THEGAYUK

Category: Review

  • FILM REVIEW | Keep The Lights On

    ★★★★★ | Keep The Lights On

    This award winning and Sundance Festival selected film is an intricate look at the lives of two men who enter into a relationship in 90s New York. Directed by Ira Sachs.

    Erik is a Danish documentary film maker who meets Paul via a telephone-sex chat-line. Erik is anxious about commitment and lawyer Paul has a steady girlfriend. What starts off as a casual sexual relationship develops into something more meaningful and romantic. The film charts the two lovers over the course of their turbulent ten year relationship.

    The two main characters lives take on unexpected turns and as Erik becomes more responsible and committed, Paul’s more orderly life spirals out of control as his recreational drug abuse becomes a destructive habit. The relationship enters a series of cycles of damage and renewal as the film charts their lives.

    The film is beautiful to watch but also painful viewing in places, but ultimately provides a meaningful glimpse into the areas of both lightness and shade which relationships can pass through. The balance of the film is such that the story never felt too bleak but is balanced with erotic tension, a compelling storyline and occasional bursts of humour. Strong performances from the cast add to the emotional intensity of the film.

    Highly recommended for a moving and fascinating insight into the life cycle of a relationship.

    Released on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.K. on 28/01/13 available from Amazon

  • Grooming Review | Bulldog Gets The Bullseye

    Grooming Review | Bulldog Gets The Bullseye

    Looking for a new brand to get you clean and refreshed in the morning? Look no further than Bulldog.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Les Miserables

    ★ | Les Misérables, a story of crime, broken dreams and valiance. Set in the French Revolution it explores a story of Jean- Valjean, a so called criminal who breaks his parole to start a new life of truth and compassion.

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  • TECH REVIEW | iPhone 5s

    So, I managed to get my sweaty little apple-fan fingers on an iPhone 5S for a test drive.

    Its about blinkin’ time too – like a lot of people, my time is nearly here for an upgrade of my handset, the new ones are out and I couldn’t wait. My trusty 4S is on its last legs, scratched and battle scared from a life of Facebook, Twitter and blog updates….it needs and deserves a rest.

    However, and this is a first for me, I was a little let down. I skipped the 5, thinking that as I was tied to contract, I’d wait and see what was available when my contract finally ended.

    I think, having read reviews, headlines, seen the ads, lapped up the keynote speeches, I was expecting something radical but didn’t get what I wanted.

    In terms of design, it isn’t a major departure of whats gone before – which isn’t a bad thing, but it seems that the minor changes in design are changes for changes sake? The split into 5S and 5C doesn’t make much sense for me. The garish colours of the 5C don’t appeal, and the 5S seems a smidge ’80’s. I have to admit to being a little unsure of the size – its feels like it going down the route of others in trying to increase screen size at the sake of portability? It isn’t an iPad, mini or otherwise, so please Apple, don’t make the 6 any bigger. This is a phone, and I for one hope it stays a phone size!

    The 5S I got to try out was the white screen one, perfect for my stilettos on a Saturday night. Its nice enough but, and heres my big issue, the major update from Apple was the iOS, with its overhaul, new fresh looks, new icons, new features – and all these are available on my old handset. I have these, I can play with them – and don’t need to fork out for a handset that offers nothing else. I really don’t care about fingerprint technology – I’ve seen the Man From Uncle (as your dad) and don’t really care that much! If my phone is stolen or lost, I can track, wipe and lock it from my iPad or MarBook (told you I was an apple geek).

    If I’m honest, there simply isn’t anything radical enough here to make me want to upgrade at a cost. Give me a free handset and I’ll upgrade tomorrow – who wouldn’t, but with phone companies increasingly charging you for handsets and an arm and a leg for data, is it worth it?

    I wonder when we’ll get to the point where there isn’t anything new they can do with phones? We hear stories about intelligent glass phones, simple screens without cases as the tech is inside the screen. We have Google glasses, so why not glasses that act as a phone as well? We have watches that link to phones…so why not a simple watch that does it alone? Who knows where we’ll end up – maybe by then I’ll be a true grumpy old man and have given up trying to keep up and want a phone that does something radical, like make phone calls?

    The Positive
    ▪ It’s sleek
    ▪ It’s shiny
    ▪ It’s Apple

    The Negatives
    ▪ Nothing new
    ▪ Silly new charging pins!
    ▪ too big for my phone case

    Price: iPhone 5s, (white) available from £79 on Vodafone Red 4G-ready price plans for £47 per month
    Or Sim Free available from AMAZON from £508

    Maybe I’m just too used to Apple breaking rules, creating ground breaking designs, products that change your life – and lately they haven’t done this. Now, they may be consolidating their business, building on what’s gone before and ensuring that Mr Jobs legacy continues with a strong business base, solid products, and worldwide appeal. However, this former garage start-up seems to be more about big business and tying you into its products than innovation and interest. They make more and more upgrades, and make more and more of their older items obsolete in the process and this worries me.

    £500 for a handset that may be out of date in a year for two – not just in terms of style, but in terms of support for the iOS……makes you think

    Our Rating: ★★★

    Specifications:
    iPhone 5S
    Colours: gold, silver and space grey
    Size: 16, 32 or 64 GB
    Dimensions:
    Height: 123.8 mm (4.87 inches)
    Width: 58.6 mm (2.31 inches)
    Depth: 7.6 mm (0.30 inches)
    Weight: 112 grams (3.95 ounces)

    Fingerprint identity sensor built into the Home button
    Retina Display
    8-mega pixel camera
    True tone flash
    Siri (watch the trailer for “Her”!)
    and many, many more but Apple list them better than me…..

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Salad Days

    I have to admit a fairly strong affection for the musical Salad Days, as I appeared in two different productions of it in my late teens and early twenties, both times in the role of the mute Troppo.

    I remember both productions as being particularly joyous, and therefore my love of the piece is tinged with nostalgia. I don’t remember either production I was in, though, being as wittily brilliant as Bill Bankes-Jones’s production for Tete a Tete, a company which usually “brings uplifting, surprising, daring and intimate opera productions of the highest quality to the widest possible public, developing both artists and the art-form itself,” to quote from their website. It was the withdrawal of major sponsorship funding for one of their operas, which led Bankes-Jones to embark on a pet project of his, that of doing a production of the Julian Slade/Dorothy Reynolds 1954 musical, Salad Days. It was a huge success when first produced in 2009, and this, I believe, is its third revival. Judging by the full house, I have no doubt this too will be a big success.

    The musical has had many revivals, usually updated to the time of each production, but this one is firmly rooted in the 1950s, and it is definitely the right decision. Now distant enough, the 1950s have a period feel all their own. This is not, though, the 1950s of Grease, with motor cycles, leather jackets and slick backed hair. This is a firmly middle class 1950s Britain of cut glass English accents, of cockney reporters and workmen, a 50s when the cold war loomed and flying saucers were considered a possibility, all taking place in one of those typically mythical English summers, when the sun shines every day and it never rains.

    Occasionally 1950s mores and manners are made fun of, but only ever in the most affectionate of ways. The story revolves around Timothy and Jane, both just down from Oxford, though, typically it is Timothy who must find a job, whilst Jane must find a husband. They manage to fulfil both requirements by marrying each other and taking on the guardianship of a magic piano that makes people dance. What struck me this time round is that the book seems to be a string of carefully crafted, and often hilarious sketches, loosely held together by the Jane and Timothy story. The young people must find their way in a world filled with a crazy older generation, and maybe that is not so very far from the truth for most younger people today.

    Salad Days is a real ensemble piece, all the actors, apart from the delightfully youthful Leo Miles and Katie Moore, who play Timothy and Jane, taking on a variety of different roles. All are without exception excellent, so it seems invidious to single out anyone in particular, though I really can’t pass without mentioning Tony Timberlake, hilarious as the Inspector and Ambrose, and Kathryn Martin, whose Asphnyxia was a masterpiece of comic timing. Also worth a mention is Luke Alexander who is making his professional debut in the roles of Fosdyke and Nigel, but really every single member of the cast is quite brilliant. So too is the swiftly moving production of Bill Bankes-Jones and the wittily brilliant choreography of Quinny Sacks. Played with the audience on two sides, Tim Meacock’s stage design is cleverly minimal, though there are plenty of New Look 1950s costumes to delight the eye.

    No doubt some younger readers will find the whole thing impossibly twee, and it has to be said that the nostalgia it evokes is that of a certain generation, and no doubt a certain class, an impression confirmed by a quick glance round the auditorium last night. That said, even those who are allergic to musicals, would, I’m sure, find plenty to enjoy in the wonderfully well written, and acted, sketches. It certainly took me on a trip down memory lane and I found it an absolute delight.

     

    Riverside Studios & Tête à Tête present

    Salad Days

    Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London W6 9RL

    20th December 2012 – 2nd March 2013

    www.riversidestudios.co.uk

  • THEATRE REVIEW | My Fair Lady

    ★★★★★ | My Fair Lady

    Sheffield Theatres have managed to further cement their stellar reputation for staging top quality shows with this fresh and highly polished version of “My Fair Lady”. You probably already know the story and can hum a few of the tunes. You’ve maybe watched the 1964 film adaptation. Nothing, however, compares to this dazzling production.

    Covent Garden flower seller Eliza Doolittle is taken under the wing of linguistics Professor, Henry Higgins when, as a wager, he decides to teach her to speak ‘proper’ in order to pass her off as an aristocrat amongst high society. BAFTA winner Dominic West (The Wire, The Hour and Appropriate Adult) portrays the nuances of Higgins’ characters with aplomb and in spite of his belligerent facade, manages to win the audience over. He manfully struts round the stage looking dashing in tweed and belting out songs with skilful intonation. The beautiful Carly Bawden is utterly captivating and is a force to be reckoned with as she applies her considerable vocal and acting talent to the role of Eliza. There can’t be a much harder act to follow than the original stars of the show, Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, but West and Bawden easily accomplish this.

    The sets are elaborate and breathtaking, the choreography is stylish and rousing with more Cockneys tapping away than you could shake Dick Van Dyke’s bamboo stick at and the costumes are luscious. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an audience quite so enchanted by a production. The minute the show ended they were on their feet offering up a very noisy and rapturous standing ovation. Quite rightly too: this is a highly accomplished production, worthy of gracing any West End stage. I’m just not sure that an Edwardian gentlemen like ‘Enry ‘Iggins would approve of such jubilations. I think he’d have favoured a more gentle hand clap and a polite nod.

    If you need a little pick me up to get you through the winter months then take my advice and book now (tickets are selling out fast) and get yourself over to ‘loverly’ Sheffield. You won’t be disappointed.

    “My Fair Lady” is running at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield until 26th January 2013

  • GROOMING REVIEW | Bluebeards Revenge

    You may have heard that Christmas is upon us once again and with a week to go before the big event I draw upon last years disappointments from the other half as he opened a natural sunrise alarm clock. In my head it was the perfect gift for someone who has problems with getting up in the mornings, in his eyes it was a symbol of old age and plastic sheets!

    Determined not to make the same mistake as last year I was very pleased to receive the wonderful Bluebeards Revenge shaving gift set in the post to try out. It has everything in it the real man requires for shaving, including the doubloon brush, shaving cream, post shave balm and aftershave. As a new connoisseur of wet shaving since my Movember expedition it was nice to find a product that not only smelt great and felt smooth on the skin but one that would look good on the bathroom shelf as well.

    The Bluebeards Revenge aftershave cologne is a wonderful daytime fragrance with very fresh and clean scents. Long lasting for your hard days work it’s bound to raise a few heads. A whole range of kits are available from £20 – £110 and make perfect gifts for the bearded one in your relationship. I’m very hopeful on this one being a hit this year, plus I get a smooth faced boyfriend for Christmas, so it’s really a gift for myself!

    Pick up your kits from www.bluebeards-revenge.co.uk

  • FILM REVIEW | Life Of Pi

    ★★★★★ | Life Of Pi

    An Indian boy (Suraj Sharma), the son of a zoo keeper, with the improbable name of Pi, short for the even more improbable Piscine (I’ll let you find out for yourself how he came by that name) is shipwrecked and finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, with a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a Bengal tiger, called Richard Parker.

