THEGAYUK

Tag: Film Review

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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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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  • 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 |

  • 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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  • FILM REVIEW | I Do

    I followed the twitter feed on this movie well before it finally arrived on my doorstep to review. David W Ross, the star and force behind the movie, has an engaging twitter presence – playing on his good looks and obvious talent, and witty banter.

    David is a former member of ’90’s boyband Bad Boys Inc and no stranger to the spotlight. Here, he takes on the role of a Brit abroad in New York, living an almost ideal life with his brother, American sister-in-law and a good job/loft/sex life – basically, the good life.

    This is shattered, and I’m not going into details as its one of the films best and most unexpected moments. The film then goes on to investigate what happens when your life is torn apart, only to have it further complicated by eminent deportation. It reviews the bureaucracy surrounding green cards, sham marriages and real love. What happens when your best lesbian friend agrees to marry you so you can stay in the country and shoulder your supposed responsibilities, only to turn jealous when you find true love in the shape of a gorgeous spanish architect?

    The film isn’t a gritty docu-drama, it’s far to good looking for that, it doesn’t do a warts an all expose of sham marriages for green cards, it’s too engaging for that – David has managed to do a balancing act of making a film that highlights issues but is still a bloody good story, and cinematic too.

    The film captures New York and makes it almost another character, the people, the streets, the apartments… for those of us this side of the pond, it all feels familiar enough but we can empathise with the “Englishman in New York” syndrome.

     

    BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | Merrily We Roll Along

    ★★★★★ | Merrily We Roll Along

    The concept of seeing a play on the big screen can seem a bit odd. Do you clap at the end? Will it be like watching a play or seeing a film? Will there be any atmosphere?

    You can rest assured that seeing The Menier Chocolate Factory production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ will be worth every penny spent and there’ll definitely be applause, even if the cast won’t be there to hear it.

    A specially recorded version of the multi award winning West End production at The Harold Pinter Theatre was recorded earlier this year and has been edited to perfection. The show is screening in over 300 UK cinemas starting from the 24th of October. It’s part of the amazing digital theatre range of shows and the first to be screened in cinemas, with the brilliant ‘Private Lives’ to follow next year and a range of shows that can be watched at home.

    It couldn’t have a better pedigree: written by the fantastic Stephen Sondheim, the work of an acclaimed director, a fantastic cast and more 5 star reviews than any other musical in West End history. There’s not a weak link in the cast and the choreography, music and sets are truly amazing. Even Sondheim himself stated that this production is the best he’s seen.

    The story follows a group of three friends (a composer, lyricist and novelist) as they start out seeking success, find success, fall out, make out, form and break relationships and generally break down. The twist of the story is that the whole of the plot is told backwards. Starting in the 1970s we two of the three friends and instantly learn what fates have befallen them. As the play progresses we gradually work back to the late 1950s and see how it all began and where the roots of their current situations began. The device works brilliantly and it’s both poignant and hilarious in equal measures.

    Watch the trailer and find your nearest screening here: http://www.digitaltheatre.com/screenings
    Find out more about Digital Theatre here and which productions are available to watch:
    http://www.digitaltheatre.com

  • FILM REVIEW | Leave It On The Floor

    If, like me, you’re a sucker for a musical about voguing set in LA, with a mainly unknown cast and containing some catchy tunes you’ve never heard of – this is the movie for you!

    The music is original, with the tittle track being one of the strongest – but wait till you hear the ode to JT, Justin’s Gonna Call… .made me smile! This film also wins the award for most original use of a bowling alley, and a fake pregnancy…. by a man…

    It has laughs, drama, dancing, tight vests, jaunty hats and fierce Gaga-esque outfits…

    Treat yourself – I defy you to not be tapping your toes at least to one or two of these little numbers. As with most musicals, its difficult to engage with the characters, they can seem quite superficial or two-dimensional, but that doesn’t stop this being a celebratory movie about being yourself and being, for want of a better line, born this way…

    The film is written by Glenn Gaylord, who also directed the movie “I Do“, which I’ll be reviewing nearer its DVD release date later this month.

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

  • FILM REVIEW | Bashment

    Developed from his original stage show, director Rickki Beadle-Blair explores the controversial subjects of class, racism and homophobia in dance hall music in this contemporary urban drama. (more…)

  • FILM REVIEW| I Want Your Love

    ★★★★ | I Want Your Love is collaborative film between gay porn studio NakedSword and independent filmmaker Travis Mathews.

    Jesse is an aspiring artist who feels creatively blocked because of the state his finances and his massive amount of debt. After spending the last decade in San Francisco, Jessie decides to move back home to his parents in Ohio, the Midwest to free himself of the financial pressure.

    I Want Your Love is the story of his last weekend in San Francisco with his friends, roommates and ex-lovers coming to his leaving party.

    Sex plays an important role in this film and there are uncensored sex scenes from the start. Sex is used to show character development, intimacy, move the storyline along and the development of friendships: those that start with clear defined boundaries but turn into something more – entering that grey area between friend and lover.

    Whatever type of man you’re into, you’ll find them in this film and I can guarantee that they’ll be in a graphic, all-exposed sex scene. Whether your taste be: bears, twinks, older, younger, white, black, Asian, muscly, ordinary or just an all-around lover of all.

    The film is extremely erotic and at times felt like watching a porn film. There’s even a threesome scene. The obligatory porn “I’m going to come!” scene followed by – well use your imagination, makes several appearances in this film. Arguably the storyline gets lost at times in the incredibly hot, but distracting sex.

    Jesse is completely likeable, relatable and discovers that he’s searching for his true self. Over the course of the weekend, he redefines what it means to him to be an artist, gay, and an adult. However, the ending was a bit of an anti-climax.

    It’s brilliantly directed and shot in a way that makes you feel like your sharing the characters most intimate moments. I Want Your Love is at times: funny, emotionally touching, romantic and sentimental as well as being abundantly horny throughout.

    There were slow scenes of sparse dialogue that were followed by peaks of rampant high-paced sex. There was an annoying character – one who really grated, but luckily he wasn’t in the film much.

    Mathews stated that he wanted to give an ‘honest and relevant’ representation of everyday gay life for men in San Francisco. I’m not from San Francisco so I can’t comment, but if that’s what it is really like – get me on a plane!

    I Want Your Love is the perfect film to watch with your partner or other very close friends – not only thoroughly entertaining, it will give you plenty of ideas in the bedroom department.

    I Want Your Love is available to pre-order/order on Amazon.

  • FILM REVIEW | Mixed Kebab

    Much better is Guy Lee Thys’s movie “Mixed Kebab”, which details the love affair between a closeted Turkish Muslim boy, living with his ex-pat family in Antwerp and a completely out Belgian boy. ★★★

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