THEGAYUK

Tag: Four Star Film Review

The latest four-star film review from THEGAYUK.

  • FILM REVIEW | Akron

    FILM REVIEW | Akron


    ★★★★ | Akron
    Two young college men fall in love but are linked to a tragedy that took place years ago in the excellent ‘Akron.’

    Hispanic Benny (Matthew Frias) and white All-American Christopher (Edmund Donovan) meet on the football pitch on their college campus. They have an instantaneous attraction to each other, and start dating. Benny still lives at home with his parents which includes his warm loving mom Lenora (an excellent Andrea Burns) and his lawyer father and younger sister. Benny’s parents are very accepting of his homosexuality, but they not quite over the loss of a son who died many years ago.

    Benny and Christopher start spending a lot of time together – they really like each other and are a good match. They decide to go to Florida to stay with Christopher’s mom Carol (a good Amy Da Luz) where they plan to spend a perfect and romantic spring break. However, Christopher’s mom opens up to Benny about the tragedy that befell both their families years ago – a tragedy that’s probably worst of it’s kind. It leads Benny to question his relationship with Christopher. He was starting to fall in love with Christopher but the revelation by Christopher’s mom changes everything, enough so to have Benny’s parents forbiding him to see Christopher anymore. Benny has to make some adult decisions, but does he decide with his heart or does he listen to his family?

    ‘Akron’s’ truly a romantic film about two young men in love and events that make them grow up very fast. It has an undertone of sadness, yet it overcomes this to bring us a film that is heartfelt and emotional. And it’s got a first rate cast – both Frias and Donovan are very good, and Burns is excellent and natural as Benny’s mother. Directors Sasha King and Brian O’Donnell give us a movie, from a script by O’Donnell, that will pull at your heartstrings. Superb music by Bill Snodgrass sets the tone for each scene – creating the music in Dublin, Ireland where he played composed the score and played every instrument himself. Make sure you watch ‘Akron.’

    ‘Akron’ will be released April 10th on DVD / VOD by TLA Releasing

  • FILM REVIEW | The Pass

    FILM REVIEW | The Pass

    ★★★★ | The Pass

    CREDIT: Grapevine Digital

    Two footballer players end up scoring with each other in Ben A. Williams feature film debut The Pass, which was recently featured at London’s BFI Film Festival.

    The Pass take place in a ten-year time span which tracks the relationship between two Premiership football players. There’s always been some kind of chemistry and attraction between James (an electric and very good Russell Tovey) and Ade (Arinzé Kene – Hollyoaks – also very good). We meet both of them while they’re sharing a hotel room in 2006 in Bulgaria right before one of their first big matches. They’re both very young, and they’re also both very fit, masculine and extremely sexy, and they spend the first third of the movie in their tight white underwear.

    James and Ade are talking lads stuff, having a laugh about other players, and watching a video that was taken of another player having sex. The sex talk continues, and the banter goes something like ‘getting as hard as your sister sitting on my face.’ They’re playing around with each other; it’s hot, it’s erotic, it gets brutal and homophobic, plus, we find out later, it leads to more than just talk.

    The Pass takes us beyond the hotel room to tell us the story of the relationship between these two men, but especially about the relationship James has with himself. He’s all man, a star footballer, with all the trappings of stardom; money, women, celebrity, and eventually a wife with two kids. But he’s also battling with his sexuality, and even though he buys whatever, and whomever, he wants when he wants it, the thing he wants most is out of his reach. And when he’s questioned about his sexuality by a woman who has been paid to videotape having sex with him, he wants to go through with it, just to prove to the world (and obviously to himself) that he’s not gay. He’s a man who is not able to accept who he is and who he really wants to be with.

    The Pass is 88 minutes of purely charged up adrenaline. It’s a movie that’s full of dialogue, dialogue that goes from playful banter to sexually-charged hi-jinks, up to and including the final third scene of the movie, which involves a hotel bellboy that’s a bit over the top. But it’s not to take away from a movie that brings up a real issue – that there is not one out gay football player in the game now.

    Let’s hope this film opens up the dialogue that it’s fine for a player to come out of the closet. Originally produced for the Royal Court Theatre in 2014, The Pass makes an excellent transition to the big screen. Kene brings a real toughness kindled with a bit of softness to his role, but it’s Tovey who owns the movie. He’s never been better; his James is battling with his sexuality while at the same time trying to uphold his image. Tovey is electrifying and is at the top of his game. This is one pass that you have to catch.

    The Pass is out in cinemas this Friday.

  • Film Review | SHARED ROOMS

    Film Review | SHARED ROOMS

    ★★★★ | Shared Rooms

     

    Shared Rooms gay film review
    CREDIT: Rico MJPublicity

    The story of a set of three couples grappling with life, love, and children is told in the new gay comedy ‘Shared Rooms.’

    Set in Los Angeles, these three couples are all somehow connected to each other. There’s married couple Laslo (Christopher Grant Pearson) and Cal (Alec Manley Wilson) who live in a very cosy home and make fun of their friends with children – always telling themselves that ‘they are not that couple’ who ‘always have to arrange play dates for their children.’ And then there are roommates Julian (Daniel Lipshutz) and Dylan (Robert Werner). Dylan travels 36 weeks out of the year for work, so Julian rents his room out to strangers on LGBTQBnB while he’s away. But Dylan comes home early from a business trip to find a stranger named Frank Turner (David Vaughn) in his bedroom, so he has to share Julian’s bed, a thought, and fantasy, Dylan has had for two years! And finally third couple Sid (Justin Xavier) and Gray (Alexander Neil Miller), who casually meet up on an app called Manfinder. They instantly connect, while Sid shares with Gray a deep dark secret about his past, and lucky for us, they spend all of their time together naked.

    These men all happily share their lives, and their rooms, with other men, during Christmas, however, there is drama lurking in the background. Houseguest Frank Turner is in town to look for his long-lost kidnapped brother, and Cal’s gay nephew Blake (a very good and natural Eric Allen Smith) arrives after having been kicked out of his parent’s house.

    Shared Rooms, by writer and director Rob Williams, is cleverly written and very cute and funny. It’s like watching a gay version of Modern Family – everyone is a bit dysfunctional yet sweet and charming in their own way. Everything wraps up a bit too easily at the end, culminating in a New Years Eve Party where everyone has found what they were looking for (if only life were that easy), but it’s a funny and cute journey to get there.

    Available on Amazon and iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

    FILM REVIEW | Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

    ★★★★ | Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

    FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM review
    Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

    You cannot help but wonder how J.K Rowling’s Wizarding World (writing her first original screenplay) will work without Harry Potter and his crew.

    Well, given that it is based in another country and about 54 years before Harry Potter was born, it was pretty easy to forget about him within the first 20 mins because you fall completely in love with Newt Scamander, the socially awkward and shy wizard, played by Eddie Redmayne, and his No-Maj friend (the new American term for a Muggle) Jacob Kowalski, played by Dan Fogler.

    But all is not as shiny as a bag of Galleons; some of the editing with the action scenes leaves them loud, aggressive and hard to follow. I Imagine seeing this in the IMAX or/and in 3D could be pretty intense, but not in a good way.

    The real screen stealer is Samantha Morton, who plays Mary Lou, a leader of the New Salem Philanthropic Society, an extremist group that exposed and eradicated witchcraft in the 1920. Her performance echoed the recent rise of the right wing in the USA, characterised by fear of  change and their perceptions of ungodliness.

    Overall this is a great entry into this magical world and shows that Rowling and David Yates (director of the final four Harry Potter Films as well as Fantastic Beasts) are Hollywood gold.

  • FILM REVIEW | Lazy Eye

    FILM REVIEW | Lazy Eye

    ✭✭✭✭ | Lazy Eye

    lazyeye_bed_000197

    An L.A. graphic designer is contacted by a flame from his past that puts into doubt the relationship he has with his husband in the new film Lazy Eye.

    FIfteen years ago Dean (Lucas Near-Verbrugghe) and Alex (Aaron Costa Ganis) were boyfriends in New York City. But after their breakup, Dean moved to Los Angeles to start a new life. But out of the blue Dean receives an email from Alex, and Dean, after working up the courage and giving it a bit of thought, invites Alex to come visit him in California. Dean still has feelings for Alex (now both in their late 30s), feelings that actually never went away, and Dean gets excited with the thought of seeing Alex again. Dean tells Alex to come and spend the weekend with him at his house in the desert near Joshua Tree.

    So when Alex arrives him and Dean pick up right where they left off, jumping right into bed. But fifteen years is a long time for them to have last seen each other, and unfortunately sex is the only thing they have in common. And you see Dean forgot to tell Alex that he is in a long-term relationship with another man, who happens to be in Australia for work. This puts a strain on their weekend, but then there’s more drama when Alex suggests him and Dean get back together again, permanently.

    Lazy Eye ( a really poor name for a film this good – the name comes from the beginning of the film when Dean has to get bi-focals because he’s got a lazy eye) is a gentle, easygoing and lovely story about two men who were, or were not, meant to be with each other (we’ve all been there!). Subtle and quiet direction by Tim Kirkman (who also wrote the clever screenplay) and great music by Steven Argila (and great scenery of the Joshua Tree area of the California desert) make Lazy Eye a nice crystal clear viewing, perhaps on your own or with an ex.

    lazyeye_bed_000197

    Now available on DVD and VOD

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Beautiful Something

    ★★★★ | BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING

    Four gay men, all with issues in their lives, experience a night of mystery and sex in the beautifully told Beautiful Something.

    Writer Brian (Brian Sheppard) is sexy and picks up guys in bars and on the street – but they love him and leave him. Then there’s Jim (Zack Ryan), a wannabe actor who doesn’t realise that the man he lives with really really loves him. And that man is Drew (Colman Domingo), a tortured and passionate artist who uses Jim as his muse and model. And then there’s Bob (John Lescault), a wealthy talent agent who is chauffeured around town picking up men but not necessarily for sex. It’s one night in Philadelphia, and these men’s lives intertwine in search of meaningful connections on a night when anything is possible.

    After a one night stand that for some reason goes horribly wrong, Brian goes for a walk and meets Jim, who’s just had a bust-up with Drew. They are immediately attracted to each other and have sex in the house that Jim shares with Drew. Drew, meanwhile, is so involved in his artwork that he’s doesn’t realise that Brian and Jim are downstairs getting it on. But this is not enough for Jim, and after Brian leaves and not wanting to stay home, Jim goes for a walk and is picked up, and intrigued by, Bob. They share a meal only after Bob tells Jim that if he’s an actor he must get out of the car. So Jim lies to Bob and they have dinner and eventually go back to Bob’s palatial home. Meanwhile, Brian looks up an old flame and Drew wonders what is really going on in Jim’s head. All this drama takes place in one sublime night, with the sprinkling lights of Philadelphia providing a romantic and perfect backdrop to the movie.

    Beautiful Something beautifully explores the need for us gay men to seek out romance and adventure in the hopes of finding something, anything, meaningful. Director and writer Joseph Graham successfully captures a night these men, nor us, won’t forget.

    With excellent and realistic performances throughout, Beautiful Something, inspired by real-life experiences, will put a twinkle in your eye and the optimism of love in your heart.

    Available on DVD & Digital HD on November 7th, 2016

  • FILM REVIEW | I, Daniel Blake

    FILM REVIEW | I, Daniel Blake

    ★★★★ | I, DANIEL BLAKE

    I Daniel Blake

    A middle-aged man is down on his luck. He can’t work because he’s got a heart condition while at the same time he’s having trouble navigating the UK’s benefits system. He is I, Daniel Blake and it’s a film that opened this weekend.

    I, Daniel Blake, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and directed by Ken Loach, is the story of one man, in Newcastle, and the trials and tribulations, and the humiliation and despair, he goes through in an attempt to receive benefits he thinks he’s entitled to. Stand-up comedian Dave Johns eloquently plays Blake, a man with so much heartbreak and despair where nothing goes his way.

    We first meet Blake after he’s had a heart attack and can’t work anymore. So he applies for Employment and Support Allowance, but first, he must go through a rigorous telephone assessment by a health care professional who asks him some very intrusive questions. He then heads to the Jobcentre where he meets single mum Katie (Hayley Squires). She’s got two kids and has just been moved from London to Newcastle by the system because Newcastle is a cheaper place to house people on benefits. She barely has two pence to rub together, and she and Blake form a special bond. He’s there to help her around her house, he’s there to support her in any way possible, even after she shoplifts. And he’s there at her side when she makes a wrong decision to earn money. But it’s Blake who is spiralling down a hole; he can’t apply for benefits online because he’s never used a computer. Then he’s been judged fit to work, so his benefits stop, however, he doesn’t have a CV to look for work so he handwrites one. More despair comes his way when he is told that he doesn’t qualify for any benefit so he has to wait for a ‘decision-maker’ to decide his fate, while Katie has to rely on the local food bank in order to feed her family. It’s one thing after another for both in this very bleak film that shows how life really must be for people on benefits.

    Johns, who has very few acting credits, is superb as Blake. He beautifully portrays a man down on luck who keeps losing his optimism and will to live along the way. Squires is just as good trying to survive in a town where she doesn’t know anyone with two kids who need to eat and have new clothes for school. Loach, who is British born, harshly displays the reality of the UK’s benefits system for people who are really in need, people who lose their dignity, navigating a system that works against them and not for them.

    As Blake says in the film, “When you lost your self-respect, you’re done for.”

    This film is a wake-up call with a strong message that this could happen to anyone of us.

  • Film Review | Theo & Hugo – sexually charged and romantic

    ★★★★ | Theo & Hugo

    Two men meet at one of Paris’ most popular, and notorious, gay sex clubs, and then embark on an evening with lots of twist and turns, in the new film Theo & Hugo.

    You might think you’re watching a gay porn film as the first 20 minutes of Theo & Hugo is full-on man-to-man action – erections and anal sex are all on full display, filmed at L’Impact – a naked gay sex club in the Marais district in Paris. Theo & Hugo, In French, with English subtitles, is shot in real-time, and it’s in that club where Theo and Hugo meet, at exactly 4:27 a.m., amongst the writhing and moaning group of men who are all enjoying each others’ company.

    While there, Theo and Hugo connect sexually, intimately, and emotionally. They then decide to leave the club together to carry on their night with each other. But what wasn’t discussed while they were having unsafe sex at the club was the use of a condom to prevent HIV transmission, as Hugo (Francois Nambot) tells Theo (Geoffrey Couët) that he is HIV+.

    What transpires after is a rollercoaster of a night for both of them, when Theo goes to the hospital to get PEP (Post-exposure prophylaxis), a medication that should kill any traces of the virus that might be in his system.

    Romantically, and responsibly, Hugo joins him there. They then wander the streets of Paris, on a night that could turn out to be either very romantic or very tragic, with the ramifications of HIV staring them right in the face, and the possibility that their encounter could be more than just an encounter.

    Is Theo & Hugo a porn film or is it a film with an important message? This is something that you will have to decide, but nonetheless, it’s guerrilla and gay filmmaking at its finest. And Kudos go to the actors for ‘baring it all’ in scenes that are relevant to the message of the film, and to writers and directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau for bravely, and successfully, having the balls to make this controversial, yet romantic and engaging film.

  • FILM REVIEW | Chicklit – a film about Mommy Porn and BDSM!

    FILM REVIEW | Chicklit – a film about Mommy Porn and BDSM!

    ★★★★ | Chicklit

    Four men try to cash in on the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon by writing their own racy novel in order to save a local pub in the new film Chicklit.

    Chicklit
    SWCP

    Set in a small village in Norfolk, the whole town seems to be reading She Came in Chains, a new BDSM book by author Lady Lovelorn, including local newspaper editor David Rose’s (Christian McKay) wife Jen (Caroline Catz).

    So when the local pub is faced with closing unless a buyer can come up with £300,000 to save it, Rose has an idea – why don’t him and his pals write their own racy novel. So he enlists his card game buddies – pub manager Chris (Tom Palmer), school teacher Justin (David Troughton) and local bookstore owner Marcus (Miles Jupp – who owns the bookstore with his partner Geoffrey – James Wilby), to each write their own section of a ‘mommy porn’ novel in the hopes that they can get someone to publish it.

    Well, David contacts London book agents Bonar and Law (John Hurt and Eileen Atkins), who are very interested in representing the book the men have called Love Let Her. They get a publishing deal but with one caveat, they need to have the author available to do book tours and signings. So David enlists his struggling actress sister-in-law Zoe (Dakota Blue Richards) to play the part of the ‘author’ of the book. But with the book becoming a success, it’s harder and harder for them to keep the book’s real authors a secret, and even more so when Zoe starts getting tired of promoting something that is not hers.

    Ii is a cute and funny take on chick literature and how almost anyone with an imagination and a computer can write a saucy novel. Filmed like a 1970’s style television show in a small English village with typical local characters, it’s a film that’s both charming and cute. Hurt and Atkins almost steal the movie as the uproarious book agents while the delightful music of Alex Britten (related to Director Tony Brtten who also wrote the film with Oliver Britten – it’s a family affair), who sings as part of the pub’s house band, adds a nice touch. This film is recommended because it’s cute and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Golden Years

    FILM REVIEW | Golden Years

    ★★★★ | Golden Years

    Golden Years
    PR Provided

    The pensioners in the new DVD release ‘Golden Years’ try to get even at the system that they feel is robbing them.

    It’s a cute and funny film about older people trying to get back what’s theirs. They feel the system is corrupt, so they take matters into their own hands. Retired couple Arthur Goode (Bernard Hill) and his wife Martha (Virginia McKenna), who is ill with Crohn’s disease, eke out a living on their pension while spending time at their local social club with friends Royston (Simon Callow), Brian (Philip Davis), and Shirley (Una Stubbs).

    One day Arthur finds out that the company he spent a lifetime working for has gone bankrupt, and so has his pension. He doesn’t know what to do… how is going to be able to take care of Martha? An opportunity presents itself when, while in front of a bank when money is being delivered, one of the guards trips, falls and gets knocked out on the ground, while the guard inside the truck inadvertently hands over a container of money to Arthur, who gladly takes it and runs. It sets off an idea where he enlists Martha, and eventually his friends, to rob banks. Who would expect pensioners as bank robbers, with cucumbers acting as guns, of stealing money?

    Golden Years is a delightful film with a cast of great actors all relishing their role as bank robbers. It gets even funnier when the local police keep thinking that the bank robbers are a malicious and very dangerous gang.

    I would’ve liked to have seen more of Ellen Thomas, the loquacious and horny local diva, she’s got some of the best lines in the film. Some of the robberies the gang pulls off are, however, a bit unbelievable and far-fetched, especially when they’re attempt at running away is basically a slow walk. But nonetheless it’s a charming film that will make you think what retirement holds in store for you – perhaps robbing banks to get even with the system.

    GOLDEN YEARS is available on DVD from Amazon
    www.facebook.com/goldenyearsmovie @goldenyearsfilm

  • FILM REVIEW | Boys on film 15: Time and Tied

    FILM REVIEW | Boys on film 15: Time and Tied

    Peccadillo continues to champion gay short films by coming out with their 15th gay shorts compilation. This one’s titled ‘Boys on Film 15: Time and Tied’ and it showcases a selection of British short films that are either sexy, funny or meaningful or all three.

    -G_OCLOCK_1

     

    The best by far is Trouser Bar. Directed by famous gay porn director Kristen Bjorn, Trouser Bar takes us into a gay shop that sells clothes made of corduroy clothes, which gets both the staff and customers frisky. Its pulsating music and mustached actors mimic the best elements of a 1970’s gay porn film, and it builds to an exciting climax. Porn star Ashley Ryder is practically unrecognizable as one of the shops customers, with Julian Clary making a quick cameo. This is an 18-minute masterpiece.

    Crossroad doesn’t have any dialogue, but it’s a hard-hitting 11-minute short about a young man who lives with his girlfriend. He’s angry and revengeful over the black man who ran over and killed the man he was in love with. Directed by gay actor Leon Lopez. Powerful.

    Dawn introduces us to a young blind man who’s waiting at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, and unbeknownst to him the woman he’s speaking to is transgender. They share a special moment together in this 11-minute short directed by transgender filmmaker Jake Graf.

    Sauna the Dead is a fantastic gay horror film about one man looking for love in a sauna where the patrons turn into zombies who then try to eat him and a fellow Indian customer alive. Very original and excellently shot at Chariots Vauxhall. Directed by Tom Frederic (who also stars), it’s 23 minutes of scary fun.

    G’OClock is a relevant and timely short about a chemsex party where a paramedic and a younger man re-connect from a previous encounter. Though it ends abruptly, it’s very glossy style with a very sexy cast make it’s ten minutes too short. The film includes the infectious song ‘Look at Me’ by DPSC. With Leon Lopez (again) and a bevy of real life porn stars.

    Closets (18 minutes) is a poignant and emotional story about a camp young teenage boy in 1986 who likes to dress up in his mother’s clothes. She gets angry at him so he retreats into his closet, and then comes out of the closet (no pun intended) to meet another young gay man 30 years in the future whose gay lifestyle, and dressing up, is more acceptable. This 18-minute beautiful film is directed by Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and has a fantastic performance by Tommy Knight as the 1986 gay teen.

    Putting on the Dish is basically two gay men sitting on a bench in a park talking about gay men and sex. Their accents and the too short story make it a bit hard to understand and pretty much irrelevant.

    The above is just a taster of all the short films that are featured in this two hour compilation that’s all about showcasing some of the UK’s best emerging talent. Tie yourself to your DVD player and make this a much watch!

    BOYS ON FILM 15: TIME AND TIED

    Available to purchase on AMAZON