Tag: LGBT Movie Review
Read the latest LGBT+ film reviews from THEGAYUK.
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FILM REVIEW | The Perfect Wedding
★★★ | The Perfect Wedding
Paul used to be a drunk. He also used to be Roy’s boyfriend. Two years later and both men have moved on with their separate lives. Paul goes to AA Meetings regularly and is now sober, thanks to Zack his Sponsor, and he lives at home with his very supportive parents in the their rather lush waterfront home in Florida.
Paul’s sister Alana is engaged to be married and is coming home for the Christmas holidays to start planning a lavish June wedding. Besides her overly-enthusiastic mother, Alana also has her two best friends coming to help work out the details too, trouble is, one of them is Roy, her brother’s ex, and both men are nervous at meeting again for the first time after their messy breakup.
Roy is also concerned that as he is still single, he may be perceived as a loser, so he persuades Gavin another ex boyfriend to tag along and pretend that the two of them are a couple.
There was a time a decade or two ago, when almost every gay movie dealt with the ‘A’ issue i.e. AIDS.
Thankfully at least cinematically we have moved on and this rom-com tackles three more big ‘A’s ‘ instead: alcoholism, adoption, and Alzheimer’s. It almost seems at times with this issue packed story that bestselling romantic author Suzanne Brockman had deliberately penned a script (with her husband Ed Gaffney) about two guys falling in love where being gay was so ordinary that it is almost over looked.
The Gaffney’s actually wrote this for their gay son the actor Jason T Gaffney who did his mom and pop proud with his turn as Gavin who everyone seemed to fall in love with at some time or another.
And in case you had guessed that Paul and Roy had seen the error of their ways and fallen back together, then you would have been wrong. The couple whose marriage rounds out this film (after Alana’s had hers) is that of Roy’s two exes who found each other irresistible.
Thanks to some good performances, a very impressive location and some deft direction from newbie Scott Gabriel this small-budgeted indie movie is definitely one of the better ones of this genre. Touching and tender with very likeable characters that one wanted to find happiness… even if it’s the kind that only happens in the movies… and not a single stereotype in sight.
It had plenty of eye-candy, and for once they didn’t keep disrobing when the story lagged at all.
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FILM REVIEW | I’m A Porn Star
Filmmaker Charlie David‘s light-hearted rambling review of the burgeoning gay pornography industry could never be mistaken as a serious piece of investigative journalism. After speedily racing through the whole history of the business from its birth in the 1930s up to present day, the documentary focuses on four of the most successful performers today. They have probably earned the accolade of ‘star’ but then again this grossly overused title has now been claimed by everyone who has ever had a bit part in a movie or video. And there are a lot of them. In our internet based culture there now an estimated 370 million porn websites online contributing the bulk of a $13 billion business worldwide!
All of David’s subjects are very affable men and happy enough to candidly share their views on controversial topics such as barebacking, HIV, social stigma, fetishes and escorting. The whole question of gay-for-pay was also discussed by them and not always in a positive manner. Whilst Colby Jansen’s attitude regarding his evolving sexuality was refreshingly honest, Johnny Rapid’s constant reminders of not only how straight he was (‘When I am being f..ked by a guy, I keep thinking of my girlfriend just so that I can remain erect’) became very tiresome.
And with interviews with Ryan R a leading director (and a heterosexual) who claimed as others did that he did gay instead of straight porn because it was financially more lucrative, David never pushed him or anyone else further on this issue. The fact that there are seemingly so many straight men either side of the camera seems to indicate that as a community we still haven’t dispensed with all our internalised homophobia.
The most likeable, and by far the most level-headed of the pornstars featured, was the young-looking 29 years old Canadian Brent Everett. He’s not only an out proud gay man, but a happily married one who also has the full support of his parents for his chosen line of work. Everett, quite a charmer, is very effusive about his very successful career and doesn’t proffer any hint of regret or become an apologist for his roles like so many of his peers. He revels in the fact that it his work is fun and that he is clearly committed to making it as entertaining and sexy as possible for his legions of fans.
