THEGAYUK

Tag: Film Review

All the latest film reviews for LGBT themed films and others.

  • 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.

    Erik is a Danish documentary film-maker who meets Paul via a telephone 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 throughout 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 to view 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 feels 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.

    Directed by Ira Sachs

    See other reviews for Gay Dramas

    See reviews of other five-star gay movies

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    This review was first published in January 2013

  • FILM REVIEW | Cocoon

    FILM REVIEW | Cocoon

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Cocoon is a true depiction of the trials and triumphs of female adolescence, a coming-of-age tale that every woman can relate to.

    In the heat of a shimmering Berlin summer, Nora (Lena Urzendowsky) spends her days as a third wheel to her older sister Jule (Lena Klenke) and her best friend Aylin (Elina Vildanova). They think and talk only of boys and how to keep thin, whilst wandering the vibrant city streets taking selfies and juvenile social media videos. Feeling the pressures to fit in, Nora goes along with her sister’s frolics – drinking, smoking and playing ‘smack the finger’ with the boys. But with their alcoholic mother largely absent, it is Jule who bears the brunt of Nora’s supervision. Nora looks up to Jule but still keeps and cares for caterpillars, an activity she and her mother once shared.

    On a gym day at school, Nora gets her period for the first time in front of the class – one embarrassing step too far for Jule. When older student Romy rushes to Nora’s rescue, a friendship blossoms and Nora falls fast in love for the first time. But as the hottest summer on record comes to a close, things will never be the same for Nora – the butterfly has emerged from her cocoon. 

    Now available in cinemas and on VOD.

  • FILM REVIEW | Funny Boy

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Set in 1970’s and 1980’s Sri Lanka, and adapted from Shyam Selvadurai’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name, Funny Boy is a coming-of-age film of a young boys exploration of his identity and set against the backdrop of 1980’s Sri Lankan Civil War.

    Arjie (Arush Nand) lives with his wealthy family in a beautiful home and very close to his large extended family. He doesn’t want to play soccer with the other boys, including his brother – he actually wants to dress up in colourful clothes and hang out with his cool aunt Rahda (Agam Darshi). But Arjie’s parents know he is different, but as Arjie gets older (played by Brandon Ingram), there is no denying that Arjie is gay. He even becomes best friends with, and then falls in love with a fellow male classmate. And when his family catches them in the act, they feel that Arjie has disgraced them, And it’s especially more daunting is that his boyfriend is Sinhalese, while Arjie and his family are Tamil. This is all set against instability and unrest in Sri Lanka, and at a time when homosexuality there was illegal (it still remains as an offence in the country’s books). Arjie suffers because of who he is and who he loves.

    Funny Boy is such a lovely film. We would like for more films just like this, please.

    Written by Deepa Mehta and Shyam Selvadurai, the film stars Brandon Ingram, Nimmi Harasgama, Agam Darshi, Ali Kazmi, Seema Biswas, and Arush Nand.

    Funny Boy is Canada’s official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.

    Now playing in the UK and Ireland also available on Netflix.

  • FILM REVIEW | Patrick – Clothes not needed

    FILM REVIEW | Patrick – Clothes not needed

    Rating: 3 out of 5.

    Patrick has lost his hammer, and he’s also lost his clothes!

    You see Patrick (Kevin Jannsens), in the new film simply called ‘Patrick,’ works at a nudist camp deep in the woods in a remote area in Belgium. It’s a nudist camp his father owns, and where, along with his mother, all share a home in the camp. His mother is blind and his father is getting a bit too old to run the camp. Then one day Patrick notices that one of his hammers is gone, so he spends the entire film in search of his hammer (yes, literally a hammer). Patrick goes from tent to tent in the hopes of finding his hammer – he so obsessed about it that when his father suddenly dies, Patrick still has only one thing on his mind  – yes you guessed it –  to find his hammer.

