THEGAYUK

Tag: Four Star Film Review

The latest four-star film review from THEGAYUK.

  • FILM REVIEW | I Am Chris Farley

    American Comedian Chris Farley was only 33 when he died of a cocaine and morphine overdose a few days before Christmas in Chicago in 1997.

    The new documentary I am Chris Farley tells his rapid ascent to stardom and his even quicker descent to a life of alcohol and drugs, and eventually to an early death.

    ‘I am Chris Farley’s’ was made in conjunction with the estate of Chris Farley, so the producers had access to all of the relevant people in Chris’s life, including his family, friends, and fellow comedians and television co-stars. From his days as an unknown comic at Chicago’s Second City Theatre (where lots of famous comics got their start), from where he was plucked to be on the popular NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) for five seasons, to eventually following the path of former SNL’ers to star in movies.

    Chris’s brother Kevin Farley (who is also a producer of the film, and is also a comedian) reminisces about his brother Chris during his stand up comedy act. Kevin then talks about their lives growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, where they had a normal life, with a father who gave his boys a lot of freedom. Kevin talks about Chris’s life in high school and college and laughs about the way in which Chris would throw himself to the ground and do pushups to impress women. While Chris did graduate from college and worked for a time for his father at the Scotch Oil Company in Madison, he didn’t get his professional start in comedy until he joined Ark Improv Theatre in Madison. It was clear then that Chris was the stand out star, footage from his shows display a comedic style that surpassed his costars. Even when he went on to be part of Chicago’s Second City Theatre, his on stage presence was larger than life. But it wasn’t until he got to SNL that he was able to display his true comedic talent, with the aid of professional comedy writers in an intense weekly live television show setting.

    Farley was a member during one of SNL’s peak times, and his fellow cast members included Adam Sandler, Mike Myers and David Spade. Not only did Chris outshine and outperform his fellow cast members, he was the one who provided the huge laughs on the show, whether in his role as ‘motivational speaker,’ to a skit where he auditions for Chippendales alongside host Patrick Swayze (in which Farley takes off his top to reveal a huge belly), to any role that he was given, Chris was truly the funny man. But according to the people who knew him, he was also a softee, a very sincere guy who would take a liking to everyone, and everyone would take a liking to him. SNL creator and Executive Producer Lorne Michaels talks, at length, about how he mentored Chris in his early days of being on the show. Myers talks about the times they spent together on the set and how Chris was the nicest and most sincere guy there. But it’s David Spade who brings the best of the memories of Chris in the film – they both started at SNL at the same time, so they shared the incredible feeling of being first-timers on the historic television show. Spade mentions many funny moments he and Farley shared together on the set, including the many times when Chris would walk into his shower at work, stark naked (with his penis tucked in) and proceed to give Spade a huge hug – Spade says this was just the kind of man Chris was. Spade and Farley would eventually break out of television and into films. And after they were released from their SNL contracts in 1995, they made the films Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, both critically panned but made lots of money. But in between these films, Farley’s personal life was not as shiny as his professional life.

    Drug and alcohol problems led him to rehab an astonishing 17 times. Michaels was instrumental in trying to help Farley overcome his habit, but it was a demon that Farley was unable to kick, which led to his premature death where he was found on a linoleum floor in his apartment in Chicago. Eerily enough, John Belushi, another overweight comedian who got his start at SNL and became a huge movie star (Ghostbusters, The Blues Brothers), also died at the age of 33, of a cocaine and heroin overdose, in 1982.

    I am Chris Farley is a best of Chris Farley documentary that shows the best of his professional work. We are also treated to his spot on the David Letterman Show where he bounds onto the stage, making sure you knew he was in the room, his hair all over his face, clenching his fists, and then in true Chris Farley fashion, falling over backwards in his chair.

    While the documentary doesn’t really explain why Farley got involved in alcohol and drugs in the first place (perhaps no one knew), it’s a very good tribute to a celebrity who died way before his expiry date.

    “There’s a category of people who I’ve worked with who are infuriatingly talented’ – Michaels says – “and Farley was one of them.”

    I Am Chris Farley is now available to buy on Blu-Ray and DVD.

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Elephant Song

    ★★★★ | Elephant Song

    At only 26 years old, French-Canadian Xavier Dolan already has five films under his directorial belt, all of which have been well received and critically acclaimed. In addition, he’s acted in 12 films, including the just released Elephant Song.

    In 2009, Dolan directed, produced, starred and wrote J’ai Tué Ma Mére (I Killed My Mother), a semi-autobiographical story about him as a young gay man at odds with his mother, and wrote the script when he was at the tender age of 17. It won 3 awards at the Cannes Film Festival. The next year he wrote, directed, produced and starred (again) in Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats), a story about three close friends who are involved in a love triangle. In 2012 Dolan continued his string of emotional and heartfelt films by writing and directing Laurence Anyways. At 168 minutes, it was an ambitious project for the young director to do, it was about the struggle of a straight man who, over the course of ten years, transitions from male to female, and how it affects the relationship with his lover (with amazing performances by Melvil Poupajd and Suzanne Clément). Laurence Anyways won many awards, including two Cannes Film Festival Awards (the Queer Palm Award and Best Actress for Clément). Lawrence Anyways was also nominated for ten Canadian Screen Awards (winning two), and more importantly, at the Toronto International Film Festival, it won Best Canadian Feature film. Not bad for a local boy.

    2013 is when Dolan wore multiple hats in a film. In Tom á la Ferme (Tom at the Farm), Dolan, who wrote, produced, directed and starred, plays Tom, a young man who works in an advertising agency and travels to the Canadian countryside for the funeral of his 25-year-old boyfriend. The problem is that the grieving mother did not know that her son was gay, so she accepts Tom as his friend in the hopes that he can tell her all about her dead son’s life. Meanwhile, the deceased’s brother, 30-year-old Francis (an amazing Pierre-Yves Cardinal), knew that his brother gay but could never really accept it. Conflict, anguish, thought provoking moments, anger, love, and acceptance follow. More acclaim followed Dolan when Mommy was released in 2015. It stars French Canadian actress Anne Dorval who is a widowed mother overwhelmed by her teenage son (Antoine Olivier Pilon – a relevation) and his attention deficit disorder. Dolan wrote, produced and directed Mommy, and it won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and won nine Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture.

    In the newly released Elephant Song, Dolan, who co-stars along with Bruce Greenwood and Catherine Keneer, plays Michael, a psychologically unwell young man in a mental institution who may or may not have had something to do with the disappearance of his psychiatrist. So it’s up to Greenwood’s Dr. Greene to interview Michael to try to get to the bottom of his colleague’s disappearance. During the interrogation, Michael plays mind games with Dr. Greene, alluding to the fact that he knows where his psychiatrist is but is not quite yet ready to tell. Michael is clearly a very disturbed young man, his very famous opera singer mother all but ignored him, and the one time he spent with his father was when he took him elephant hunting, with the boy Michael crying over his father’s killing of an elephant. And Michael alludes to a sexual relationship that he is having with his psychiatrist, so it’s up to Dr. Greene to take what Michael is saying with a grain of salt. Even the head nurse, Susan Peterson (Keneer), warns Dr. Greene to keep his distance from Michael. It’s a film that at its centrepiece is Dolan, who is perfect as Michael, very good looking yet very mischevious, you don’t know whether you want to hug him or to run away from him. And the film revisits the themes of homosexuality and the lack of acceptance so common in Dolan’s films.

    What’s next for Dolan besides conquering the world? He just finished shooting ‘It’s Only the End of the World,’ about a young man who returns home after 12 years to announce his impending death to his family. It stars Marion Cotillard and Vincent Cassel. Dolan will also be shooting his first film in the United States, to be titled The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, in 2016. It’s a fictional story about an actor who is famous for playing a Marvel-style superhero whose life and career are turned upside-down when his private correspondence with an 11-year-old fan is exposed and made to look indecent by a villainous gossip columnist. This one stars Hollywood heavyweights Kit Harrington, Jessica Chastain, and Susan Sarandon. If his previous films are anything to go by, these new films (and his future films) will be eagerly anticipated and will be must sees.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Loft

    The storyline is fairly straightforward, five seemingly respectable professional men conspire to share a secret apartment. A safe space in which to conduct their illicit affairs and indulge in their deepest, darkest fantasies, safe from the prying eyes of their wives.

    That is until one of them, Luke, arrives to find a dead body, an unknown woman, a blonde, hand-cuffed to the bed they have all used at some point.

    Then their fantasy turns into a nightmare, as they realise there are only 5 keys to the apartment and it isn’t possible to duplicate the keys… so one of the 5 must be the murderer?

    Or so you think…

    The film is quite inventive in terms of use of flashbacks, the way the five are questioned by the detectives investigating the crime, the possibility of the wives being involved? The list of potential suspects grows, as the victim is revealed. It has a feel of classic Hitchcock about it as we appear to suspect everyone, no-one is safe.

    With a stellar cast, including James Marsden (Hairspray, amongst many others), Keith Urban (Bones in the Star Trek reboot), Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) and Matthias Schoenaerts (from the original version of Loft, and also Rust & Bone, A Little Chaos and Far from the Madding Crowd) who all give performances that waver between making you feel revulsion for them and their predicament and pity for the game they are all involved in.

    Erik Van Looy remakes his 2008 Belgian classic and succeeds with playing with you – you think you know where it’s going, but you’re wrong!

    One for a DVD and pizza night…

    A massive 4 stars

  • FILM REVIEW | Magic Mike XXL

    The Kings of Tampa are back! The men, strippers from the 2012 film Magic Mike, return with a sequel – Magic Mike XXL – and they are back with a bang!

    Magic Mike XXL reunites Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer and the rest of the cast from the hit film about male strippers and picks up the story three years later after Mike has left the world of stripping. He’s got his own furniture business but it’s not doing too well. So when the former Kings of Tampa look him up on the way to a stripper convention in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina, Mike (Tatum) can’t resist the pull to go back to stripping, and to reunite with his buddies. So what takes place is a male stripper road movie with scenes that allow all of the men to display their fine physical goods.

    And these scenes are hot. In one, reminiscent of Jennifer Beal’s dance scene in the film Flashdance, with sparks flying all around, Mike does the same in his garage, a freestyle solo that proves he’s still got it. Once on the road, we are treated to the men’s misadventures, to be voyeurs in their exhibitionism, with a front row seat. First stop, a gay bar in Jacksonville where the drag queen emcee asks members of the audience if they want to participate in an amateur strip contest. Of course our men enter and wow the crowd. After, they find themselves at a beach party, where Mike has an encounter with Zoe (Amber Heard), who takes his picture while he is urinating.

    Big Dick (Manganiello) get his big showy number when he performs, on the spot, for a shocked but very lucky female gas station attendant. You’ll never look at a bag of Cheetos the same way again.

    A stop at private club Domina, Mike’s pre-Tampa stomping ground, transforms the movie into a breathtaking and intensely sexual film. You see, Domina’s female customers are treated to in-your-face male strip shows, and these strip shows are like ones you’ve never ever seen before on film. It’s here that Mike re-encounters Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith) the proprietress, and a woman from his past.
    It you’re out of breath at this point (trust me, you will be) there’s lots more. The men wind up at the home of Nancy (Andie MacDowell), a recently divorced sexy and flirtatious woman in her early 50s, and the rapport between Nancy and her female friends and the men is very palpable, very real, you can cut the sexual tension between the men and the women with a knife.
    It’s at the Myrtle Beach stripper convention where the film comes to a climax. Each man gets to perform his own unique dance, for a room full of ladies, and perform they do. Tatum strips all the way down to a shiny jockstrap, while the other men do their own special routines, one which includes chocolate sauce and whipped cream, and another one involves a sling. Various ladies from the audience are lucky enough to be chosen as part of the act. And Tatum chooses Zoe to be in his act, performing on her on stage in every position imaginable.
    Directed by the same man who directed the campy Liberace film “Behind the Candelabra,” Gregory Jacobs brings a stylised nuance to Magic Mike XXL, where the long dance scenes take a life of their own. And the male stars of this film really put themselves out there, hell, they’ve all got the bodies, so why not? And for the female actresses who were chosen to be performed on in various scenes of this film, we can assume they were not just acting, but were also extremely enjoying themselves. So will you.

  • FILM REVIEW | Freaks (1932) Cinema Re-release

    ★★★★ | Freaks (1932) Cinema Re-release

    Hollywood Classics presents a cinema release of “Freaks” – in cinemas from 12th June 2015

    This classic opens with a sideshow barker shouting about his latest addition, without showing it immediately builds some tension, as you want to see this freak. The audience around the cage gasps and screams and so sets the scene for that back-story, the story of how the freak came into being.

    A beautiful circus trapeze artist, Cleopatra, takes an interest in Hans, a dwarf who works in the circus sideshow away from the main ring. She has ulterior motives though as her interest is more about Hans and his inheritance than in Hans himself. Hans has his head turned by this beauty, and forgoes his loving finance to pursue this highflying love.

    What he isn’t immediately aware of is that she is carrying on an affair with Hercules, the circus strongman. At their wedding party, a drunken Cleopatra tells the sideshow freaks just what she thinks of them – huge mistake and this group of friends close ranks and plot. Together, the freaks decide to make her one of their own.

    Tod Browning, the director and producer, drew on his own experiences in the fairgrounds and circuses of America to create this once shocking film. He was given leeway by the studio system to create this horror after his success in creating Dracula. He intentionally showed the “freaks” to be the ones with a code of honour and a sense of justice and the so-called normal cast as the ones with murderous intentions.

    Tod also managed to interweave sub-plots that built on the “freaks” having normal lives, such as the co-joined twins who each have romances, the armless wonder who performs everyday tasks with her feet – remember folks, in 1932, these were shocking images, things never before seen, hence their place amongst the circus sideshows.

    It seems impossible to believe now, but after test screenings in New York, the film was pulled after one lady threatened a lawsuit – claiming the film had been so shocking, she had suffered a miscarriage! The film was butchered and reduced from its original 90 minutes to just over 60, with some of the more shocking scenes removed. There were extended images of the freaks attacking Cleopatra and the scene where Hercules, her lover, is castrated was also removed.

    The initial barker scene was added to give it some context, but despite this and the other cuts, it lost money on it’s second release and despite Brownings earlier work with Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi, his career was effectively over – Hollywood doesn’t forgive or forget easily!

    The film was considered overly exploitative over here and was banned in the UK for over 30 years but even with mainly negative reviews, some saw this as a masterpiece, a true gem of film-making with even the Rotten tomatoes site giving it an overall thumbs up, stating that time has been kind to this film and the US National Film Registry adding it to its archives as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

    It isn’t easy to watch, in this age of PC conformity, you do question its making, it’s potential to exploit – but if you can, put that to one side and consider it in it’s historic context.
    Take a peek if you can, in its intended surroundings – aim for a real cinema with Rococo fittings and real organ music. Failing that, go see it at your local multiplex, but DO GO SEE IT.

    A huge 4 stars – not as scary as it once was, but excellent historical perspective and amazing cast

  • FILM REVIEW | Folsom Forever

    ★★★★ | Folsom Forever

    Mike Skiff’s illuminating new documentary on the Folsom Street Fair, one of San Francisco’s iconic gay events, starts off by dispelling a few of the myths that surround its 30-year history.

    Initially, the Fair was created in 1984 as part of a growing protest movement that objected to the enforced gentrification of what previously had been one of the most blighted areas of the city. The inhabitants of the skid row houses and the working men bars were being forced out as the authorities bulldozed their way through the area to put up shiny new expensive buildings.

    This was also the height of the AIDS crisis, which would go on to decimate the city’s gay population so the advent of the Fair created an opportunity for much-needed fund raising. Audrey Joseph a local activist stressed the point that the presence then of so many women supporters, who were the most accepting of AIDS victims, helped create a crucial space without judgments at the Fair.

    The whole area known as South of Market was already home to a plethora of leather bars which local historian Jack Fritscher Ph.D. explained had sprung up as bolt holes for gay hyper-masculine men who were not interested in the stereotypical roles that were most prevalent in the community at the time. Dr Fritscher who also worked for Drummer the now defunct leather magazine talked about the oft-misunderstood leather and BDSM community who came into its own then by promoting their safe sex practices. He explained said the whole concept of successful BDSM is sexual acts within agreed lines of limits to make sure each part is safe and pleasurable. It wasn’t an argument that sat well with the Authorities who at the time were panicking like everyone else and wanting someone to blame for this uncontrollable epidemic.

    Skiff added: “In the 1970s, Folsom Street was the West Coast’s mecca for anyone on their leather journey in life and his movie goes on to explore why the Folsom Street Fair couldn’t have got started anywhere else but San Francisco.”

    When someone talks about Folsom Street Fair now, the leather and fetish elements of the historic outdoor celebration of sexual diversity are likely what come to mind, and it follows the tradition of where members of the LGBT community are given the space to explore the full spectrum of their sexuality and queerness.

    It’s the one time of the year when those into kink and fetish can literally dress anyhow and do anything they want and the Fair security staff who police the streets will only stop them if they engaging in full on sex. Evidently that you can do in any of the bars on the strip.

    Nowadays the Fair is not only a major social event it is also one that has an enormous economic impact on the city. Demetri Moshoyannnis the Executive Director estimates that San Francisco benefits to the tune of some $35.4 million in revenue, and the Fair itself raises some hundreds of thousands in profits that it distributes to fund important local non-profit organisations.

  • FILM REVIEW | Glassland

    When John is not goofing off with his best friend Shane, he is driving his taxi around some of the seedier downtrodden neighbourhoods on the fringes of Dublin looking for fares. ★★★★

    Pickings are slim and he pleads with his boss to give him more shifts to make ends meet. He needs the money to support himself and Jean his alcoholic mother who seems determined to drink herself to an early grave.

    On the rare times she is sober she is vivacious and funny, but when she is wasted, Jean changes into a mean and nasty drunk. So much so that John videos one of her drink-fuelled tirades to play it back to show her what she turns into. Coming home to find her passed out is a regular occurrence, but on this occasion when he discovers her lying lifeless in a pool of her vomit he rushes her to the hospital ER. The doctor breaks the news that Jean desperate needs a new kidney, but if she doesn’t get her drinking in check immediately, she probably won’t last long enough to even have a transplant.

    If that is not enough for John to deal with, he also has to take sole responsibility for his younger sibling Kit who has Down’s syndrome, as Jean refuses to even acknowledge his very existence, let alone attend his 18th birthday. He does however finally manage to get Jean to an AA meeting but he discovers what she really needs is a proper detox programme that will cost £8000. No amount of driving hookers around looking for their ‘johns’ in his cab will raise an amount as large as this, so he is forced to borrow it from an unlikely source.

    He is actually handed the money by a person on a horse who passes him a tin full of money. We find later that the price he will have to pay for this is something to do with the activities of the criminal clique who lent it to him, but what this actually is as clear as mud and is open to wild guesswork. There is a clue in the naked dead woman he discovers in the bath in a deserted country house he has been sent too, but we are never sure why.

    Saying that this powerful Irish kitchen-sink drama is completely gripping from the word go. It has an impressive performance from Irish actor Jack Reynor as John that got him a Best Acting Award at Sundance earlier this year. Playing his mother quite superbly is Toni Collete who is pitch perfect as a deeply unhappy woman who seems almost happy to drink herself into oblivion. A nod to Harry Nagle a young actor for his bravado ad Kit.

    Confusing but quite compelling.

  • FILM REVIEW: Elsa And Fred

    FILM REVIEW: Elsa And Fred

    ★★★★ ELSA AND FRED | Newly widowed Fred has been coerced by his control freak of a daughter to sell his large house and move into an apartment in New Orleans.

    (more…)

  • FILM REVIEW | The Last Five Years

    ★★★★| The Last Five Years

    The Last Five Years is a rare breed. It is an (off) Broadway Hit Musical that has been very successfully adapted as a movie and avoided the disastrous transition from stage to screen that usually ruins most of Broadway’s exports.

    The simple story explores a five-year relationship between Cathy, a struggling actress, and her boyfriend Jamie who is a new novelist destined for big things. The show bravely tells Cathy’s story starting at the end of their marriage and working backwards, whereas Jamie’s is told in chronological order.

    With very little dialogue this two-hander is a series of songs with the couple singing to each other about their romance as it takes off and then falls apart, and in fact there is only one number in the middle of the movie when they sing a duet. So Cathy starts with her sad lament Jamie it’s Over’whereas Jamie’s exuberant first song Shiksa Goddess is about when they first meet and he totally falls in love with her and declares she can be anything, but preferably not Jewish as his Orthodox family had pressured him for years.

    As the title gives away the young couple meet, fall in love, marry and then part all in five years. Cathy gets stuck midway doing Summer Stock Theater in Ohio (!) whilst Jamie’s literary success makes him the toast of Manhattan. Evidently so closer based on composer Tony Award Winner James Robert Brown’s own life that he had to change one of the original songs after his actress ex-wife threatened legal action.

    It is completely enchanting and although sometimes the songs are a tad more passionate than the actual relationship, the infectious score and the very witty lyrics make this movie such a sheer delight. Credit too for a rather wonderful performance from rising star Anna Kendrick who showed in Into The Woods recently that she can sing as well as she can act. She is teamed with handsome Jeremy Jordan (from TV’s Smash) who is obviously a seasoned musical performer.

    The original stage show was first produced in Chicago in 2002 before setting in off-Broadway and picking up a few Awards. It has aged well with time, and this movie adaption from director Richard LaGravanse (‘PS I Love You’) will appeal to people beyond the usual musical aficionados.

  • FILM REVIEW | Hidden Away, A Spanish Teenage Gay Love Story

    Don’t be fooled into thinking that Hidden Away is just another boy meets boy love story with a less than great cover photo of its two male leads. It’s a very well told and acted Spanish teenage gay love story that’s very heartwarming and enduring as well. ★★★★

    Hidden Away is not told as a simple coming of age story, and it’s not told in chronological order, which makes understanding and piecing the film together a bit confusing. Director Mikel Rueda has decided to tell the story in a way in which is supposedly meant for the viewer to put themselves into the characters shoes. So it opens with Ibrahim, a 14-year-old young man, walking along the road hitchhiking, escaping from something which we won’t know until the very end. He’s from Morocco, but had gone to Spain a few years back looking for a better future. He’s been living in shelters, hoping to get his official papers so that he can stay in Spain. He lives in Bilbao, fully settled, attending school and living in a shelter for boys just like him. Then there is Rafa, also 14, Spanish, living with his parents. Rafa hangs out with boys just like himself, yet there’s one thing different about Rafa. He doesn’t like girls. There is one girl in particular who practically throws herself at him, but he just doesn’t reciprocate, much to the horror of his friends. Even though Ibrahim and Rafa’s paths initially cross (at one point in a club urinal), they don’t meet until a bit later in the film. And there’s a spark. A spark that at first betells an evolving and very close friendship between the young men, but then evolves into more than that. While there is no actual sex scenes in this film, Rafa and Ibrahim’s bond appears to be more than just physical, it’s emotional as well.

    Ibrahim gets mixed up with a local gang that gets him to sell drugs, while Rafa whiles away the time looking for any reason to be with him. They initially bond over a cigarette, but their friendship, and romance, blossoms after they spend a day together hanging out and going bowling. It’s a relationship that we know is too good to be true. And when Ibrahim receives a letter from the government wanting to extradite him back to Morocco, he sees no other way but to run away, with Rafa by his side.

    It’s the performances that make this film fantastic. German Alcaruz as Rafa brings an innocence to his part, a young man who knows what he wants and doesn’t care what his friends think. His facial expressions will melt your heart – Alcarazu gives a believable and touching performance. Adil Koukouh is also very good as Ibrahim. He’s bigger and more mature looking than Rafa, but he also has a special something that makes Rafa’s attraction to him seem very credible. Also very very good is Joseba Ugalde as Rafa’s best friend Guille. He knows he’s losing Rafa to Ibrahim and he’s OK with it, even when Rafa and Ibrahim have to go on the run, there’s a very touching scene when Rafa and Guille say goodbye to each and Guille tells Rafa that’s he doesn’t quite understand what is going on.

    Hidden Away is a bit difficult to comprehend in the beginning as the scenes do jump around, and the subtitles on this film are quite small and at times hard to read, but stick with it till the very end and you will be rewarded with a love story that’s unique in it’s telling and at it’s very core is a film that tells the story of young love, young love that we’ve all experienced.

    Hidden Away is now available to buy on DVD.

     

    by Tim Baros

  • FILM REVIEW | Hidden Away, A Spanish Teenage Gay Love Story

    Don’t be fooled into thinking that Hidden Away is just another boy meets boy love story with a less than great cover photo of its two male leads. It’s a very well told and acted Spanish teenage gay love story that’s very heartwarming and enduring as well. ★★★★

    Hidden Away is not told as a simple coming of age story, and it’s not told in chronological order, which makes understanding and piecing the film together a bit confusing. Director Mikel Rueda has decided to tell the story in a way in which is supposedly meant for the viewer to put themselves into the characters shoes. So it opens with Ibrahim, a 14-year-old young man, walking along the road hitchhiking, escaping from something which we won’t know until the very end. He’s from Morocco, but had gone to Spain a few years back looking for a better future. He’s been living in shelters, hoping to get his official papers so that he can stay in Spain. He lives in Bilbao, fully settled, attending school and living in a shelter for boys just like him. Then there is Rafa, also 14, Spanish, living with his parents. Rafa hangs out with boys just like himself, yet there’s one thing different about Rafa. He doesn’t like girls. There is one girl in particular who practically throws herself at him, but he just doesn’t reciprocate, much to the horror of his friends. Even though Ibrahim and Rafa’s paths initially cross (at one point in a club urinal), they don’t meet until a bit later in the film. And there’s a spark. A spark that at first betells an evolving and very close friendship between the young men, but then evolves into more than that. While there is no actual sex scenes in this film, Rafa and Ibrahim’s bond appears to be more than just physical, it’s emotional as well.

    Ibrahim gets mixed up with a local gang that gets him to sell drugs, while Rafa whiles away the time looking for any reason to be with him. They initially bond over a cigarette, but their friendship, and romance, blossoms after they spend a day together hanging out and going bowling. It’s a relationship that we know is too good to be true. And when Ibrahim receives a letter from the government wanting to extradite him back to Morocco, he sees no other way but to run away, with Rafa by his side.

    It’s the performances that make this film fantastic. German Alcaruz as Rafa brings an innocence to his part, a young man who knows what he wants and doesn’t care what his friends think. His facial expressions will melt your heart – Alcarazu gives a believable and touching performance. Adil Koukouh is also very good as Ibrahim. He’s bigger and more mature looking than Rafa, but he also has a special something that makes Rafa’s attraction to him seem very credible. Also very very good is Joseba Ugalde as Rafa’s best friend Guille. He knows he’s losing Rafa to Ibrahim and he’s OK with it, even when Rafa and Ibrahim have to go on the run, there’s a very touching scene when Rafa and Guille say goodbye to each and Guille tells Rafa that’s he doesn’t quite understand what is going on.

    Hidden Away is a bit difficult to comprehend in the beginning as the scenes do jump around, and the subtitles on this film are quite small and at times hard to read, but stick with it till the very end and you will be rewarded with a love story that’s unique in it’s telling and at it’s very core is a film that tells the story of young love, young love that we’ve all experienced.

    Available to by from Amazon