And that was probably David’s motives in making this titillating movie with its explicit scenes of sex and a seemingly endless parade of erect penises that often distract you from some of his narration. He also succeeds in making the industry look like a well-run corporate type business far removed from its old sleazy and seedy back-street image. It’s an enjoyable and diverting lively romp that will fascinate and amuse anybody with the slightest interest in the subject i.e. all gay men!
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FILM REVIEW | Man At Bath
★ | Man At Bath
Emmanuel is a man of very few words, a hustler and the live-in lover of Omar.They live in an apartment in a tower block in Gennevilliers, a working-class suburb of Paris. When Omar announces that he is going to New York for a week to work on a film project, an angry Emmanuel punishes him by brutally sexually assaulting him. After that, as Omar goes to leave, he tells Emmanuel to move out of the apartment by the time he returns from his trip.
Emmanuel wiles his way seemingly having sex with half of the men in his neighbourhood, some for money, and others just for the hell of it. It’s hard to tell as he is one very emotionless cold fish. He does have the idea of trying to contact Omar in New York but as he is so detached from real life, he somehow thinks that the only way to do this is by the defunct Telegram system.
Omar, on the other hand, is traipsing around New York videoing his friend Chiara Mastrioniani (playing herself) promoting her latest movie. Along the way, he manages to pick up a skinny Canadian film student who becomes an obsession for both his sexual appetite and his camera too.
Despite trying to desperately read between the lines trying to discover any deep or disguised existentialist meaning, that sadly is the total sum of it. The movie is the latest from French filmmaker Christophe Honoré whose somewhat indulgent output in recent years has gone from quite bizarre (Beloved) to downright bad (Let My People Go) and this one fits neatly in both camps.
I’m not sure if the whole affair was meant to be a vehicle to ‘legitimise’ the gay porn star Francois Sagat’s move into mainstream films because if it was, it was a complete and utter failure. I kept thinking back to Manhola Dargis of The New York Times when she once wrote about Janet Jackson: ‘how can I put it gently? She is a woman of very limited facial expressions!’ Ms Dargis has evidently not seen Mr Sagat on the screen, as he has none!
When the very short muscular Sagat strips his clothes off every other scene despite his erect penis he fails to imbue the act with any sexuality at all, which doesn’t make this even a half-decent piece of soft porn.
Evidently, the whole project had been commissioned by the writer/director Olivier Assayas on behalf of the Theatre de Gennevilliers, and Honore took his own inspiration from a local Impressionist painting entitled Man at Bath. The end result is hardly something that would make me want to visit Gennevilliers, or even sit through another Honore movie in the near distant future.
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FILM: A Man, His Lover and His Mother
Lorenz Meran is a successful middle-aged gay writer who is struggling with writer’s block when he gets called back home after his elderly mother has a stroke.
Rosie is a feisty old bird and unlike Lorenz and his perpetually unhappy sibling Sophie, she seems to be the one member of this family who likes to have some fun. A little too much now given the fragile state of her health but whatever happens, she is determined not to give up chain smoking or even admit to the fact that she is an alcoholic.
The parental home is a small town in eastern Switzerland, a far cry from Lorenz’s hedonistic life in Berlin of one-night stands that he chronicles in his novels, but as his mother’s health declines he very reluctantly finds himself back in the house he never thought he would ever have to live in again. He does, however, have a diversion one night when he has an ‘encounter’ with Mario a grandson of his mother’s friend, but as he dresses and prepares to leave the next morning he discovers that the boy had actually been a big fan of his work for some time. So without discussing it at all, Lorenz panics and hastily dashes off telling a startled Mario that he would never have had sex with him if he had known he was just a groupie.
The plot unravels slowly as the family are hesitantly drawn together by their mother’s decline, and Sophie has to finally deal with her own failing marriage, and both siblings make the startling discovery that it wasn’t in fact their mother who had been having ‘affairs’ when they were young as they had always suspected, but it had been their overbearing and distant father, now long dead. And all his lovers were in fact men.
Jaded Lorenz’s humor never seems to lighten as he tries to deal with his impatient Literary Agent from afar, and with sullen Chantal a young neighbor of his mother’s who he suspects is supplying Rosie with alcohol. If that is not enough, at his mother’s insistence, Mario turns up to help doing oddjobs about the house.
And then just when you are about to despair about this family, Rosie reluctantly but with her usual style, decides to make a go of living in the Seniors home that they forced her into, Sophie gets back with her estranged husband for another reconciliation, and Lorenz stops being angry and suspicious of the world just in time to realise that the long term love of his life that he has always wanted is actually there on his doorstep in the shape of Mario. And to top it all, his writer’s block disappears as he sets about writing his latest novel based on Rosie, and the ‘triangle’ he discovered when he explored his father’s past.
The movie is the latest work of Swiss gay filmmaker Marcel Gisler (who like Lorenz was born in Altstätten and works in Berlin, however I could not establish if this is an autobiographical piece). Gisler’s movie output is infrequent at best… the last one was 14 years ago… his usual fare are more explicitly gay and complicated, and this one is definitely his most refined and subtlest. Lorenz’s long struggle for happiness is finally determined by resolving the questions that arise from the troubling nightmares he still has about his father, and from being able to accept and enjoy the love of his family simply for what it is.
It all works… albeit a little drawn out… not just because of the script with its scattered passages of dark humour, but also because of the two excellent central performances. The veteran Swiss Actress Sibylle Brunner, in her first ever leading role, is rightly picking up awards for her devastatingly wonderful turn as Rosie, and Swiss actor Fabian Krüger is pitch perfect as the dour faced Lorenz who waits until the last reel to smile.
This movie is being hailed in some quarters as New Swiss Cinema and worthy of a world audience. I’m not sure if I really knew much about ‘Old Swiss Cinema ‘to make any comment, other than to say it definitely is well-worth seeing.
A Man, His Lover And His Mother is Available to buy on DVD from Amazon
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FILM REVIEW | Bruno & Earlene Go To Vegas
★★ | Bruno & Earlene Go To Vegas
When the movie opens Earlene is sitting on a wall in Venice Beach swigging from a bottle secreted in a brown paper bag and she very dramatically utters to a total stranger, ‘Experience is the name we give our mistakes. Which one are you?’ and I cannot help but cringe.
It sadly will not be the last time I feel like that, whilst watching this well-meaning micro-budget indie movie, that is all heart but ends up being an undisciplined convoluted mishmash of a film.
Earlene like every other character in this story has her ‘issues’ although in her case the reason for her mood swings is not clear until near the end. Her new androgynous Australian friend Bruno, that she immediately latches on to at their first encounter is sexually confused, and so she adopts his well-being and happiness as her own crusade. Bruno has a dream of visiting Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, which is obviously out of the question as neither of them have any money, so his new friend Earlene promises to take him on a road trip to see the next best thing i.e. a full-size replica in Las Vegas.
En route and a chance meeting with Billy, a good-looking cocky gay drifter takes them off course and they stumble upon a very small forgotten town in the middle of the Nevada desert. It’s inhabited by an odd bunch of misfits straight out of Central Casting that includes a Cher look-alike Sheriff, a tap-dancing drag queen, and a couple of Scottish male strippers. They are all kindred spirits who have found this remote bolt-hole where they can escape the outside world that none of them remotely fit in.
This debut feature from British writer/director/producer Simon Savory bravely tackles issues of gender and sexual identity and friendship, and at times is close to succeeding. It’s valiant effort, however, is hampered by a heavy-handed script with a smattering of pompous sounding epithets which made the dialogue somewhat stilted. Ashleigh Simpson the lead actress could have taken her performance down a notch or too as she overplayed the part of Earlene to the point of being annoying.