    Sounds improbable? Well that’s kind of the point. This is David Magee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel The Life of Pi, which, I should point out, I have never read, so I have no idea if it is a good adaptation or not. What I am quite sure of is that it is one of the best movies Ang Lee (director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain) has ever given us.

    The first thing to say is that, visually, this is a very beautiful film, and often a stunning one. The 3D effects and CGI are amazing, but the movie is so much more. Often these days, one feels that a movie is all about effects, but in Life of Pi, the effects are used to enhance what is already a compelling narrative. Lee’s use of 3G is almost poetic, immeasurably helped here by Claudio Miranda’s wonderful (in its true sense of full of wonder) cinematography.

    Suraj Sharma gives an incredible performance, growing in stature as the movie progresses and Pi learns more about life and survival, all the more remarkable when you consider that for the most part he had to react to a beast that wasn’t actually there (Richard Parker, the tiger, is mostly depicted through the magic of CGI). His performance is matched by that of Irrfan Khan, who plays the older Pi, telling his story to a Canadian writer (Rafe Spall). Like the writer, we are drawn in by Khan’s magical storytelling, the pain behind his eyes hiding a truth that is never fully explained. Like Pi, Ang Lee knows how to tell a story, how to draw his audience in. He did it in Brokeback Mountain, and, in a completely different way, he does it here. His direction is never less than masterful, more than that, poetic, inspiring.

    At the end of the movie, Pi tells us that when he was finally rescued, the story of how he survived was not believed by the authorities investigating the shipwreck, so he came up with another one, more prosaic, but even more brutal. Is the first story an allegory of the second? We are left to make our own minds up, but I know which one I choose. Definitely one of my movies of the year.

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

  • MUSIC REVIEW: This Christmas

    Set aside the cringey music video for the album’s lead single ‘I Think You Might Like It’ and you’ll find one of the best holiday albums released in a while, filled with classic, classy and expertly produced Christmas favourites including ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ (with Cliff Richard), ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ (with Barbra Streisand) and a beautiful rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to boot. (more…)

  • DVD REVIEW: Sarah Millican, Throughly Modern Millican

    Well, where do I start with this one, pet? I’m no stranger to the comic genius that is Sarah Millican, I’ve seen her perform all over the North East, in various seedy back street comedy clubs that us Geordies love, and even in the City Hall. Our born and bred Sanddancer has now hit my DVD player.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Sarah Millican Throughly Modern Millican

    Well, where do I start with this one, pet? I’m no stranger to the comic genius that is Sarah Millican, I’ve seen her perform all over the North East, in various seedy back street comedy clubs that us Geordies love, and even in the City Hall. Our born and bred Sanddancer has now hit my DVD player.

    Not one for the feint hearted, or the easily offended. The latest offering, Thoroughly Modern Millican is filled with more f***s than a Dutch brothel! I guarantee that Sarah’s script will have your stomach muscles aching, like you’ve just done 500 sit ups!

    Sarah tackles the trivial, daily happenings with hilarious revelations. My favourite part of the set sees Sarah enlist the help of her audience to discuss what can be used when we’ve run out of toilet paper! Or the equally hilarious section of the show Sarah spends discussing the usefulness of carrying spare pairs of pants.

    Delivered with her renowned Geordie manner, class and tact – or lack thereof, Sarah spends 90 minutes commanding the audience into fits of laughter and side splitting roars of hilarity.

    Not wishing to give too much away, Sarah looks so comfortable on the stage, even with a mouth filled with childhood favourite popping candy!

    Admittedly, I am slightly biased as us Geordies tend to stick together, but trust me, if you’re looking for a last minute Christmas gift, a stocking filler or even a treat for yourself, this is one festive purchase I promise you won’t regret.

    I urge you, if you haven’t yet seen, bought, borrowed or even stolen Sarah’s DVD, make it the first thing you do tomorrow!

    As always, once you’ve seen it let me know! You can tweet me at @NKMackley.

    TheGayUK does not actually endorse you stealing a copy of the DVD, nor do we encourage you to practise

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime