THEGAYUK

Tag: Film Review

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

  • FILM REVIEW | Starred Up

    Violent prison dramas with raw angry men desperately displaying their machismo just to survive the regime of brutality that pervades in jails always have an underlying tone of homo-eroticism in them. ‘Starred Up’ with a brilliant career-making performance from 23-year-old Jack O’Connell is one such movie especially as it has the near-obligatory shower scene that ends in a naked fight.

    ★★★★★

    O’Connell plays troublesome teenager Eric Love who has been moved from a juvenile detention facility as they cannot handle him any more. Unlike the other inmates banged up in this adult jail, he doesn’t want to get out, as the reason he has forced the authorities to send him to an adult prison, is that his father, who he barely knows, has been serving time there for the past 14 years.

    The back-story as to how these two ended up being incarcerated is vague to say the least but it’s not that important as its the attempt at reconciliation between father and son that is the focus of the story. He may only be 19, but Eric is a hardened criminal who knows how to work the system, which only serves to enrage the corrupt prison guards who are determined that they will not be beaten by this youth, even if it means actually having him killed. Their undisguised anger is matched by the determination of a do-gooder volunteer social worker who is insistent that he can cure Eric, and maybe even his father, by some simplistic anger-management.

    It gets a tad confusing on occasion when the men’s shouting matches become incoherent, but one doesn’t need subtitles to get the gist of the violent action most of the time. This is essentially Eric’s story and of the way that he has deliberately chosen to develop into manhood. We are never sure either because of the script, or O’Connell’s mesmerizing performance, if the boy actually loves his father or really wants him dead.

    Directed by David McKenzie (‘Young Adam’, ‘Hallam Foe’) from a script by Jonathan Asser based on his own experiences as a prison social work. Even with strong supporting performances from Ben Mendelsohn as the father and Rupert Friend as the social worker, this film, one of the very best prison dramas for a long time, completely belongs to Eric, thanks to O’Connell’s portrayal. We are bound to see a lot more of this actor as he destined for stardom.
    P.S. Starred Up is a term used in the UK to describe the early transfer of a criminal from a Young Offender Institution to an adult prison.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4ziBfu0JA
    by Roger Walker-Dack

  • FILM REVIEW | The Riot Club; Violent Morally Abhorrent, Immensley Watchable

    ★★★★ The Riot Club | The atrocious unsocial behaviour of a group of very wealthy privileged college-age offspring of England’s landed gentry whose utter contempt for the poor is matched by their assumed rights of trashing and vandalising other people’s properties, seems a odd topic for a movie.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Boys On Film 12: Confessions: Applauded For Their High Production Values

    FILM REVIEW | Boys On Film 12: Confessions: Applauded For Their High Production Values

    Boys On Film 12: Confessions | ★★★★★

    UK film distributor Peccadillo Pictures much-acclaimed series of gay short films BOYS ON FILM has a new 12th Edition called CONFESSIONS.

    Like all the previous collections this shockingly-good compilation of movies from mainly first-time filmmakers around the world features different stories about the lives of young gay men. As the title indicates the theme of this latest collection is about exposing private lives and uncovering secrets and presenting a choice or whether to keep hiding or to confess?

    Of the nine powerful tales, there are three standouts that make this anthology one of the best to date. From Australia, SHOWBOY written and directed by Samuel Leighton-Dore is the moving story of Julian a young football player. After the unexpected death of his mother, he finds himself struggling to support his depressed, unemployed father while fighting to keep safe the secret he once shared with his mother. He’s not only gay, but performs drag shows too.

    From the Netherlands, CRUISE PATROL written and directed by Bobby de Groot & Arjan van Meerten is a gloriously highly stylised animated movie about what happens on a long and dusty road where a routine cruise patrol takes a strange turn and spirals totally out of control.

    Finally, from Belgium, HUMAN WARMTH directed by Christophe Predari, is the tale of Antoine’s desire. His passion and his love is so overwhelming that he has to stay close to Bruno. He loves his warmth and he needs it. But as with any relationship, soon comes the time of detachment and what will happen if Antoine’s body stops responding? It is by far the most erotic and sensuous piece of the collection.

    Short films offer a wealth of different experiences and these ones, in particular, are wonderfully thought-provoking too. They should be applauded also for their high production values despite the micro budgets they were made off, and for the fact that gives gay audiences an opportunity to experience new talent behind and in front of the camera.

  • FILM REVIEW | Who’s Afraid Of Vagina Wolf?

    ★★ | Who’s Afraid Of Vagina Wolf?

    Anna has just turned 40. She’s a chubby Cuban/American lesbian filmmaker, lonely, depressed and with more than a generous helping of self-pity that she loves to wallow in. At her birthday party to mark her entry into middle-age she wears a giant vagina costume which may get her the odd performing gig at a trendy museum but it isn’t going to get her laid tonight. Undaunted and back in her friend’s L.A. garage next morning where she has been living for some months now, she maps out her annual birthday goals. They are the exact same ones she has had for several years and never even gets close to achieving. She wants to a) make a movie, b) lose 20lbs and c) find a girlfriend.

    She thinks she may start on the third one just a few nights later at a screening of one of her Short Movies which seems to delight a very attractive girl in the audience. Katya is stunningly beautiful but she is also a bit of cold fish and a pretentious cultural snob. Nevertheless in conversation with her later Anna is so mesmerised by the fact that Katya is even spending time with her, she listens to the younger girl egg her on to make a new movie. Anna only agrees as she thinks this may be a way to get into the girl’s panties.

    To impress her potential girlfriend Anna decides to make an all-lesbian version of Edward Albee’s classic ‘Who’s Afraid or Virginia Woolf’ and encouraged by Katya describes the project as ‘a post examination of lesbo-phobia’. I’m not sure about that, but what I do know when this film about making a film gets to this part, it’s all downhill from now on. There was the possibility that this remake of one of Elizabeth Taylor’s Oscar-winning roles would be good as Guinevere Turner (The L Word) would be playing Martha, but as Katya persuades the love-smitten Anna to tone down all the famous histrionics, then that lost all of its steam too.

    This movie is based on the real life of its writer/director/star Anna Margarita Albelo who bears a passing resemblance to Lena Dunham (‘Tiny Furniture’ ‘Girls’) whom I am guessing she may aspire to be.

    However, unlike Ms Dunham who is a Golden Globe/Emmy-winning all-rounder gifted powerhouse, the very inexperienced Ms Albelo lacks her fine sense of humour and her talent to act. In this piece, she is sadly her own worst enemy as her stilted writing may have fared slightly better if her role had been played by a real actress.

    Full of good intentions this micro-budget movie had some potential especially when the cast also included Carrie Preston (‘The Good Wife’) and also young Agnès Olech who did a fine turn as Julia the girl who really fancied Anna, But for a comedy it took itself way too seriously which really dampened the humour. There is one moment that is funny for the wrong reason when Katya is trying to be deep and profound with Anna and says ‘Remember what Jean-Luc Goddard said and shit on your audience as much as possible!’. For the record, M. Goddard did not say that, but I must admit that occasionally it felt that Anna had believed he did.

    For the record, by the end of the year, Anna achieved two of her goals. I’ll leave it to you to find out which two.

  • FILM REVIEW | Interstellar: Bigger Than It can handle, And What We Can Handle

    ★★★ | Interstellar

    There’s a lot of hype surrounding the new film Interstellar, which opens on Friday.

    It’s directed by Christopher Nolan, the man who brought us the billion-dollar grossing films (each!) The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Returns. He also brought us 2000’s smart and highly intellectual film Memento and 2010’s highly confusing Inception. Also upping the hype around Interstellar is that it stars recent Academy Award winners Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, multiple Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain, as well as Oscar winners Michael Caine, Ellen Burnstyn, and in an uncredited/unbilled but pivotal role in the film, Matt Damon. Also by the look of the trailer, it looks visually and experimentally stunning. It’s on the path to be this year’s Gravity.

    Interstellar is a lot of things. But according to Nolan, it hinges on the provocative question of humanity’s place in the stars. Interstellar means ‘occurring or situated between stars,’ and that’s basically what the movie is all about. It’s also about Black Holes, distance galaxies, uninhabitable and habitable planets, spaceship travel, and what drives the plot is the relationship a father has with his daughter.

    Set in the near future when an agricultural crisis has hit Earth and there is not enough food to eat and the population is slowly dying. The land is very dry and there are massive sandstorms that engulf the planet. With the possibility of the extinction of humans, a dangerous and daring mission takes place to look for planets outside of the universe where humans can move to, survive, and most importantly, reproduce. It’s a mission that goes above and beyond the barriers of time and space, defying not only gravity but inter-galaxy travel as well. It’s an experimental mission that’s not only very dangerous, but life altering as well.

    Cooper (McConaughey) is a former test pilot and engineer who’s now a farmer because that is what is needed in this decaying, dry new world. The only crop that is left on earth is corn, so this is what he grows at his vast farm, with the help of his father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow) and his two children – teenage son Tom (Timothee Chalamet) and daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy). Cooper hears of some sort of experimental space project going on in his area, so he drives off attempting to find it, at the same time finding Murph in the back of the car when she was told to stay home. She’s as much of a space geek as her father.

    They find the compound, or actually, the compound finds them, and they both get whisked into the underground bunker. It’s actually a fortress made up of scientists and engineers, led by Professor Brand (Caine). He leads the project for the search of a planet in perhaps another universe that can sustain the human race. A project which includes a newly built spaceship.

    So Cooper (without the blessing of his daughter) and Brand’s scientist daughter Amelia (Hathaway) and two others blast off into space, into the darkness, on a mission that seems impossible. But what Cooper doesn’t know is that 13 other astronauts had previously attempted the mission, and all have not been heard from since. And to add drama to the story, Amelia was in love with one of them.

    It’s the space mission (and Cooper and Murph’s relationship) that drives Interstellar. And what a drive it is. Nolan takes us into space and beyond like no other filmmaker has. We are transported into another universe, through black holes, to other planets. One planet has waves the size of the Empire State Building, while another is caked in ice, where they find one of the 13 astronauts alive – Dr. Mann (Damon). And this is when Coopers’ and Amelia’s mission strays off it’s course, in a detrimental way. One hour on this planet equals 20 years on Earth, so the more time spent there, the more time Cooper’s children grow up, and old, without him.

    What Interstellar tries to do is use the magnitude and grandeur of space as a backdrop for exploring the relationships that Cooper has with his children, especially his daughter. It’s also about all kinds of things – our lives on earth, what will happen when our earth can no longer sustain us, who are are, and it makes us look at the relationships we have. It basically asks us to examine, all this, and more, in its 169 minutes. London-born Nolan successfully puts the audience into space, and McConaughey successfully makes us believe that he’s got the passion for being in space, but Interstellar leaves us mere mortals behind in a film that is a bit overwhelming, mind-bending, demanding and a bit confusing. And the sound quality is not the best, the music and noise at times drown out what the characters are saying in a few crucial scenes. And with two recent air space accidents in the last couple weeks, no one is really in a rush to get to space.

    Written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, Interstellar is a movie bigger than it can handle, and what we can handle.

  • FILM REVIEW | Snails In The Rain, Four Stars

    Snails In The Rain | ★★★★

    Every day on his way to University, linguistics student Boaz stops at the Post Office to check his mailbox to see if there is a letter telling him he has been awarded a Scholarship to continue his studies in Jerusalem. One day however, inside the box he finds a letter he has not been expecting, is a note from a secret male admirer who says that watching Boaz from afar is the highlight of his day.

    The place is Tel Aviv and the year is 1989 when homosexuality was secretive and closeted and encounters only happened in the dark shadows of night. It was also the time before computers and emails when the mail was still the main way to communicate. Boaz has been happily living with Noa his adoring girlfriend for over a year now, and his life is seemingly as perfect as it can get. Now when these unsolicited letters start arriving he gets thrown off kilter and they suddenly reignite memories he had chosen to forget when he almost hadam intimate encounter with another man during his Military service.By the time the third letter has arrived, Boaz’s curiosity to the author’s identity has turned into paranoia, as he believes that every man he encounters in the street, on the bus, in the library is staring at him in a lustful manner. The fact that Boaz is played by Yoav Reuveni a rather stunning ex-international male model turned actor would make this a totally feasible assumption. It is however Noa, who suspicious of Boaz’s sudden change in attitude at home, who finds the letters and correctly puts two and two together to work out who the real writer is.

    Boaz is now desperately struggling with his sexual identity so much so that when the 4th letter arrives and demands that he agrees to a pre-arranged way of signaling if he is in fact interested in returning his admirers affection, that he gets in such a state that he is about to explode. Or do something to vent out his anger and confusion that he may somehow regret.

    This rather intriguing drama about repressed homosexual feelings and desire acutely brings back an era when lust was often hidden and unrequited. The movie was based on a short story by Yossi Avni Levy who is (most intriguingly) currently the Israeli Ambassador in Serbia. It was directed and written by Yariv Moser (who co-starred in it too) best known for his two excellent documents ‘My First War’ and ‘The Invisible Men’. Moser’s decision to cast first-time actors paid off well as Mr. Reuveni in particular turned in a pitch perfect turn as the perturbed Boaz.

    And knowing how to keep his audience completely glued to the screen Moser heightens the air of homoeroticism with having Boaz constantly take showers at the drop of a hat too.

    Highly recommended.

  • FILM REVIEW | Mood Indigo

    ★★★ | Mood Indigo

    Have you ever want to like something so much, looked forward to seeing something so much, eager with anticipation?

    And then it happens and its, umm, well, it’s, not quite what you thought or expected?

    A film that includes the inimitable Amelie actress Audrey Tautou and the quirky actor from Populaire, Romain Duris, and has a storyline that reads like a William Burroughs script, and I really expected something kooky, something off the wall?

    I’d read about it before it came out – in itself a long protracted event as it seemed to take forever to get a UK cinema release. Based on a popular French novel by Boris Vian, it takes place in a fantasy version of Paris, where cars fly, pianos make cocktails and people stretch whilst skating – and not just their muscles!

    I hate to spoil the stories when doing a review of a film or DVD, so I won’t go into details on this score apart from the well-publicised basics – boy meets girl, falls in love, marry and then girl becomes seriously ill as a flower starts to grow in her lung… as it does.

    The boy then has to use all available funds to buy a flower to help heal his girl and takes all sorts of odd jobs to fund this. The rest is available on the DVD for you to watch.

    One word used a lot in reviews and write ups on this film is “whimsy” and it’s a great word to sum this up – it is whimsical in the extreme but it lacks some of the finesse of either Amelie and Populaire – though both actors and the rest of the cast and crew give it their all and do a good job.

    The director is responsible for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind, Rewind and it kind of shows, the story takes all kind of twists and turns, but the special effects are not up to the expected level and seem amateurish and at times awkward. The story doesn’t follow the normal narrative trail but seems to waver as it moves towards its end.

    I didn’t hate this film, how could you? But I didn’t love it and ended feeling disappointed and a little let down. Whether this is down to me and my high expectations or the film and its production, I’m not sure… As always, I’d urge you to watch and decide for yourself. I do think its worth watching, but don’t expect the usual Tautou or Duris fair….

    I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars, I wish it was more

  • FILM REVIEW | Bumblef**k USA

    ★★★★ | Bumblef**k USA

    Newbie filmmaker Aaron Douglas Johnson’s debut feature is an unsettling docu-drama hybrid that arose from a very personal tragedy in his life.

    Johnson was born in a small town in Iowa and as an only child he grew up very close to his cousin Matt. By all accounts, Matthew, a devout Catholic and a passionate Republican, was a very popular member of his high school soccer team. Matthew was also gay, and at the age of 24 committed suicide after coming out of the closet in his hometown. This film, however, is not a biopic but Johnson’s attempt to try and get a better understanding of what it must have been like for Matthew to struggle with his sexuality in this small town in Middle America.

    The film successfully mixes a fictional story about Alexa a young blond Dutch woman who had befriended Matt on a Course somewhere and she has flown to Iowa from Amsterdam to make a documentary about her friends passing. Amongst all the interviews she films (unscripted and with very actual local lesbians and gays) she goes on somewhat of her own roller-coaster ride as she also starts to discover her own true identity as well.

    Settling into a house where she has rented a room for the summer, Alexa is so caught up in her own world that she is unaware that Lukas her landlord, a lonely man in his 40s, is immediately attracted to her. In fact, we soon discover that she has an unfortunate manner taking all kindnesses for granted and happily using and promptly discarding everybody who takes any interest in her.

    After her first night in Iowa, this somewhat confused girl wakes up in a strange bed without much recollection on how she ended up there. Her bed partner is Jennifer a local bartender/artist and the two women could not be more opposite. Not just because this is Alexa’s first time with a woman, but the fact out and proud lesbian Jennifer is an edgy positive woman who knows exactly what she wants out of life. And that doesn’t include sleeping with ‘straight’ women who end up running back to their boyfriends, as she has done that already.

    Alexa’s voyage of discovery will start at that moment when she cannot wait to get dressed and get out of Jennifer’s apartment. She’ll be back on and off, but not before she has a romp in a cemetery (well with a male grave digger) who, when he has finished making out with her in her room, is then unceremoniously kicked out by the Landlord at her request. Lukas will eventually try his luck after he has seen Alex dispensing sexual favours liberally with others, and when she resists, he rapes her.

    Johnson’s intriguing and thought-provoking film is somewhat disturbing. Not simply as the talking heads so poignantly articulate their own strife dealing, and overcoming, with some of the negative consequences after acknowledging the truth about their sexuality, but using a thoughtless and self-absorbed protagonist in the fictional story made it nigh on impossible to sympathise with her at times. It was, however, a very clever and unusual formula for reinforcing his key message i.e. it’s still tough being out and gay in so many places even today.

    Johnson should be applauded for honouring his cousin’s memory in this manner, and if this movie succeeds in just saving one more life, then it was all definitely worthwhile.

  • FILM REVIEW | Finding Vivian Maier

    ★★★★★ | Finding Vivian Maier

    A young graduate working on a history project bought a suitcase full of photographic negatives in a Chicago auction hoping that one or two them maybe useful in his research. However what John Maloof discovered that day in 2007 was a treasure trove of what is undoubtedly one on the finest collection of street photography ever made. They all turned out to be the work of one person a Vivian Maier, someone so totally unknown there wasn’t a single mention of her on Google or any other Internet search engine.

    A curious Maloof turned detective and his painstaking research helped him very gradually put together a picture of this mystery genius and at the same time discover and purchase even more of her work. Vivian Maier had been born in New York in 1929 and had then spent much of her childhood in France before returning to Chicago where she worked for almost 40 years as a Nanny. Every new discovery Maloof made about the unknown Maier was a shocking revelation as very few of the people she had worked for had any sense that this extremely odd woman they had hired to look after their offspring was a prolific obsessed photographer with such a remarkable eye. It seems most of her young charges knew as Nanny Maier dragged them through the seamier rough spots of the city clutching her camera looking for subjects as part of their daily constitutional.

    As Maloof pieced together Maier’s story like a jigsaw what emerged was a picture of a very eccentric loner and a compulsive hoarder who was an immensely private person. It’s only when he traces her steps in France does he discover that Maier knew that she was talented but apart from a brief correspondence with one printer did she ever talk about letting people see her work. The fact that news of the discovery of the 100000 plus negatives and the 700 plus undeveloped rolls of film had gone viral, there were still doubters from the people who knew Maier that she would have ever wanted this worldwide fame and recognition.

    This new documentary that Maloof wrote and directed, along with writer/producer Charlie Siskel, is exceptional for two distinct reasons. Firstly the very human story about this rather bizarre woman who was described as being ‘so awesomely unique’ and ‘a very closed cold person’ and who ended up losing one job with the mother explaining to her child ‘Vivian has got a little too crazy even for us’. The reminisces of the people who knew her are riveting and poignant. And then there is this whole superb body of work which is so exceptionally wonderful it stuns you into silence at times. Howard Greenberg a leading NY Gallerist who holds exhibitions of her work claims that no other photographer’s work has ever generated this much interest in his time.

    Credit to Maloof on several counts. Not only for recognising the significance of his find, and for his sheer doggedness and determination to ‘finding’ Vivian Maier, but also for the impressive way he put this all together in this, his first ever movie.

    There are so many components of this story that will keep you wondering and wanting to know more. Like why would this aggressively shy person produce so many ingenious portraits of herself that she could have been credited as being the creator of the ubiquitous selfie?

    Unmissable: and you will want to see it at least twice.

  • FILM REVIEW | Palo Alto

    ★★★★ | Palo Alto

    The directorial debut of Gia Coppola, Palo Alto is an exploration of high school teenagers experimentations with sex, drugs, and alcohol, and it’s an impressive debut.

    Coppola, the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and niece of Sofia Coppola and Nicholas Cage, turns James Franco’s book of the same name into a gritty yet honest movie of a bunch of teenagers in a Palo Alto, California High School. Franco’s book was a series of stories, and Coppola’s film links them up beautifully to create a film that flows, with characters who we could all relate to.

    April (an amazing Emma Roberts) is the class virgin. April’s popular amongst her peers and is a star soccer player. She is also being chased by her creepy soccer coach Mr B., whom she babysits for (Franco, in one of his best roles in years). But Mr B. just doesn’t like April, he also ‘likes’ other girls at the school – he’s a paedophile.

    Meanwhile, Teddy (Jack Kilmer), and Fred (Nat Wolff) are the best of friends, yet it’s Fred unpredictable behaviour that at times becomes explosive and dangerous. And Teddy has a huge crush on April, and he is unaware of her relationship with Mr B.

    Zoe Levin plays Emily. She’s basically the school slut and sleeps with Fred. Teddy, taking a page from Fred’s book, is caught drunk driving and has to perform community service, in a library where Fred visits and proceeds to deface a book. Throw in a mix of more parties and more romances and what you have is a teenage high school film that is made for grownups.

    Coppola gives us a film that is seen through the eyes of the teenagers; their angst, their anxiety, semi-innocence, boredom and excitement. It’s a movie that feels real, with performances to match. Roberts, the niece of Julia, was the perfect choice for the role of April. She’s 23 years old but in the film looks like she’s 16. Kilmer (son of actor Val Kilmer, who has a cameo in the film as a stoned-out stepfather), is also very good as Teddy, tight friends with Fred yet trying to win April’s affections. And Franco is perfect as the lecherous soccer coach – his guilty smile and glint in his eyes say it all – he’s very handsome yet very dangerous. Franco trusted his book to Coppola to turn it into a movie, and she does a fantastic job. Not bad for a first-timer. Francis Ford and Sofia Coppola should watch their back, another Coppola family member is on the way up.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Imitation Game

    ★★★★★ | The Imitation Game

    Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, The Imitation Game portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

    Via a series of flashbacks, the film spans the key periods of Turing’s life, from his unhappy teenage years at boarding school and the triumph of his secret wartime work on the revolutionary electro-mechanical ‘Bombe’, which was capable of breaking 3,000 Enigma-generated naval codes a day, to the tragedy of his post-war decline, following his horrific and shocking conviction and subsequent enforced chemical castration just for having gay sex. Finally pardoned in 2013 by the Queen, for the ‘crime’ of carrying out homosexual acts that he was tried for in 1951, Alan Turing’s role was pivotal in winning the Second World War.

    With such a fascinating story and a stellar cast (Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Mark Strong, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance) this is a film that is destined to be a major success. Already garnering critical acclaim, it’s not hard to see why. The script, period detail and performances are all exemplary. Cumberbatch is pitch perfect in his portrayal as Turing, portraying the strengths and vulnerabilities of a man with little social skills who is driven by his passion for his work and his intellect. He’s ably supported by Keira Knightley as the feisty Joan Clarke; a woman of great intellect who has to fight to the constraints of a society that devalues and oppresses women. Mark Strong as a particularly dashing MI6 agent and Matthew Goode as a fellow code-breaker, are equally strong.

    The script is actually very funny as well as being poignant and thrilling. This is a must see film of this autumn/winter.

    The Imitation Game is in cinemas from the 14th of November 2014