On the other hand, Savory’s choice to shoot this British production on location was very wise and really paid off with some excellent cinematography of the beautiful desert setting.
P.S. It’s tough being a filmmaker with such a minute budget and the biggest disadvantage of assuming all the major functions yourself, as in this case is that you lack the benefit of another independent set of ears and eyes which may have spotted some of the issues, which stopped it being the movie it was obviously meant to be.
Due for release on the 15th September.
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FILM REVIEW | Pride
★★★★★ | Pride
A film that includes Wales, miners, politics, gays and an ’80’s soundtrack, ticks all my boxes! Pride is one of those films that will do well, a mix of topics, a “people” film, part tear-jerker, part bio-pic (based on true events, with real characters), part comedy, think Billie Elliot, Kinky Boots or Calendar Girls.
The story is simple, set in 1984 in the midst of the Miner’s strike, the Unions versus Thatcher’s government and its hard stance, and a politicised London gay boy suddenly gets the idea to raise funds for the miners, having heard how they are being intimidated back to work.
He forms the Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners Group (LGSM) and starts fund-raising for them. However, after their first round of bucket rattling, it becomes apparent that the Unions aren’t keen on taking their money. So they go direct, and find a South Wales mining community who will take their cash and donations. And this is the start of the bonding of two disparate communities.
The majority of the film deals with how the two communities grow to know each other, how the London group gets to grips with a small community and its prejudices (or in some cases, lack of them) and the Welsh group and their education in to the world of “the gays”!
The film provides so much repeatable fodder, I guarantee that you will be quoting this film next month! My favourite is still Imelda’s line from the preview: ‘We’re off to Swansea now for a missive lez off!’
My recommendation, go see it, go get your cockles warmed, sing-along-a-bronski-beat and watch some of the smoothest disco moves on the silver screen courtesy of the amazing Dominic West!
The cast is incredible, including the lovely Andrew Scott (Moriarty from Sherlock) gives a hell of a performance as part of the “older” gay couple paired with Dominic West as his partner, Imelda Staunton as the kind of Welsh matriarch I know and love, Bill Nighy gives one of his best subtlest performances, but it’s the ones I’m not that familiar with that really set the stage for this film. George MacKay is amazing as a then underage closeted young man on a journey, Joseph Gilgun gives a great performance as one half of a platonic political couple with Ben Schnetzer who plays Mark, the driving force and sometimes eloquent spokesperson behind the LGSM. Watch out for a cameo from the lovely Russell Tovey too.
Matthew Warchus and Stephen Beresford have given us a true slice of early ’80’s nostalgia, wrapped up in a slice of political and social history and some of the most comic scenes you’ll ever see.
I’d give this film 6 stars out of 5 is I could, but I’ll make do with 5 for now!
In Cinemas 12th September
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FILM REVIEW | Lilting Reeks of good intentions but never really takes off.
Junn is a rather disgruntled 60-something year old Chinese woman who has been co-coerced against her will into moving into a care facility for Seniors by Kai her son. The opening scenes of this wee British drama see the unhappy mother berating her only child for her present predicament, which is, exasperated by the fact that although she has lived in London for decades she has never learned to speak English. ★ ★
It is soon revealed that Kai had recently died under mysterious circumstances and what we are watching now are in fact her memories. Richard who was Kai’s boyfriend for the past few years feels it’s his duty to take over from his late lover and starts to regularly visit Junn in his place. The trouble is Junn never knew her son was gay (or refused to admit it anyway) and really loathes Richard who she felt usurped her place in Kai’s life. And to make matters worse as Richard cannot speak Mandarin, the two of them have no way to communicate.
When Junn gets hit on by the home’s resident lothario, Richard seeing a glimmer of hope of some happiness for the perpetually melancholic Junn, hires a translator to help the lovebird’s potential courtship. It also serves as a means for him to start a dialogue with the old woman too, which is no easy task, as she seemingly has no concept of the fact that Richard is grieving for his loss too.
It’s a very slight story and as it is essentially about these strained relationships between different cultures and generations, a lot of the emotions literally get lost in the translating. Richard seems to spend much of his time in tears whilst on the other hand Junn just sits and stares with he big wide eyes.
This debut movie from filmmaker Hong Khaou reeks of good intentions but never really takes off. He had the good fortune to cast veteran Chinese acting legend Pei Pei Cheng as Junn, and had managed to snare Ben Whishaw to play Richard. Most indie films would kill to get stars like this, but in this case, Whishaw’s uneven performance seemed to unsettle the balance between him and the other actors, particularly Andrew Leung, who played his on screen boyfriend Kai.
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FILM REVIEW | I Am Happiness On Earth
★★★★★ | I Am Happiness On Earth
Mexican filmmaker Julián Hernández’s latest cinematic treat is essentially a film within a film.
Its protagonist Emiliano is an openly gay director whose current movie that we see in progress on screen involves filming real-life dancer Gloria Conterras and some of her students. It soon becomes apparent that Emiliano’s interests in the dancers go way beyond this project as he lusts after all the cute male ones, and soon becomes the lover of one of their number.
For the seemingly emotionless Emiliano having a handsome lover like Octavio is simply not enough to satisfy him even though it is obvious that the young dancer is hopelessly in love with him. Monogamy equals monotony in the director’s eyes, but even with a succession of hot rent boys who are willing to satisfy his every desire, Emiliano is never happy. But then again it’s hard to know what will. He is very handsome, has a successful career that has given him both fame and fortune and seeks solace in some casual drug and alcohol but still feels completely empty.
The movie with its sparse dialogue and its emphasis on aesthetics of these handsome Latino men and little attempt to include a conventional plot, makes this a typical Hernández movie. And one that is possibly better than A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle the Sky and Raging Sun, Raging Sky that won him his two prestigious Teddy Awards from the Berlinale. He has this remarkable ability to photograph his men in the most seductive and sublime manner that when naked they seem so erotic and sensual that make the scenes of intimacy seem so natural and totally beautiful without ever appearing to be remotely just basically explicit or crude in any.
There are, as always, more than a few questions when certain (of the few) strands of the story seemed to go off-kilter… such as the abandoned Octavio seeking comfort with making out with two girls as if he had now suddenly embraced bisexuality. But then again Hernández never even attempts to make our jobs easy with his lyrical style of filmmaking that focuses more on a vision that encourages us to stretch our imagination a tad more than usual.
He is helped to this end with a heart-beating cast led by the stunning Hugo Catalán who made such an impact in ‘Clandestinos’ a few years ago, and newbie actor Alan Ramirez as the beautiful dancer Octavio.
If you like a conventional start, middle and end to your movies, then this is certainly not one for you. However, if you are up for a very intricate piece that is shot almost like a ballet with its seemingly choreographed moves and against an exhilarating soundtrack (composed by Arturo Villela) that is steeped in both passion and pain (with sex too), then you will revel in this extraordinary new movie.
When Emiliano says ‘I love you’ (as he often did), he means it for that moment. The trouble is that it is followed by a lot more moments. It’s doubtful if he ever will truly find happiness on earth.
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FILM REVIEW | The Last Match
★★★★ | The Last Match
It’s still very tough and even quite dangerous being gay in some places, none more so than in the oppressive machismo society of Cuba. So when two male teenage best friends acknowledge their attraction to each other, life starts to get very complicated for them, and we have the sense from the outset that it cannot possibly end well at all.
Yosvani and Rey both play football every day on a scrap of land in the midst of a poor slum neighbourhood in Havana. Yosvani lives with his fiance and her unscrupulous black-marketeer father in a comfortable middle-class apartment. Rey, on the other hand, lives in a cramped shanty-like two room dump with his wife, their baby, and Theresa his shrill and demanding mother-in-law. It is she who actively encourages the young man to prostitute himself with male tourists willing to pay for a quickie or a whole night of passion.
With no hope of anything approaching a real job on the horizon, he is happy to oblige but draws the line at doing anything he considers is ‘gay’. Which actually seems to be very little when we see him in action enjoying himself giving his all to Juan a handsome visiting Spaniard
Rey’s few encounters with Juan make him overly confident and he ends up spending more money than he can afford to buy black-market shirts and sneakers from Yosvani’s father-in-law. He perpetually lives more than precariously on the edge and when he is flat broke he pawns Theresa’s few possessions which results in more anger from her until he redeems them again after he has turned another ‘trick’.
It’s obvious from the word go that Yosvani and Rey much prefer hanging out on the soccer pitch together than spending any time at all with their respective partners. One night after the two of them have been on a drinking binge they lose their inhibitions and hesitatingly kiss each other and somewhat surprise themselves how much they like it. They like having sex together even more, to such an extent that they cannot get enough of each other. However, because of their home situations, they have to keep this budding relationship very much on the down low and they manage to do just this until one-day Yosvani’s father-in-law gets the wind of what is going on.
It’s at about the same time that Rey suddenly gets a lucky break when a Scout offers him a chance to train to become a professional soccer player. This is another reason not to go public with their love affair but it’s actually too late as they are already at the point of no return. And then just as we had supposed, the inevitable ending is both tragic and sad.
Directed and co-written by Spanish filmmaker Antonio Hens (‘Clandestinos’) this heartbreaking well-crafted wee drama is completely engaging as if so accurately portrays the price that young men have to pay when they discover their sexuality in such an unaccepting and intolerant culture. The hypocrisy that it is acceptable as a means to an end as long as you don’t enjoy it, makes this sad tale even more poignant.
Hen’s young inexperienced lead actors did a fine and convincing job, particularly Reinier Díaz who nailed the character of Rey so perfectly. And less this should put you off going to Cuba, I should tell you that it was all filmed in Puerto Rico!
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FILM REVIEW | Five Dances
★★★★ | Five Dances
Alan Brown’s latest movie has one of the most accurate titles that pulls no punches and is exactly what it promises i.e five dances.
Held together by the strands of a wisp of a tenuous plot, it is however still a sweet and sensual coming-out-tale thanks to the presence of a charming young dancer who proves he is quite a mean actor too, despite his inexperience.
Four dancers and a choreographer are in a Manhattan studio learning a new piece of contemporary dance to perform at the opening night of a Festival. Amongst their number is naive 18 year old Chip who is fresh off the bus from Kansas having won a scholarship to study with the Joffry Ballet. The others assume that his parents back in the Midwest must be proud of him, but the reality is that his divorced alcoholic mother is about to be evicted so makes daily menacing phone calls to her only son.
Chip is homeless so when Cathy one of the other dancers discovers this, she takes pity on him and takes him home and lets him sleep on his couch. Theo another of the quartet takes another type of interest in the newbie and late one night makes a pass at him. A totally confused (and virginal) Chip runs off but not for long as next night he is back and this time encouraging Theo to go all the way.
That’s essentially it in terms of plot, but this one after all is all about the dancing, and in particular young Chip learning how to really express himself through movement. The choreography by Jonah Bokaer is exhilarating and so beautifully photographed to accentuate every graceful move, and it’s capped by a sensuous soundtrack by singer/songwriter Scott Matthew.
Brown is quite the master at bringing every sinew of sexuality into stories of young love into his movies as he did so wonderfully well in ‘Private Romeo’. Here when Chip and Theo are making love it mirrors the dancing in terms of its intimacy and is sensuous rather than explicit. The whole cast dance like angels and young Ryan Steele as Chip maintains that purity and innocence when in the very sparse script he so cutely conveys his turmoil coming to terms with both his threatening mother and the fact that he now has his first ever boyfriend.
You don’t have to be a contemporary dance fan to love this one, but if you are, it does help.