinctly, he is ‘a man with a pussy’.

    What strikes you immediately in this extraordinary wonderful documentary by Dan Hunt, is that before you start to try to get your head around all the gender-transitioning is how remarkably charismatic and engaging Buck truly is. He is full of charm, totally fearless with such a strong sense of purpose which we soon discover is something he achieved only after battling so many demons in his past.

    Buck has always identified himself as a male – even when he grew up – he was a rather stunning looking woman who carved a career out of fashion modeling. That in turn led to cocaine and then a rapid spiral downwards where he ended up turning tricks, more suicide attempts and then literally ending up in the gutter.

    Life eventually changed for him for the better after taking hormones and testosterone and he had a double mastectomy and ‘Buck’ was born. Not content with just being a male, he worked out aggressively and once he achieved a really great physique he launched into a career in porn. Here he carved out a unique niche for himself because as he kept saying ‘he never had bottom’ surgery.

    As we follow him making personal appearances at Sex Industry Trade Shows he is unabashedly proud about his career and although he repeatedly insists that he is not a sexual oddity, he definitely is challenging the accepted terms and classifications we are currently used too. For examples he shoots videos with gay men for the gay market, but as his partners are penetrating his vagina, doesn’t that make it ‘straight’ sex? And when he does another scene with a MTF person who still has a penis, isn’t that also heterosexual sex?

    I have to say that regardless of the technicalities of the actual penetration that takes considerable mind-blowing, you are firmly persuaded by a combination of Buck’s words, demeanor, attitude and spirit that he is very much a man.

    The documentary made over 6 years sees Buck now happily married to Elayne, a piercing expert, and they are living in Mexico with countless dogs. Buck is now re-positioning himself from sex-worker to sex educator as he undertakes a series of speaking engagements and advocacy about gender-roles in particular. I would normally be skeptical about how anyone can switch sides like this and be either accepted or respected, but it’s hard not to be swept away by the combination of Buck’s enthusiasm and the belief in has in himself.

    One of the biggest hurdles Buck had to overcome was helping his parents and siblings come to terms with his new persona. It’s not just the gender altering but it is also the porn career, which is hard for all of them to get their heads around. It is a remarkable journey that they all take together, and I defy anyone not to reach for the tissues when his father breaks down.

    This is not a film for everyone… Some of the imagery is very graphic. I do hope it gets the biggest audience it deserves.

    Full credit to Mr. Hunt for not only helping to start de-mystifying some of these questions, but more essentially for the respect that he accorded both Buck and his story.

    Available on Amazon

  • Jennifer Saunders confirms Ab Fab Movie?

    We’re desperately trying to get to the bottom of this, but it looks as though Jennifer Saunders is set to pen an Absolutely Fabulous Movie for 2015.

    In what could be described as an early Christmas present, it seems as though we might be getting a film version of the hit comedy series Ab Fab – as Jennifer Saunders has been rumoured to be picking up the pen for a 2015 release date.

    A movie poster is already doing the rounds and it looks as though co-star Joanna Lumley will be returning with Patsy.

  • FILM REVIEW | House Of Boys

    ★★★★ | House Of Boys

    The blurb and the cover on this DVD doesn’t do it justice. It gives the impression of some sleazy b-movie, lots of gyrating hips, few (if any) articles of clothing and even less of a plot line. This isn’t true!

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  • IDINA MENZEL Releases The Perfect Coming Out Song

    Taken from the hit movie Frozen, Broadway star Idina Menzel releases Let It Go, which we think is perfect for a gay anthem!

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  • FILM REVIEW | How To Survive A Plague

    ★★★★★ | How To Survive A Plague

    “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few.” These are the words of Sir Winston Churchill, referring to the efforts of the Royal Air Force pilots fighting the Battle of Britain in 1940, but they are also the words that sprang into my mind after watching David France’s brilliant documentary How To Survive A Plague.

    It tells the story of a small group of men and women, most of them HIV positive, who battled against government indifference and departmental incompetence, to save their own lives. In so doing they helped save the lives of 6.000,000.

    This is a great piece of film-making that documents the courage and determination of these people in the face of appalling obstacles from a government that couldn’t give a damn. The overriding message from the Reagan, and then the Bush administration, was that gay people didn’t matter, that AIDS was a result of bad lifestyle choices, and that we deserved it.

    Using archive footage, we are given stark reminders of the shock tactics they used to bring their plight to the attention of the world, culminating in the display of the 8,288 panels of the AIDS quilt in 1988, and the march on the White House, when relatives and lovers of the dead scattered the ashes of their loved ones onto the White House lawn. These were the days when funeral parlours refused the bodies of people who had died of AIDS, when hospital security guards barred AIDS patients from entering emergency wards.

    Dark times indeed, chillingly brought to life again in the newsreel footage we see in this movie. But anger alone was not going to be enough to win the battle. We learn how these activists became scientists, taking on an intense study of virology, immunology, pharmacology and cellular biology in an attempt to help direct the global research effort.

    Sadly, not all of the activists lived long enough to see the fruits of their labour; to see AIDS (or HIV) become a manageable condition, as it is today. Of those that did, the charismatic Peter Staley emerges as the undoubted star. Given just 18 months to live at the age of 26, he is galvanised into fighting for his life, and there is no doubt that his eloquence (not to mention his youthful good looks) helped spearhead the campaign.

    David France tells this story clearly and unflinchingly, putting us right at the heart of the battle, the occasional heartbreak at failure and the euphoria surrounding success; even the internal rifts and skirmishes. Gripping, moving, inspiring, at times emotionally draining, it is a story that demands to be told. Required viewing for every gay man, particularly those under the age of 30, I recommend it absolutely. We owe our lives to these people. Surely the rest of us can spare them 110 minutes of our time.

     

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

  • 9 of the best films for Halloween

    * Contains descriptions and images which some readers may find upsetting *

    Now the clocks have gone back, there’s only one day left till Halloween. As the leaves are blown from the trees and dance across the road in the breeze, rain pelts against your windows and the wind howls, it’s the perfect time to settle in, open a bottle of red and creep yourself out with a good horror film. So in this special extended edition of Six of the Best, we have a few suggestions for something you can watch from behind the cushions…

    Halloween

    Let’s start with an absolute classic. Malevolent monster Michael Myers has become a horror icon, but it all started with this low budget slasher. Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is stalked by a seemingly unstoppable man who lurks in the shadows before attacking her and her friends on Halloween night. This film slowly winds up the tension by crafting a feeling of paranoia before culminating in a memorable ending. What makes this film so good is its urban setting and it’s “this really could happen” this story. Forget the inferior remake and stick with the original and best.
    Buy it here

    Maniac

    Elijah Wood gives a brilliant performance in this exceptional remake of an 80’s slasher flick. A young man struggles with his mental health which leads him to stalk and murder women on the streets of LA. But he falls in love with a beautiful young photographer, which slowly develops into an obsession. This excellent film is shot entirely from the point of view of the murderer and has an outstanding soundtrack, graphic violence and is beautifully filmed. This hidden gem is a more cerebral horror which plays on primal fears.
    Buy it here

    The Strangers

    A young couple (played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) find themselves trapped in a nightmare when their home is invaded by a group of strangers in masks. Who they are and why they are terrorising the couple is unknown, but this film proves that you are not even safe in your own home. This tense film is full of suspense and will make you check you have locked the door before you go to bed.
    Buy it here

    The Descent

    In this claustrophobic British horror, a group of friends go caving and discover more than they could ever have imagined when they find themselves trapped following a tunnel collapsing. As they head deeper and deeper into the cave system, they are clearly not alone as they are set upon by something in the dark.
    Buy it here

    Trick ‘r’ Treat

    Four tales of Halloween are intertwined in one night of horror. A group of children play a trick on a young girl based on a local legend which goes horribly wrong, some teenage girls are stalked by a masked man through a Halloween street carnival, a school principal has a secret life and a man is terrorised by a very special Trick-or-Treater. The stories all combine in this enjoyable anthology horror.
    Buy it here

    Hocus Pocus

    In this camp classic, three witches are accidentally resurrected on Halloween by a group of teenagers. With the help of a talking cat called Binx, the friends battle the witches in an attempt to save the town. With the entire cast camping it up and Bette Midler singing “I Put a Spell on You”, this family film is great fun.
    Buy it here

    Frankenweenie

    When Sparky, a young boy’s beloved dog, dies, his grief stricken owner bring him back to life in his makeshift attic laboratory. But when his friends find out, the young boy is blackmailed into bringing other pets to life, which escape and cause havoc. Using beautiful stop motion animation, this gentle Tim Burton animation is both touching and funny. If you loved The Nightmare before Christmas, then you’ll love this too.
    Buy it here

    La Horde

    In this French new wave horror, a group of people are trapped at the top of a high rise building which is besieged by the living dead. Making their way down the levels, they are relentlessly attacked by the fast moving monsters. This film is like “28 Days Later” on speed and is full of gore, fast paced action and terrific set pieces.
    Buy it here

    The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

    In this modern remake of the 1970’s shocker, a family on a road trip across the dessert find themselves besieged by a group of cannibals. When their baby is stolen by the cannibals the family revert back to their own tribal instincts to fight back. This graphic and violent film is one of the better remakes of the last few years and has blood, guts and shocks aplenty.
    Buy it here

  • FILM REVIEW | Bridegroom

    FILM REVIEW | Bridegroom

    Inspired by Shane Bitney Crone’s viral YouTube video, It Could Happen To You; a young and in love gay couple’s story has been turned into a full-length documentary film, written and directed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

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