Julianne Moore is simply fabulous as a middle-aged woman going through the motions in the new film Gloria Bell.
Moore, who excels in every role she plays, is particularly good here in a film that is a remake of the 2013 film Gloria. With the same director, Sebastian Lelio, this Gloria is more nuanced and, with Moore as it’s lead (Paulina Garcia played Gloria in the original film, and won lots of awards), takes this version to another level.
Gloria is a 53-year old divorced woman living in Los Angeles. She’s an insurance broker with two adult children, one son who just had a baby with a wife who has gone away to ‘find herself’, and a daughter who is getting ready to move to Sweden to be with her boyfriend.
Gloria willingly attends singles events in the hopes of finding a new man; she’s very attractive and stable, so it should be easy for her to find a quality man.
She meets Arnold (John Turturro), who appears to be 100% available at the beginning of their relationship but somehow is tied to an umbilical cord to his two adult daughters, and leaves Gloria, literally, in situations she never thought she would find herself in. But nothing else much happens in Gloria Bell. We see her driving around and singing along to the radio, a cat that somehow keeps finding it’s way into her apartment, and an upstairs neighbor who is a bit schizophrenic. But it’s the grace and allure in which Moore plays Gloria that is both mesmerizing and alluring. Moore is very good in these types of small roles (see ‘Still Alice,’ ‘What Maisie Knew,’ and ‘Freeheld’).
She literally guides us through this film in one of her best ever performances. But it’s at the end of the film, where the camera is squarely focused on Gloria, who is a guest at a wedding. She gets up and dances with herself, a bit sad that she’s alone, but content, and dancing to the tune of Laura Branigans’ 1992 song ‘Gloria.’ It’s an image that lingers with you long after you’ve left the cinema.
Probably the most anticipated film of all time is now the most successful film in cinema history. The immediate sequel to Avengers Infinity War and the climax to the hugely successful decade of Marvel Comics 22 film marathon. After the shocking climax of the last movie with the Avengers losing big time, what next? Who lives and dies this time? And how do they send off the most beloved characters in film history?
Answer with the best superhero film ever made that’s how!
Nutshell – The ultimate superhero villain Thanos succeeded in gathering together all six infinity stones which have been spread across all of the decades’ superhero films and with a click of his fingers kills half of the universe including favourites such as Black Panther, Spiderman and almost all of The Guardians Of The Galaxy. How does the world, the universe and the remaining Avenger superheroes cope with the loss and go forward? All seems lost as this is set 5 years depressingly in the future but then…
This film will make you laugh out loud, cheer, cry and give you loads to talk about through repeated viewings. Simply spine-tingling and incredible at a number of key moments. Believe the hype for once.
Running Time – 181 Minutes – Cert 12A. A very very long movie but there are 10 years of loose ends and story arcs to tie up and they succeed with each one with pure class.
The Gay UK Factor – Gay cosplay heaven. Chris’s Hemsworth, Pratt & Evans lead the wank bank possibilities here plus Black Panther, Hawkeye and a superb buff looking Bucky Barnes The Winter Soldier will all make your hole twitch. Chris Evans, unfortunately, shaves his beard off from Infinity ward which is a big shame but at least he does it shirtless. Another jerk-off negative is Chris Hemsworth’s Thor for reasons that become apparent when you see the film but there is a tonne of male flesh squeezing into tight latex for three very happy hours plus more than one reference to Captain America’s ass being the ‘ass of America’ to enjoy too… and it sure is.
Cast – For the first time ever there are 25 names above the movie title. This is very very star heavy. Robert Downey Jnr has the top slot but with 16 other movie headliners of their own and an army of cameos including Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, William Hurt & Michelle Pfeiffer plus all the usual Marvel suspects you won’t be shortchanged in star power for your hard earned.
Key Player – This is the new dictionary definition of the word ensemble so no point singling out anyone except Thor and Rocket racoon get all the best funny lines and Hawkeye the best action beats. The real key players are the directors here Joe and Anthony Russo who pull off whichever way you look at it – the fourth Avenger sequel or the 22nd Marvel Universe sequel and make it the best yet. Giving every member of the massive cast something worthwhile to do and tying up so many stories so satisfactorily. The other key player is the God at Marvel/Disney Kevin Feige who oversees all and is the one who decided to make so many different movies linked with each other over so many years and three chapters of the Marvel Universe which comes to a close here so onto Chapter Four in a couple of months with the next Tom Holland Spidey film.
Budget – $400,000,000 plus – Yes, the most expensive film in history but after four days it had made $1.2 Billion dollars so this was no gamble. Bonus’s all round as it climbs the All-Time Box Office Charts with gusto leaping over Frozen, Fast & Furious and Toy Story by the hour. Marvel now move on to stage four of their universe so expect even bigger budgets and profits to come.
Best Bit – 2 hr 12 mins; A big turning point in the movie which we will not spoil for you but you won’t miss it just ensure you are not holding any popcorn at the time.
Worst Bit – 1 hr 49 mins; When you are now bursting for the toilet but there is so much going on you cannot decide when to make a run for it. By the way unusual for a Marvel film but there are no scenes in the credits at all so no need to sit through 10 minutes of CGI and stunt men’s names this time… go to the bar and start the lengthy discussion about what you have just seen instead.
Little Secret – The film held previews on a Thursday night and two websites crashed and all seats in America were sold in SIX hours flat. Three Cinema chains decided for the first time ever to open right through the night and continue 24/7 to deal with demand.
It made $60 Million at its previews breaking all records and next day it broke more than the biggest weekend box office ever and so it goes clearing $1 Billion dollars on the 4th day (which only 3 films have done in history). Demand was so high that two tickets in New Jersey were sold for $15,000 for an IMAX showing of the 15 buck movie. This review took a day to write and in that time Endgame made more than any non-Marvel release of 2018 did in its entire run.
Further Viewing – Really? Well, you need to buff up on all 22 films in the Marvel Universe starting with Iron Man in 2008. Then move on to the DC Universe back through Nolan’s Dark Knights and onto Tim Burton’s Batman’s & Christopher Reeves first two Superman films. Add The Crow and Blade and then ignore all other superhero films like the plague especially anything with the words Fantastic and Four in them.
Any Good – This is a masterpiece with one jaw-dropping air punching moment after another. Probably the biggest superstar cast ever assembled each with their own moment in the most expensive movie in history and a last hour that will not be beaten this year or possibly for many years.
Bye, bye Avatar, so long Titanic, Au Revoir Star Wars, Pirates, Bond and Potter the world has a new all-time box office champ and we have no hesitation in giving it five huge stars to boot.
You hoped it would be great but it is 10 times better than you ever expected. There was the movie world before Endgame and a completely different and better one after. Everything is wrapped up perfectly making an instant classic. Just incredible!
Famous Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta plays himself in a beautiful drama/documentary about his life as a ballet star as well as his life growing up poor in Cuba.
‘Yuli’ – the nickname given to him by his father Pedro – is very unique in its storytelling. It not only goes into detail about his struggle to become a ballet dancer, but the film also deals with his relationship with his family, his home country of Cuba, as well as the troubled relationship he had with his father. Scenes of the adult Acosta are interspersed with scenes of his childhood, with Edilson Manuel Olbera more than ably playing Acosta as a young boy in a poor area of Havana with his family and separated parents who still live together.
Cuba is also a star of the film. There are beautiful shots of the Malecon (a broad road esplanade hugging the coastline in Havana), old yet beautiful architecture in Havana, long shots of the city streets, and a stunning finale shot of the famous Great Theatre of Havana, where a young Acosta learned ballet.
Members of Acosta’s family ended up fleeing Cuba for the United States. Yet Yuli’s parents continued to urge him to dance, and they, along with ballet teachers, saw something special in him. He gets chances to go to the best ballet schools, ending up in both the U.S. and then in London, where he became a permanent member of The Royal Ballet for 17 years. Keyvin Martinez plays Acosta as a young man, a man who misses home and almost decides to give it up all just so he can return to his beloved Cuba (and mom).
There are lots and lots of beautiful dance scenes that impact the viewer on what a beautiful, stunning and amazing are that ballet is. The dance scenes are transitional – these dance scenes guide us from one scene to the next, and this works beautifully. And Acosta, as an actor, is very good at playing himself.
Yuli is such a beautiful film – it’s an event film that is beautifully directed by Icíar Bollaín, but this is Acosta’s film.What Yuli doesn’t do is to convey how famous Acosta was during his heyday. Sure he is world-renowned for his dance work, but the film doesn’t really convey this, nor does it show much of Acosta interacting socially with fellow dancers, most of whom are gay (Acosta is straight). But these are just minor blips. ‘Yuli’ is a film that can be enjoyed whether you love ballet or not.
Girl is the story of a 15-year old trans child who feels like she was born in the wrong body.
In an amazing turn by newcomer Victor Polster who plays the lead Lara, Girl takes us on a journey of a young child, assigned male at birth desperately wanting to rush hormone treatment to become a girl. But Lara also has a yearning to be a ballerina, and the pressures of being born in the wrong body to be able to fulfil her dream is the challenge that Lara may or not make it through.
She lives in a apartment with her taxi-driving father and much younger brother and suffers with the usuals pressures of school, including not being able to disrobe in the locker room. But first-time director Lukas Dhont draws us into Lara’s life by focusing the entire movie on her – we see and feel her emotions, the anxiety, fear, and at times happiness about the huge change that is going to take place in her life. And Polster is just simply amazing as Lara.
Girl has won lots of awards, including the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes last year, along with an award for Best Performance for Polster. Girl also won Best Feature Film at the London Film Festival.
Girl is not a perfect movie. There are lots of scenes of Lara while she is in ballet practice, and we are shown Lara’s bloodied toes from the rigorous training way too many times, and the ending comes as a bit of a shock and is quite controversial. But see Girl for the story (written by Dhont and Angelo Tijssens) and the amazing performance by Polster.
CAPTAIN MARVEL – Marvel studio’s biggest female hero makes her debut having to battle some shape-shifting aliens setting up the truly massive Avengers Endgame next month.
Nutshell – Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) arrives on earth and needs to start piecing together her past to work out what aliens are running amok for and why she has become one of the most powerful superheroes in the universe. Set in the mid-nineties with a young looking Nick Fury & Agent Coulson this has a lot of fun playing prequel elements to the other 20 blockbuster superhero films in the Marvel cannon of the last decade.
Running Time – 124 Minutes – Cert PG-12A.
Tagline – ‘Higher, Further, Faster’ Or ‘Everything Starts With a Her(o)’
THEGAYUK Factor – Possibly the least sexy superhero film ever with hardly any fit men anywhere not even amongst the usual bad guy’s Henchmen as they are all covered in monster latex make-up. Jude Law playing the Captain’s senior officer at the outset is your one hope but he is hardly a gay icon and far too clean cut…..the sort of prissy looking guy that would put on a condom before you gave him a blow job
Cast – Brie Larson takes the lead here and she is great in the role. She is supported by Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn, a welcome return for Annette Benning and this is the very last cameo appearance shot by the recently deceased Marvel God Stan Lee (Not the last to be released as we have two more of them shot for Avengers & Superman films made earlier).
Key Player – There is a wonderful cat which Fury adopts called Goose which steals every scene and most of the movie. It has one or two surprises too, most of all with Marvel there is always scenes in the end credits and sit right to the end for Goose to have the all-important last word.
Budget – $82 Million but it made back £153 Million in its first weekend which just shows the continued domination of superheroes at our multiplexes and the wisdom of Disney buying up Marvel a few years back – purely and simply these are pure 100% guaranteed cash cows.
Best Bit – 0.28 mins; A great fight on and around an urban train with an accompanying car chase in a nineties action movie style is very thrilling. The fact that the enemy in a sneaky way keeps changing shape into different people makes it a very clever little scene.
Worst Bit – 0.05 mins; The opening 10 minutes on two random planets is very confusing and simply rushed and is about as interesting as a bad episode of Star Trek or trying to get a hard-on with a fit guy after drinking a bottle of vodka. It gets into its groove when the characters eventually get to earth.
Little Secret – Brie Larson is allergic to cats which she did not mention to the producers at the outset. Captain Marvel’s sidekick turns out to be a cat called Goose which then had to be played in Brie’s scenes by a puppet. Four real cats do all the other scenes in the movie. The first Marvel female superhero film was released on International Women’s Day and the soundtrack is almost entirely female orientated with the likes of Desree, TLC, No Doubt, Garbage and Salt N Pepa.
Further Viewing – All previous twenty entries in the Marvel universe catalogue, Wonder Woman, The Justice League, All Batmans & Spidermans etc. Basically any movie where the hero is in tight latex or otherwise any of the hundreds of great gay superhero porno’s try Man.com pastiches or Eye Of The Cyclone.
Any Good – A great lead performance backed by Mr reliable Samuel L. carries this nicely. Your life will not be diminished greatly if you don’t see it but if you do it is perfectly adequate entertainment (after the crap first 10 minutes). It is no Captain America or Deadpool unfortunately but also it is much better than say recent Superman films or… shudder…all Fantastic Four movies. Basically, in a word it is fine no more no less could benefit from some sexy studs though.
In 2004, at the age of 19, American Garrard Conley was sent by his parents to a conversion therapy program to rid him of his homosexual feelings. This true story is now a film called Boy Erased.
The amazing Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird,Manchester by the Sea) plays Garrard. He is a young man growing up in a small bible belt community in Arkansas. His father Marshall (Russell Crowe) is a respected pastor in the local church while his mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) believes in everything her husband says. But Garrard is given a choice by his parents when he tells them he is gay: either agree to attend the church-support conversion therapy program where he will have to go to a camp with similar young adults or risk losing his family, a family that he is quite close to. Garrard has no choice but to go through therapy. Garrard is happy being gay – even entering into a relationship with a fellow student at college – but it is his religious upbringing (and a stern father) which helps him make the decision to go to therapy.
Once he is at the Love in Action gay conversion therapy assessment program, he meets fellow young men like himself (including director and actor Xavier Dolan, and Joe Alwyn – at the time of this writing Taylor Swift’s boyfriend). They all struggle to not come to terms with the way they are, meanwhile all the time guided by the chief therapist Victor Sykes (writer and director of the film Joel Edgerton). But of course, Garrard has urges that he can’t control, while his parents feel that for him to lead a happy life is to lead the life of a straight man.
The real Garrard Conley, of course, luckily survived his time in the therapy program to write the book which is now this film, and it’s a very good film. Hedges, as always, is fantastic. One never knows what he’s thinking because of his inquisitive facial expressions, and he steals the movie from the two heavyweight actors who are playing his parents. Crowe is excellent as the self-righteous father but Kidman is both warm and tender as the mother who loves her husband but perhaps loves her son a bit more. Boy Erased is at times heartbreaking, but for the most part, it’s triumphant.
Based on the life of book author, and Lesbian, Lee Israel, and fluidly directed by Marielle Heller, Can You Ever Forgive Me? based on the late Israel’s memoir, tells about the misadventures of Israel’s life. She was a Manhattanite who didn’t have much money to rub together, so she starts forging signatures of famous people and then sells them to collectors, raking in big money.
Questions start arising about her charade, and soon enough she has to pull back, and then enlists her gay best friend Jack (Richard E. Grant – in his best performance ever) to take over her sales duties to pawn more fakes to the collectors. It’s early 1990’s New York City, and one gets the feeling that anything can happen then (‘if you can make it there you can make it anywhere’), and that Israel will rise above it all, but in the end, we know what is coming. But before, director Heller (working from a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty) perfectly sets the mood and vibe of New York, with bookshops almost at every corner (long gone now no thanks to the internet) and quite a few of the scenes in the film were shot in the West Village’s classic gay bar Julius.
Can We Ever Forgive Israel? Yes, we can definitely forgive Israel for what she’s done because it has brought us this fine movie. McCarthy and Grant have been nominated for Oscars, let’s hope that if anyone of them wins, it will be Grant. He is just superb in his role, debonair, chilled, and like a fine wine, getting better with age.
AQUAMAN – The DC Superhero universe continues the fight back against Marvel with this great musclebound outing. We have had spandex guys everywhere you can imagine from Africa to World war 2 and including outta space so it’s time now to go underwater.
Nutshell – Land lubber Arthur Curry discovers he is in line to the throne of the underwater kingdom Atlantis. Unfortunately his sexy as fuck half-brother has other ideas, he feels responsible for his mother’s death and the Atlanteans are about to fight back with us surface developers for decades of undersea warfare and now our modern plague of plastic pollution. Cue all-out war and our favourite new hunk of beefcake is right in the middle of it.
Running Time – 143 Minutes – Cert PG-13. Superhero movies just keep getting longer and longer but it works here.
Tagline – ‘Home Is Calling’ & ‘He’s Not From Around Here’
The Gay UK Factor – Jason Momoa is one of the hottest new gay fantasy men out there and here he is topless for the duration. This massive tall muscular stud is heavily tattooed, has sexy scars and great long straggly hair you just want to run your fingers through. He starred in his own Baywatch TV series before heading off to Westeros to be the none English speaking shirtless and bare arsed Dothraki King in Game Of Thrones inducing a huge increase in wanking sock abuse. His Aquaman movie introduction was as small parts in Batman Vs Superman and Justice League where he stole your eye away from a lot of other hot leads but it has all been heading to this his very own two-hour special.
Cast – We are not sure there was anyone else here besides Momoa as we only had eyes for him but we think we spotted Dolph Lundgren, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, Amber Heard some guest star appearances as other kingdom monarchs and one of the most underrated sexy men currently acting Patrick Wilson who no gay man would kick out of bed.
Key Player – James Wan the director keeps the action and key set pieces a coming and turns what could easily be a pile of fantastical dog poop with men riding sharks and seahorses into battle into something believable, current and most of all… fun.
Budget – $160 Million but it seems to be money well spent as this will dominate the Christmas Box Office as everything else is kiddie blockbusters (Mary Poppins/The Grinch/Spiderman Cartoons) and helped by the major failure of the pretty rough Fantastic Beasts, JK Rowling’s first ever Waterloo and the postponement of the Bond.<
Best Bit – 1.12 mins; We get a great spell out of the water to undertake a breathtaking downhill rooftop chase with one great stunt after another and serious fingernail chewing jeopardy.
Worst Bit – 1.25 mins; A fight with a giant mythological creature seems a bit out of place here and more suited to any of a hundred forgettable sword and sandal Sunday afternoon Greek epics which all merge into one. Luckily the scene is short lived and it is soon back to the ocean for the big climax.
Little Secret – James Wan is, of course, the king of horror making the Insidious/Annabelle/Saw/Conjuring etc movies but don’t worry as he has a different focus here basin this on Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Romancing The Stone but whatever made him decide to include a drum playing octopus no-one will ever know. With this film, the DC universe will cross the four billion dollar mark at the box office in the fastest time ever just six films so take that Messrs Bond, Potter, Tolkien, Sparrow, Vader and especially Marvel.
Further Viewing –Wonder Woman, The Justice League, Various Spidermans and Batmans and everything from the DC movie universe or the enemy Marvel studio. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Beyond Atlantis, The Meg, The Abyss,Sanctum, Lords Of The Deep but not Finding Nemo or The Little Mermaid.
Any Good – This works and it so easily might not have. Very fast paced and extremely noisy but it all seems to be in support of the extensive plot. Wholly separate from every other superhero films so no cameos here as it lives entirely in its own domain. It looks great is thoroughly enjoyable and fully launches Jason Momoa to the top of the A-list heading straight at the slightly tarnished Dwayne Johnson crown who has had a very rough year indeed. The Worlds highest paid movie star in history suddenly needs to look over his shoulder for a tatted man with even more muscular and possibly a better actor to boot.
The year is 1985. AIDS had already started to rear its ugly head. It’s also the year that Adrian comes home for perhaps the last time.
1985 is a tear-your-heart-out film about one New Yorker’s journey back home to see his family at Christmas. Cory Michael Smith is just incredible as Adrian, a young man going back home to Texas after a three-year absence to see his father, mother and little brother. But it’s really not a festive time for him – for all the lies and deceits that Adrian tells his family – that his life in New York is just amazing, with a good job and great friends, all this couldn’t be further from the truth. Adrian’s friends back in NYC are all dying or dead – including his partner. Adrian has been to six funerals in that year alone, and he faces the grim fact that he is not immune to the disease that has slowly crept up on gay men like himself. With a doting mother who takes care of all his needs while he is at home (a graceful and saintly Virginia Madsen), a tough religious father who lives his life by the Bible (Michael Chiklis), and a soft younger brother who is into theatre (Aidan Langford), it’s up to Adrian to secretly say goodbye to everyone (including his best friend Carly, played by the wonderful Jamie Chung).
Directed and co-written by Yen Tan, 1985 is a small film that packs quite a punch. It’s one hour and 25 minutes that will hold your attention throughout, with gripping performances, and an equally stunning soundtrack, and will have you reaching for the tissue box many times. Reminiscent of Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World (where a terminally ill writer (assumed sick with AIDS) returns home to tell his family he is dying), 1985 is a much much better film.
With a perfect cast, including Madsen who is just simply amazing, as well as Chung, 1985 is a great film in every sense of the word, and excellently captures that time in 1985 when President Ronald Regan had yet to utter the word ‘AIDS’ and when hundreds of young men were dying and there was no treatment available, nothing could be done for them. Tan, along with the cast and crew, in a film beautifully shot in black and white (by Hutch, who also co-wrote the film), has pulled off quite an achievement with this film. Every gay man under 50 really needs to watch this film to understand what gay men over 50 were dealing with in the 1980s and early 1990s.
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The life and times of Freddie Mercury and his band queen from there humble West London beginnings to storming Live Aid the biggest show the world has ever seen.
Nutshell – Freddie meets Roger Taylor and Brian May and together latterly with John they create some of the greatest rock music of all time. Their songs still stand the test of time today and include heavy metal, disco, 50’s rock n roll, opera and film themes along the way. The film also focuses on Freddie’s sexuality, his struggles with this and inner band dynamics plus hangers-on form the basis of this excellent rock biopic. Over twenty queen songs spanning the 70s/80s and 90s and then latterly comes the spectre of AIDS to bring the third act’s somber drama.
Running Time – 134 Minutes – Cert 12A.
Tagline – The only thing more extraordinary than their music is his story
The Gay UK Factor – Freddie is about as big a gay icon as there has ever been and his incredible life story is nothing more than outstanding gay folklore. His love live and decadence is fully covered here in all its horny details but the reminder to a modern young audience about how devastating HIV and AIDS was in the pre prEP era of the 80’s and 90’s is the most important factor here. So many gay men gone but should never be forgotten, Freddie was just the brightest star to be extinguished at that time and this movie brings that right home.
Cast – Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Aidan Gillen from Queer As Folk, Tom Hollander, A completely unrecognisable Mike Myers and keep your eyes peeled for Adam Lambert as a truck driver.
Key Player – Rami Malek is the spit of Freddie, and after five minutes you forget he is an actor. Likewise, Gwilym Lee is a dead ringer for Brian May and this together (The less said about the Bob Geldof lookalike, the better) with the great musicianship helps the biopic feel as real as possible. Of course it is the Queen songbook which is possibly the best that exists besides Abba and the Beatles just when you think you have heard all the best songs there are another half a dozen memory joggers around the corner.
Budget – $52 Million… opening weekend $50 Million USA alone, so that is a result then, They are still the Champions… of the world, mic drop.
Best Bit – 0.57 mins; The biggest concert crowd ever at the time was the mega Queen concert in Rio and when the crowd take over one of the bands lesser known songs “Love Of My Life” you will be joining in too.
Worst Bit – 0.12 mins; The formative Queen band ‘Smile’ (one of them was a dentist) and their songs here are average, to say the least – maybe it is necessary for the structure of the film but speeding through this may have made room for “One Vision”, “Somebody To Love” or “Flash”.
Little Secret – Partway through filming, director Bryan Singer left the production and replaced by Dexter Fletcher. Singer the director of movies such as The Usual Suspects and X-men started turning up late, leaving early and then strangely disappearing for three whole days. Rami Malek, in particular, pushed for a change of directors. Twentieth century Fox the studio behind. The Wembley Stadium set for Live Aid was one of the biggest ever and was constructed from scratch as of course the Wembley twin towers have long since been demolished.
Further Viewing –A Star Is Born, any of the Beatles, Elvis or Cliff films, Mamma Mia, Rock Of Ages, Spiceworld, What’s Love Got To Do With It, Can’t Stop The Music, Jersey Boys, Straight Outta Compton, The Pet Shop Boys Movie, Whitney, TGIF but most of all next years Taron Egerton Elton John Biopic Rocket Man which looks incredible.
Any Good – Go for the music alone it is the very best. This is well put together and the live performances especially the mock-up of Live Aid with four songs alone here is sensational. A very enjoyable, exciting, thought-provoking, tuneful entertainment with a sad twist in the tail.
The 4th version of this movie is all very up to date but how does Lady Gaga shape up in the ultimate diva battle against her predecessor’s madams Streisand and Garland?
Nutshell – A well-trodden story of a male superstar whose career is on the skids who falls for a nobody whose star then goes stratospheric. 1937/1954 and then 1976 this exact story has been filmed all very successfully with the first two focusing on movie stars and the last one moving it to the music industry so as Barbra Streisand can belt out her top three hit ‘Evergreen’. The success of the 2018 film depends on the talent on show namely Bradley Cooper… fucking hot as hell and Gaga who is the current queen of our gay stratosphere plus the quality of the songs. With ‘Shallow’ now atop the singles chart and the album alongside it, we very definitely have all three massive ticks in the movies credit column. Yep, this is good stuff indeed.
Running Time – 136 Minutes – Cert 15. This is a long drawn out affair maybe some of the middle songs could have been ditched.
The Gay UK Factor –Lady Gaga‘s first full length starring roll including over a dozen new great anthems what could be queerer than that? Well just to make sure that plenty of pink pounds get handed over the cinema counter we get hunky Bradley Cooper topless too for many of the scenes – maybe the first movie ever where you will wank and lip sync at the same time.
Cast – Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, David Chappelle and far too briefly, Alec Baldwin.
Key Player – Although this is Bradley’s directing debut and he co-wrote it and starred in it as well as singing adequately many of the songs the movie always comes to life most when her ladyship is on the screen. This is a one-woman show. She is completely stunning and steals every single scene she is in and others sag without her regal presence. Never has a movie been so aptly titled… maybe a Megastar is born here certainly a new triple threat at least.
Budget – $60 Million and its already made twice that back in just America alone – a bonafide hit plus CD sales, massive DVD sales, merchandise and with touring conglomerate Live Nation finance here this probably even a tour and stage show. This will run and run.
Best Bit – 0.44 mins; The first time Bradley forces Gaga onto a stage in front of her first big audience is a real showstopper and it’s the fantastic big new number one hit ‘Shallow’ she sings and sings fucking well.
Worst Bit – 1.25 mins; When Gaga makes it big and starts performing her own music we get a disappointing run of three sub-Ariana Grande type rejected album tracks when the film is crying out for another ‘Poker Face’ or ‘Bad Romance’. This section of the movie is as about as limp and as unfortunate as your cock after 10 pints when Tom Daley out of the blue offers you a booty call.
Little Secret – Bradley Cooper sang and recorded some scenes live from the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in 2017 immediately before he introduced the booked act Kris Kristofferson who was the male lead of the 1976 A Star Is Born opposite Streisand. This reboot was planned by Clint Eastwood in 2011 starring Beyonce until she became pregnant then it was Rihanna, Shakira & Selena Gomez; male leads were those well-known singing talents Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Cruise. Not only does Bradley write, direct and star in the film but one of his kids appears and the dog is his own hound, Charlie.
Further Viewing – A Star Is Born 1-3, and musicals like Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, The Greatest Showman, La La Land, Bohemian Rhapsody etc plus Moulin Rouge, My Fair Lady, The Bodyguard, Strictly Ballroom and every romantic musical back to The Golddiggers Of 1933 belting out the ‘Lullaby Of Broadway’.
Any Good – A stunning directorial debut by Cooper and a film that will make Gaga into a movie legend… it could have been written for her if it wasn’t 81 years old. This just works from start to finish and the 98% new songs (Only ‘La Vie En Rose’ you will recognise) are mainly memorable and downloadable. Well acted, beautifully shot and with an earth-shattering finale and climatic number. Gaga may have just missed out on the Oscar for best song two years ago but she is now the bookies favourite for Feb 2019. This is a great original musical applied to one of the oldest and oft-repeated stories in cinema. Never mind ‘Born This Way’ it appears she was Born to act.
