THEGAYUK

Category: Entertainment

  • BOOK REVIEW | Speaking Out

    ★★★ | Speaking Out

    Speaking Out is a collection of photographic portraits of LBGT young people (aged 14-24 years old). 65+ young people, mostly from the USA are photographed. On each portrait young people have shared their thoughts, feelings or an experience. The young people have been honest in sharing their joys and tribulations of being an LGBT youth in a heterosexual world.

    In Speaking Out photographer Rachelle Lee Smith took the portraits, handed young people a sharpie pen and left them to write what they wanted. Among other topics, young people wrote about: stereotypes, identity, homophobia, self-love and romantic love. Young people identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. It was great to see transgendered young people represented, however the vast majority of the young people identified as lesbian.

    Years later, some young people reconsidered their portrait. They wrote about how their lives had changed and what they would write now. It was enjoyable to read these reflections from young people and the book would have benefited from having more of these. Several pages of the book felt wasted as they contained quotes that either praised the photographer or the book its self. Never was there any praise for the young people who were actually brave enough to share their stories.

    Speaking Out is presented well, it’s a large book with 127 glossy pages in full colour. There is the odd page where a young person’s handwriting makes it difficult to read what they’ve written, but at no point is it unreadable.

    Speaking Out is an enlightening book that shows how we are all the same, rather than how we are different. It should be available in every school, college, library and youth club.

  • Andi Peters Presents Ejector Seat, New Daytime Quiz Show For Daytime

    Presented by ANDI PETERS, Ejector Seat is the new quiz show that sees six players take their place in one of six imposing seats – each at the top of a track that leads back toward ‘the edge’.

    The game is simple: if players can answer a series of fast-paced general knowledge questions, they stay sitting happily in their seat. But if they answer questions incorrectly, their seat starts to travel back along its track, towards the edge. And if they fail to stop themselves, they’re ejected out of their seats and off the show for good. The competitors are ejected one by one until just one lucky contestant plays the final round with the chance to win up to £10,000.

    Andi Peters, 44, is a well-known face on British TV having made his name in the late 80s and 90s on CBBC’s broom cupboard show with Ed the Duck.

    Ejector Seat was commissioned by ITV Director of Daytime Helen Warner and ITV Commissioner Clare Ely.

    Helen Warner said: “ITV Daytime is the home of some fantastic quiz formats with the hugely successful The Chase and Tipping Point so I’m delighted to welcome… to the schedule for 2014.”

  • The Return Of Judge Rinder Announced On ITV

    ITV Daytime has commissioned two series of the hit courtroom show Judge Rinder, with seasoned British openly gay barrister, Robert Rinder.

    Robert Rinder, an expert in criminal defence, was called to The Bar in 2001 and works on large-scale fraud, murder and money laundering cases and gives lectures across the UK on financial crime. He married his husband in Ibiza in 2013. He and his husband were married by Benedict Cumberbatch.

    The two 50 x ‘60 episode series will air in 2015 following a successful first series which regularly saw the daily 2pm programme reach over one million viewers.

    The series – commissioned by ITV’s Director of Daytime – Helen Warner, is set in a studio courtroom with Rinder hearing real small-claim cases, assisted by an usher who directs the participants through the court process.

    Each show features up to three different disputes with both sides presenting their version of the facts. After interviewing claimants and defendants, Rinder rules on each case with participants agreeing that the judge’s decision is final!

    Helen Warner said:

    “I’m delighted to be bringing Judge Rinder back to ITV Daytime for a further two series. Rob has a unique appeal to viewers of all ages and the show is brilliantly produced by Tom McLennan and his team.’

    Rob Rinder said:

    “I’m thrilled that the show is returning for yet another two series and I can’t wait to bring justice to more people and work on even more challenging and entertaining cases.”

    Judge Rinder is an ITV Studios Entertainment Production for ITV Daytime. The Executive Producer is Tom Mclennan and the Series Producer is Kate Broadhurst.

  • 2014: A year of amazing movies, how many did you see?

    Celebrate the end of 2014 with this rather sensational mega-mash video by the film website JoBlo.com that collects the best moments from 330 memorable movies released this year.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Interview

    ★★★ | The Interview

    With the North Korean Government furious about the Hollywood comedy that dared to portray an assassination of their Supreme Leader, they hacked into Sony’s computers and scared the Studio to make them panic enough to withdraw the movie from all US screens before its release date on Christmas Day. Even President Obama pitched in to this unprecedented major public controversy, and so a few days later Sony relented and allowed the movie to be shown in a few theatres and online after all.

    t’s not due in UK cinemas until February 6th but we had THEGAYUK’s Contributing Editor Roger Walker-Dack take a sneak preview to review the film and tell us if the fuss was really justified. Here is his report:-

    If the North Korean Government hadn’t insisted on making this the most talked about movie this Christmas there is little doubt that this off-colour sophomoric comedy would have quickly passed through cinemas practically unnoticed by most of us. It’s crude and smutty humor that, like most movies that the actor James Franco is connected with these days, is overly obsessed with being ‘gay’, and it also relies heavily on his and the writers obvious fascination with anal matters too.

    If you have been anywhere near a newspaper this past week you will know that this comedy is about a fictionalised attempt to assassinate Kim Jong-Un the Supreme Leader of North Korea. Mr. Jong Un felt so miffed at the idea that he may have had his people hack Sony’s computers and issue threats of dire consequences if the movie was shown. If only he had bothered to watch the film himself then I think if he would be outraged at anything, it would be much more about how the plot totally disintegrates towards the end and just sinks into a rather pathetic bloody battle giving the film a very unfunny finale.

    Essentially its the story of a lightweight TV presenter Dave Skylark who fills his nightly talk show with ridiculous reality items but then one night the singer Eminem accidentally comes out as ‘gay’ and for once the show’s ratings soar. It whets the appetite of Adam the show’s producer who is desperate for more serious content, which they suddenly think, is possible when they discover in magazine that the North Korean Leader is a big fan of the show. He has refused interviews with the world’s press to date but agrees to grant one to his hero Dave Skylark. A fact that attracts the attention of the CIA who recruit both Dave and Adam with a request that they seize this unique opportunity to take the Leader out.

    The plan almost fails before it begins when nice-but-dim Dave decides to do things his way when they arrive in Korea, and then he changes his mind completely anyway after a day of male bonding with his new ‘best friend’ the ‘Kate Perry’ loving Kim. Adam meanwhile does some ‘bonding’ of his own with their ferocious female guide Sook and afterwards together they plot to sabotage the rather innocuous interview that Leader’s handlers are insisting on.

    The movie is a reuniting of Seth Rogan (who also is a co-director and co-writer with Evan Goldberg) and James Franco after their first, and much superior comedy ‘This Is The End’ in 2013. The two have great screen chemistry together but the lion share of the laughs is left to Rogan who is much more at home in these frat-boy comedies than his co-star. The one thing Franco is good at however is over-acting which suits him to a tee in his role of the eager-to-please tabloid TV presenter.

    There are a few good laughs … mainly at the Korean’s expense in this silly uneven comedy … and compared to something that is really offensive like ‘Borat’ in the end this is tame stuff that will very soon be forgotten, and in the end we are much more likely to remember the drama surrounding it instead.

  • FILM REVIEW | Into The Woods

    ★★★★★ | Into The Woods

    Hollywood has a knack of bungling the adaption of hit Broadway musicals when it tries to capture the same magic for the silver screen.

    Just think of the turgid Les Miserables in 2012 or the excruciatingly painful ‘Nine’ in 2009. However when they get it right as with Tim Burton’s take on Sweeney Todd, or discovering Jennifer Hudson in Bill Condon version of Dreamgirls, then the results are wonderfully entertaining. Of the two musical movies vying for our attention this Christmas, one at least is as good as it can get, and something that its original writer and composer Stephen Sondheim can be relieved and even happy about.

    ‘Into The Woods’ is a wonderful mix of classic light and dark fairy tales that Sondheim uses to weave around an original story of his own. It’s the tale of a Baker and his childless wife who have been cursed by a witch after the Baker’s late father had stolen her magic beans. To enable them to break the spell so that they can conceive a baby, the witch sets them a list of things they must acquire for her before the 3rd midnight. It includes a cloak as red as blood, that they ‘relieve’ Red Riding Hood of; a cow that is milky white which they barter with Jack of Jack & the Beanstalk; the slipper as pure as gold that they get from Cinderella as she is running from the Prince; and the hair as yellow as corn which is snipped off Rapunzel after she lowers it out of the window of the tower she is imprisoned in .

    As the Baker and his wife go about encountering all these characters we get a slice of each of their stories. Jack egged on by his mother steals from the Giant who lives at the top of the Beanstalk, and when he is pursued, kills him only to have the rage of the Giant’s wife inflicted on the whole village. Cinderella gets to go to the Kings Festival thanks to her Fairy Godmother, but when she is eventually tracked down by the Prince, she discovers he is not quite as wonderful as we thought. He quips in defence ‘I’m meant to be charming, not sincere!’ Rapunzel is pursued by the Prince’s younger brother but when her mother (the witch) discovers the lovers she blinds him. Luckily Rapunzel’s tears give him back his sight.

    The real magic though is in Sondheim’s outstanding music in what is probably one of his best ever scores. Director Rob Marshall opens the movie with a long take of the song ‘I Wish’ which cleverly introduces all the major characters and sets the storyline up from the start. It establishes a pattern for really making the extraordinary songs a much more integral part of the story than usual. What Marshall has added to some pieces is a campy touch of humor that may offend real Sondheim elitists, but in most instances, as in the case of the two Princes so brilliantly mugging their way through the song ‘Agony’, it will surely provoke a spontaneous round of applause from the audience as it did last night when I saw it.

    The stage musical has been revived many times on Broadway and on London’s West End and the role of the Witch has been played by a whole slew of the cream of musical theatre. In the movie, however, The Witch is played by Meryl Streep who really adds much more dimension to the part in what is one of her best performances for years. She is both funny and scary and proves that she can really deliver a song with more nuance and power than most.

    In fact, Marshall could not have selected a more perfect ensemble cast than he did. Brits James Corden and Emily Blunt had remarkable chemistry together playing the central characters of The Baker and his wife; Anna Kendrick was sublime as Cinderella, as was the ever-fabulous Christine Barenski as her Wicked Stepmother; a welcome return to the screen for Tracey Ullman as Jack’s mother; Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen played the handsome Princes; and in two scene-stealing roles wonderfully talented Lilla Crawford was Little Red Hood and young Daniel Huddlestone was Jack. Plus lest I forget a brief cameo from Johnny Depp as The Wolf.

    Using the line from one of the best songs (‘Children Will Listen’) the adverts for the movie warn ‘Be careful what you wish for’. If you are a Sondheim fan or just like musicals, then you’ll learn to that after you see this movie that wishes do come true though, and in many ways.

    P.S. Last month we reported in THEGAYUK of the buzz surrounding Meryl Streep’s performance would lead to another Oscar Nomination. Now we can tell you emphatically that we are convinced she is a dead shoo-in for one!

  • FILM REVIEW | Leviathan

    ★★★★★ | Leviathan
    Award-winning Russian director Andrey Zvagaintsev’s new epic movie opens to the dramatic tones of a Phillip Glass prelude as the camera scans over the desolate sight of a remote small fishing community that looks like it may have seen better times. It is on the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia and its almost deserted coastline is littered with discarded wrecks of boats and the carcases of whales. One of the last residents is Kolya an ex-fisherman now eking out a bare living as a motor mechanic with his pretty younger second wife and his teenage son in a riverside property that the crooked local mayor wants to seize from him in order to construct a new major development.

    Kolya is no easy pushover however and enlists the help of Dimitri his ex-army buddy who is now a lawyer in Moscow. The two of them put up a brave fight but they stand no real chance of winning when they find out that everyone in authority in the town is clearly on the mayor’s ‘payroll’, including the local police force and the repugnant Orthodox Christian clergy. Dimitri, however, has an ace up his sleeve as he possesses a detailed File of evidence about the Mayor’s corruption that could be his undoing, but playing this hand could also backfire as it is clear that the Mayor will stop at absolutely nothing to continue to fill his pockets and increase his power.

    Nothing quite pans out in this drama as one would expect, and what seems to start out as a political satire on the inbred Russian system of corruption turns into a murder mystery with more than the occasional masterly touches of some brilliant black humour. Zvagaintsev’s passionate portrait is of a culture where the benefits of a contemporary society are still restricted to a privileged few, whilst most of the local population’s lives are firmly stuck in the past which they have no way or means of escaping. The despair and hopelessness seem even more pronounced with such stunning dramatic cinematography that focuses on the cold steel blue of the oft-barren landscape.

    The ‘leviathan’ large sea monster that writer/director Zvyagintsev refers too here is metaphorical but the epic struggle that the likes of Kolya must deal with in this very loose retelling of the Book of Job, is not with his faith in God but with the unwieldy and unforgiving Russian state.

    It is an extraordinary near perfect masterpiece of storytelling that keeps one on the edge of the seat for the lengthy 142 minutes, and it is very clear to see why it is swooping up Best Picture Awards all over the place, and is on the shortlist for an Academy Award too.

  • REVIEW: The Lipsinkers at the House of Wolf

    The LipSinkers are an infamous troupe of alternative drag performers who create highly innovative, outrageous and critically acclaimed cabaret shows.

    After having made appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and resident stints at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, the strong collective combine costume, dance, satire, prosecco, over lashed eyes, faces beat to death and exceedingly high heels. They take you on a hilarious offbeat romp through popular music in all its glorious guises. The team lip-synch to a jukebox of pop-tastic tunes, prance around looking fabulous and drive audiences wild.

    What is it that makes the LipSinkers so appealing I hear you ask? It’s a hard thing to describe; perhaps it’s their insatiable desire to produce high-octane queer exuberance that brightens this often dismal world. Nonetheless, it is a hilariously entertaining alternative show full of performers that lip-synch to imaginatively selected songs with precision that will bring fear to the queens of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

    The mentality is undeniably left-field: the looks are brilliantly bonkers, a kind of club-kid couture encompassing plastic Macs, lacy bodies and vintage mumus; think of Jiggly Caliente in that infamous outfit strutting down the runway. The routines are tightly choreographed, despite often giving the impression of abstract absurdum. The acts are definitely sexy and at times disgustingly sexual. However it is the chemistry between the charismatic performers that is delicious to view. Even with extra special additions, including implicit politics and the obvious sheer enjoyment at work.

    The LipSinkers have natural ferocity coupled with endearing charm. Like a heavily medicated and intoxicated Pan’s People they have an exciting feel to them that will warm the blood of any ardent cabaret-goer. Disregard any ill-conceived preconceptions you may have had about lip-syncing before and prepare to hold on tight because this group of gender benders doesn’t just offer up a bog standard show, this is a visually stimulating experience, culminating in one hell of a party.

    This is definitely a 5 out of 5 show and a performance that you have to see. It’s a free show so there are no excuses not to partake in this evening of farcicality, so worry about work on Monday and try to squeeze as much as from the weekend as you can.

  • Madonna Releases New Material

    Madonna has given her fans an early Christmas present, by releasing six tracks from her Rebel Heart album on iTunes and the chance to pre-order her new album, Rebel Heart, which is due for release in March 2015. The six tracks are Living for Love, Devil Pray, Ghosttown, Unapologetic Bitch, Illuminati and Bitch I’m Madonna which was recorded with Nicki Minaj.

    Madonna has been teasing fans for some time on social media with the hashtag #unapologeticbitch and has been posting photos of her in the studio on her Instagram account. The new studio album includes work with Diplo, Kanye West and Bilboard.

    The official release comes after unfinished versions of some of the tracks from the new album were leaked online. According to Madonna’s official website, she stated “I was hoping to release my new single ‘Living For Love’ on Valentine’s Day with the rest of the album coming in the Spring. I would prefer my fans to hear completed versions of some of the songs instead of the incomplete tracks that are circulating. Please consider these six songs as an early Christmas gift,”

    Madonna has also promised to release additional music on 9th February 2015 and the full album is due for release in the first week of March 2015.

    According to www.madonna.com “the six songs are currently available for purchase now via pre-order at iTunes and other music outlets with purchase of the album. The music will also be available on all streaming services”.

    The track listing for the album suggests that it will have 19 tracks and gives away that one of the other tracks is called “Joan of Arc”.

  • Top Ten List of Fab Gay Films to Fill a Christmas Stocking

    Here’s our Top Ten List of Fab Films to Fill a Christmas Stocking to suit any (movie) buff boyfriend from Amazon that will still arrive by the 25th if you have still not bought a Christmas gift for ‘him indoors’?

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  • Cucumbers + Bananas + Tofu = A Recipe For Success

    15 years ago Russell T Davies set our television screens alight with his groundbreaking series Queer As Folk that was so successful that the Americans copied it.

    Now this award-winning openly gay writer is back an about to explode on our screens with not one but three series for three different channels.

    CUCUMBER an original drama series follows 46-year-old Henry and his long-term boyfriend Lance in the aftermath of “the worst date night in history” and will air on Channel 4. BANANAS which will be on E4, will tell standalone stories by up-and-coming talent that cover – wait for it – “fifty shades of gay”.

    TOFU meanwhile, is an online documentary series about sex and sexuality and will be screened on 4oD.

    Here’s the first clip that has just been released and suddenly staying in during January looks a whole lot brighter