    The nudist camp is full of characters, all naked all the time. After a bit, the nudity becomes a bit unnoticeable and the storyline gets quirkier and quirkier, including when a famous American musician takes up a spot in the camp who perhaps knows a thing to two about the hammer. Also about to be revealed is a secret his father had, and his mother’s knowledge about the secret. But Patrick is oblivious to the whole thing – he just wants his hammer back. From Peaky Blinders director Tim Mielants, Patrick is quirky, a bit funny, and definitely different.   

    https://anti-worldsreleasing.co.uk/pages/patrick

  • FILM REVIEW | County Lines – Drug dealing is hard work

    FILM REVIEW | County Lines – Drug dealing is hard work

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Henry Blake, in his debut as director and writer, gives us an intimate and moving portrait of a young man groomed into the drug trade.

    In County Lines, we meet Tyler (Conrad Khan), who lives at home with his single mother Toni (a very good Ashley Madekwe) and his little sister Briony (Shauna Sim). Tyler is a disaffected youth in east London, and at 14 is the man of the house. His mother has a hard time making ends meet, and also has a hard time getting Tyler to open up. Tyler is just going through the motions at school, couldn’t care either way about it, nor about the men his mom brings home. But one day he meets the good-looking and sharp-dressed Simon (Harris Dickinson).

    Simon offers Tyler the opportunity to make money, money much needed in his cash strapped home to pay the bills. Soon enough, Tyler gets sucked into the world of drug-running – delivering drugs and collecting money – but it all comes at a risk, not just from the authorities but from other dealers in the business as well. But Tyler gets in way too deep, but will the new trainers and extra money be worth the risk?

    Khan is just about perfect as the young man who wants to do right by his family and takes an opportunity he sees as too good to be true. Khan, a veteran of many films, including The Huntsman and The Passenger, has an amazingly expressive face. Madekwe also just about perfect as his struggling mom, while Dickinson (Beach Rats) is good as always. Director Blake pulls us into Tyler’s bleak world from the start – it’s an amazing debut from Blake – who originally created this film as a short – nominated for the Best British Short Film Award at the London Short Film Festival last year. 

    County Lines is released in cinemas and digitally on BFI Player and Curzon Home Cinema on 4 December

  • FILM REVIEW | Ghosts of the Republique – Gay French couple desperately want a child

    Rating: 5 out of 5.

    A newly married French gay couple journey to America to find a surrogate in the moving documentary ‘Ghosts of the Republique.’

    It was love at first sight for Aurelien and Nicolas when they meet at a gay club in Paris. They wind up getting married and such begins the film and their journey. It’s 2014 and estate agent Nicolas and flight attendant Aurelien make a perfect couple, while both their parents have accepted the fact that their gay sons would never be parents. Even Nicolas’s mother is happy to now have two sons but upset that she’ll never be happy as she’ll never have a grandchild.

    However, Aurelien and Nicolas do want to have a child, but they face serious obstacles – the most difficult one being that the French government does not allow surrogacy. It’s a government that passed same-sex marriage in 2013 but is not quite progressive enough. Aurelien and Nicolas are so determined to be parents that they fly to Las Vegas to start a family of their own through international surrogacy. They search high and low for an egg donor and also a surrogate to carry the egg to produce a child. They interview several local women, make decisions, and proceed with the process.

    It’s a process that’s complex, full of loopholes and uncertainty, and where every step has to go perfect and according to plan. Getting their non-French born baby back into France and establishing French citizenship is another hurdle to tackle. We go through the highs and the lows with Aurelien and Nicolas in the documentary – it’s an emotional ride made bearable by the charming couple who desperately want a baby, and we see them travel back and forth from France to the US several times to check in their baby mama.

    Ghosts of the Republique, directed by American Jonathon Narducci, provides us with much joy and drama in this sweet and touching story of Aurelien and Nicolas. 

    Ghosts of the Republique is now available on Amazon Prime, iTunes and other platforms.

  • FILM REVIEW | Bare – For fans of male nudity – and dance

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    In the new documentary film Bare, these men are whittled down to eleven who rehearse and perform the premiere of Belgian choreographer Thierry Smit’s new dance piece ‘Anima Ardens.’ Director Aleksandr M. Vinogradov’s captures the auditions, and rehearsals, in this documentary that is both revealing, sexy and fun. Filmed in Brussels, the men, all presumably professional dancers, jump at the chance of working with Smits, a well-known choreographer who set up his own company in 1990, and who has created over 30 dance performances. His dance pieces are contemporary, with fusions of pop, queer and often provocative aesthetics included.

    The eleven men have no problem getting naked. One, during the early stages of the audition, raises the question as to why the camera is in the room. The explanation is that a documentary will be made about this process answers the question, and the show goes on. However we really don’t get to know any of the dancers individually, and Smits, front and centre, also remains an enigma. But combining Smits with the dancers in their daily struggle to get the dance moves correct, with Smits not quite knowing exactly what he is looking for, brings mystery and drama into play.

    All the dancers are very sexy, of course especially when naked, but after a bit, the nudity becomes almost invisible (but not quite) and it’s the performance piece they are rehearsing that takes centre stage because it’s unconventional. All the dancers appear to be very comfortable with each other, and near the end, they are all very playful in the showers as they clean up after a day of rehearsal. And Bare cleverly ends as the first performance of ‘Anima Ardens’ begins. Lucky for us, just a quick Google search will lead you to see the actual dance piece in its entirety. 

    Bare is indeed bare; it’s sexy, raw and in your face.

    Bare held its world premiere at Hot Docs and has also been featured at Cinema Diverse, Doc NYC and DocEdge.

    Look for it hopefully at UK film festivals in 2021.

  • FILM REVIEW | Dating Amber – Growing up gay is not easy

    FILM REVIEW | Dating Amber – Growing up gay is not easy

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Fionn O’Shea and Lola Petticrew are just about perfect as a young couple who pretend to fall in love in1995 Ireland in the new film Dating Amber.

    But they are not an actual couple. You see Eddie (O’Shea) is Gay (though he won’t admit it), and Amber (Petticrew) is a Lesbian, and both are on the cusp of finishing their last year of high school. Amber, who lives with her widowed mother in a trailer park, has dreams of moving to London after she graduates. Eddie, meanwhile, plans to go into the military to follow in his father’s footsteps. But to survive their final year at school, and to ward off name-calling and bullying from their fellow students, they decide to pretend to be a couple (this is after a failed attempt on Eddie’s part to woo a blond girl, though he fails to grab her boob during a groping session).

    Eddie and Amber go through their charade and actually make a perfect couple; Eddie is shy, very cute and adorable, while Amber is aggressive, knows what she wants, and has all the best lines. However, after a night out to a gay bar in Dublin where Amber meets someone, and Eddie still not quite ready to accept that he’s gay, the pressure is on for him to take charge of his life, to appease his father (Barry Ward) and very understanding and knowing mother (Sharon Horgan), alongside his know-it-all younger brother (Evan O’Connor). 

    This coming-of-age comedy is a poignant, honest and funny look at the highs and lows of teenage life while growing up in a conservative environment where young people who are different don’t seem to fit in. Both leads are just absolutely perfect, the feel of mid-90s Ireland comes through the screen, and the funny script makes Dating Amber the one of best romantic comedy and growing up films of the year.

    Now available on Demand and Digital

  • FILM REVIEW | Proxima – Will melt your heart

    FILM REVIEW | Proxima – Will melt your heart

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Eva Green is superb as a divorced single mother who is an astronaut chosen to go into space in the excellent Proxima.

    Sarah (Green) is a French astronaut training at the European Space Agency in Cologne and lives alone with her seven-year-old daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant), and still friendly with her ex-husband Thomas (Lars Eidinger).  

    Being the only woman in the space program, Sarah is chosen to be part of the crew for a year-long space mission called ‘Proxima.’ While she is honoured and privileged to be chosen, she must weigh the fact that this will take her away from her delicate daughter for a year, and this also means putting Sarah in the middle of a male-only mission where there is very little sympathy for her being a woman and a mother. She has to put up with misogynistic banter, and fellow crew members who need to more time to get used to going up into space with a woman. Even the captain Mike (a very good Matt Dillon) doesn’t immediately take a liking to her. But Sarah slowly earns the respect of the crew and slowly prepares Stella for her departure. But second thoughts enter Sarah’s head, and right up to the last minute she has her doubts.

    Proxima premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and proceeded to run the festival circuit where it won the Special Jury Prize at San Sebastian Film Festival. Vertical Entertainment has released the film on digital and VOD platforms. Green (last seen in Dumbo) is absolutely fantastic and her performance puts her in awards contentions.

    Dillon, who last made screen waves, and controversy, in the 2018 film The House That Jack Built, shines as the team leader, and he’s good-looking as ever. Proxima is a film that will bring tears to your eyes and will melt your heart.

    Order PROXIMA from Amazon out on DVD/BluRay and Digital 23rd November

  • FILM REVIEW | Dedalus – startling and memorable

    FILM REVIEW | Dedalus – startling and memorable

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Dedalus is a fictional triptych portraying community, love, and loss.

    It’s a film that deals with homosexuality and age, with three very different storylines. And while one of them is a bit confusing, it’s a very good piece of work by a first-time director.

    A goodlooking young man (newcomer Alexander Horner, a natural) is a bit lost in life, always struggling to make ends meet, going from couch to couch. But he knows what he likes – he enjoys the ‘company’ of older men. He also needs food and shelter during a cold winter in New York City. He is also sexually attracted to older men. And even though a young woman takes him in, nothing satiates his quest for love then older gay client. He meets a succession of them, most of them wealthy, and lonely. They all, of course, take a fancy to him. But he falls for an anxious lawyer (Thomas Jay Ryan) and can foresee a relationship with him, but the lawyer has other things in mind. This second of the three stories in this film is the most hard-hitting and unforgettable.

    Directed by Jonah Greenstein, an independent filmmaker, the other two stories deal with a fathers mortality which compels him to leave his home in Los Angeles and move in with his daughter, and the other story takes place in rural Iowa, a grocery cashier watches helplessly as classmates conceal their act of sexual violence against his teenaged step-sister. 

    All gorgeously directed by Jonah Greenstein, an independent filmmaker. He’s worked with some big names (Rami Malek, Michelle Wiiliams, documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras), but it’s this debut, which laces loneliness. beauty and mystery, to create a film that is both startling and memorable.

    Now on on Streaming Platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Prime, OVID.tv & Kanopy

  • FILM REVIEW | Summer of ’85 – The joys of young love

    FILM REVIEW | Summer of ’85 – The joys of young love

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Remember your first romance? It probably took place during the summer. The new film Summer of ’85 beautifully tells the story of one young man who experiences his first romance – in the summer of 1985.

    The opening song ‘In Between Days’ by The Cure sets the era for the film (yes, you know it if you were around then). Summer of 85 is set in a Normandy, France, seaside town where Alexis Robin (a memorable Félix Lefebvre) lives with his parents and is in the gap period between school and college.

    Alexis enjoys being the near the water, so much so that one day he takes a small boat out to sea but gets caught in a storm. He is rescued by the all too dashing Benjamin Voisin (David Gorman). Benjamin makes sure Félix is fine and takes him to his home to take care of him, where his mom (a very good Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) undresses Félix for a hot bath and admires his manhood). This leads to a quick relationship where Alexis has his first real crush (and love) with Benjamin. But it’s all too fast and furious, and when Benjamin’s mom (who was recently widowed) asks Félix to work in their nautical shop full time, it’s might be too much too soon for the perfect pair. And when Brit Kate (Philippine Velge) enters the picture the boys’ relationship is put to the test. Will it pass or fail? And then an unseen tragedy, typical in French films, dramatically changes the tone of the film.

    Directed and co-written by the masterFrançois Ozon – the creator of so many great and memorable films (recent films include By the Grace of God and L’Amant Double) scores another winner here with a superb choice of actors, location, and songs (’Sailing’ by Rod Steward and Bananarama’s ‘Cruel Summer’ tells the story in their titles). Though the film goes a bit off the charts by having Félix dress up as a young woman in one silly scene (reminiscent of The New Girlfriend), Summer of ’85 is a very memorable and charming film about young love. It’s a film that will take you back to your first summer love. 

    Summer of 85 is in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema