THEGAYUK

Tag: Movie Genre Drama

All movie reviews for films in the Drama genre

  • FILM REVIEW: Shelter

    Thwarted by his family circumstance and finding it hard to find his place in a small industrial Californian town, heartthrob Zach (Trevor Wright) is a trapped, talented artist.

    Stymied by his situation; a selfish and homophobic sister, a loveless relationship with his girlfriend and a father who is next to useless. With Art College and a new life calling him, Zach finds himself suffocated by his life with a hopeless acceptance. However things begin to change when Shaun (Brad Rowe), Zach’s best friend’s brother returns to town. Life begins to click into place when a drunken night together shows Zach a new reality. One that offers a life unlimited.

     

    As the relationship develops between the two would-be lovers, the reality of his new secret life mounts pressure on his daily existence. Zach is torn between the release of who he wants to be and the pressures of his real life. Zach has become a surrogate father to his sister’s five-year-old son, the adorable Cody (Jackson Wurth) in-between his shifts flipping burgers. His small town, wrong side of the tracks existence and expectations battle directly with the possibilities that lay ahead with Shaun, Art College and escaping from his humbler beginnings.

     

    What makes Shelter a wholly charming film to watch is its warmth and honesty. Its tentative steps and its revealing of Zach’s new potential is stunning. You know where you are with Shelter and you know where you’re going and clichés aside, it’s a magnificent film for many reasons. It’s a hazy, sweet, Gaussian, Californian coming out story. Filmed with a sensitivity that’s not often found in queer cinema. The sex scenes aren’t graphic, but leave enough to the imagination. It’s everything you wish your vanilla first time with a man might be. Its lack of reference to the gay scene or to gay culture makes it a film that can be enjoyed by most audiences, who appreciate a good romance. Filled with instamatic – esque shots of the Californian shoreline, crashing waves mix well with a thoughtful and provocative soundtrack.

     

    The camera does linger on Trevor Wright and he deserves the attention. Acting with an introspective knowing, Wright leads the story through and along with Brad Rowe gives great screen. Their chemistry is undeniable, their potential promising. It is an entirely shameful that Wright hasn’t garnered more film success because he is a riveting actor to behold.

     

    Shelter never fails to deliver what you’d expect from a coming out story, perhaps a little less complicated than real life situations, but definitely a film I’d revisit.

     

    Perfect if you like: Rainbows, Hollister and Hollywood endings.

    Dreadful if you like: Slings, fisting and earthy dramas.

     

     

  • FILM REVIEW: Four More Years

    David is a Swedish politician with a stellar career ahead of him.

    He’s also a bit of a silver fox and cuts a fine figure in a business suit. After an unexpected political defeat leaves him feeling adrift, he bumps into fellow politician Martin and the two quickly fall in love. This isn’t the usual romantic comedy though. David is from a strict Baptist family, straight and married. Martin is openly gay and a senior politician for the opposing party. It’s a relationship fraught with issues.

    The film is a gentle comedy which follows the men through a series of turbulent events and the usual misunderstandings and mix-ups. The humour is subtle, rather than raucous, and the film is beautifully compiled with artful shots and stylish views. What raises the film above the romantic comedy genre is the quirky way it deals with him being gay.

    Interestingly, the film doesn’t portray David’s sexuality as a major problem; more of a shock to him. The scene where his wife reflects on him being gay is hilarious and unexpected. Instead the film concentrates more on what it means to fall in love with someone who you aren’t supposed to fall in love with.

    Overall the film was actually quite touching and the three main characters were likeable and engaging. This is definitely a film which leaves you feeling a bit better about the world. Recommended for a rainy autumnal afternoon.

  • FILM REVIEW | Bad Boy Street

    Finding passed out hunk Brad (Kevin Miranda) on the streets of Paris, Claude (Yann de Monterno) takes him home and a passionate romance ensues, however Brad it seems isn’t exactly who he says he is.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Romeos

    This is a story with a difference, about two star crossed lovers.

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  • FILM REVIEW | North Sea Texas

    Pim is a young boy from a small Belgian coastal town who lives a dreary existence with his mother, Yvette, who is a boozy accordion player.

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  • FILM REVIEW | The Mission

    ★★★★ | The Mission

    The Mission contains enough heart, energy and soul for any audience to forgive the rough around the edges finish. It outweighs many of its more polished, bigger competitors in its intentions and message.

    Set in the Mission district of San Francisco, Che Rivera (Benjamin Bratt) is an admired, macho, tattooed and well respected man. Bus driver, single father, recovering alcoholic, ex con and spends his spare time fine-tuning his beloved customised ‘low rider’ (that’s a vintage automobile for the uninitiated). Living with him is his treasured only son Jesse (Jeremy Ray Valdez) who has a secret not yet told to his father. You start to understand why as the story progresses. Upstairs, Lena has just moved in. A strong, fiercely independent and earthy woman, who works at the shelter for abused women. Lena begins to fall for Che, until a side of him is revealed that she fears she’s seen the results of all too often at the shelter. Upon the discovery of his son’s sexuality Che violently disowns his son in a gritty on-street spat, a difficult, heartbreaking scene to watch in gay cinema; it tears the two apart. The neighbourhood, an audience to the event, learn about Jesse’s sexuality, which sends homophobic ripples through the Latino community. The writer’s intentions may have been to focus on the relationship between father and son, but overwhelmingly the focus falls on the Latino community, and how it might play a role in the way fathers treat their gay sons.

    The story is told with truth and empathy for Che, Jesse and Lena; the casting is brilliant and crucially credible. Valdez, plays his Latino homosexuality with dignity, sensitivity and courage. His worry, isolation and the confinement of his sexuality is played exceptionally (I fell in love with his doey eyed, submissiveness.) Yet, strangely, we don’t hate his father – although we should. Instead we desperately want his father to understand and to accept. It could be clichéd, but it isn’t, we’re being allowed to participate in this bittersweet, intimate, father/son journey.

    Che’s tolerance gets an invigorated jolt, when his son is attacked on the streets of Mission, but there are pot holes along the way. He refuses to accept Jesse’s boyfriend, who for all intents and purposes comes from a different planet; monied, middle class, educated and white. The stark opposition makes the relationship, at best, two-dimensional, a more powerful script may have demanded another Latino boy for real punch and grit.

    Che, with the loving of a good woman (Lena), starts to welcome Jesse back into his life, but feels a little incongruous, in the respect that by satisfying Che’s love-life he is able to accept his son’s.

    The language is sometimes simplistic and the resolution premature for it to really feel believable. I like my loose ends tied up – The Mission’s resolve feels clunky. However the theme and issues buried in this film are vitally important – the teenage ‘coming out story’ from – and for an entirely new generation. I applaud the movie makers for The Mission’s integrity, worth and ambition.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | Our Paradise

    Despite its lack of motive, this film nurtures a disturbing subculture of achieving status by taking what’s not yours to take.

    Something deeply dark and disturbing yet visually enticing awaits viewers for this French drama about a 30-something hustler whose neurosis about ageing is, we assume, turning him to a motiveless murderous monster. After finding a younger man (Dimitri Durdaine) lying dazed, damaged and suffering from memory loss in the cruising grounds of Bois de Boulogne, Paris, Vassili (Stephane Rideau) shrouds his new muse, becoming a hybrid of pimp/lover figure to his new squeeze. After a client, who Vassili believes he had murdered, is discovered living in Paris, the two lovers and now accomplices are forced to go on the run.

    Our Paradise is an enigmatically beautiful piece of cinematography with much thought given to ensuring that the characters are either corpulently grotesque or fallen angelic beauties, not in equal measure, however. Angelo is the fallen angelic beauty – both inside and out. Vassili’s world is full of these gross, bloated and aged individuals who, one imagines used to be paying trade, now, with fresh blood, and Vassili’s burgeoning potbelly hindering his prospects; the fallen angelic beauty reignites business. One odd scene, Angelo is examined by a doctor, ostensibly to see whether the boy was raped shoves a camera into the boy’s anus and describes his findings ‘smooth as silk.’ This is, however, as far as character probing goes. Uncomplex and a little two dimensional in some respects the characters are more animalistic in their pursuits. Durdaine is almost entirely detached from his character, which adds to the rather chilling but lonely portrayal of Angelo.

    Durdaine plays an almost perfect twink to Rideau’s inflated frame and the audience is given many opportunities to revel in his nakedness, which of course is wonderful and does distract from some the many questions that the film’s lack of motive throws up.

    One of the key issues explored is the often mismatched relationships between younger gay men and their respective elder partners. The narrative doesn’t judge, but merely outlines the possible issues faced by such relationships, most notable replaceability for a younger, newer, fresher model and the power struggle between the monied and the beneficiary.

    The supporting cast is superb, their performances loiter in the mind as an uneasy feeling engulfs you. Sterling performances from supporting cast Béatrice Dalle and a young Mathis Morisset who shows acting promise far beyond his years.

    The brilliantly translated subtitles really draw you into the action, distracting the audience from analysing our anti heroes’ intentions. Why the film is called Our Paradise remains, annoyingly elusive, as paradise is unobtainable for Vassili and Angelo. The ending makes the film feel a little pointless and if you’re looking for a bow to wrap up the little details you certainly won’t find it in this film.

  • FILM REVIEW | Party Monster

    This week I want to introduce to you, one of my all time favourite movies. This movie sees the return of Macaulay Culkin as a club child of the 80s along with his creator/mentor/muse – Seth Green who plays James St. James

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  • FILM REVIEW | The Mudge Boy; Dark, Cruel and Unfinished

    A dark, cruel story of fourteen-year-old Duncan Mudge.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Weekend; Quiet, unhurried and self assured

    FILM REVIEW | Weekend; Quiet, unhurried and self assured

    It’s the kind of movie that Hollywood would run a mile from, and that’s a good thing.

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  • FILM REVIEW | Shortbus

    ★★★★★ | Shortbus

    You’ll never look at a splatter painting in the way away again.

    If you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to have you face stuffed into a film’s never regions, then Shortbus is the film for you to see. Stat.

    Director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig And The Angry Inch) bravely circumnavigates the world of sexuality in this stylist, almost uncomplicated observation of sexual dysfunction.

    Shortbus is a New York club where the focus is sexual liberation with a heady blend of punters. Transgenders, aging homosexuals, hot young boys, a straight female sex therapist all looking to get their rocks off – a bit like Piccadilly on a Thursday night but more scintillating.

    The creators and actors of Shortbus have genuinely created and sustained characters the viewer can befriend and have some feeling for. It’s almost as though you can see that the actual actors forged a real relationship with each other, which gathering from the DVD’s ‘extras’ they had to, as part of the film development process was having sexual relations with each other.

    Shortbus did give me a tingling sensation. Not just because you get to see: self sucking, a blinding rim job, a 3 way, the national anthem sung into a sizable cock and Mr Cameron-Mitchell himself being sucked off by an extra (no really) but it caused me to think of my own sexuality and my relationship to it. If you’ve ever wondered how the standard British sexual sensibility is compared to an American one – go to New York, hook up with a bar tender and you might understand the discomfort that this film might create. Sex is ‘in your face.’ It is about sexual roles. It’s about ‘this moment, now’ Being British and naturally reserved such talk and this movie is better left after 2 bottles of Chablis and a handful of bar nuts.

    Some fantastic performances and an introduction to one Jay Brannan – who I suggest you get yourself into – socially so to speak. He has a Facebook, twitter, albums and tours his music about regularly.

    If you’re sexually revolutionize you might watch this and think, whats all the fuss about, but worth a punt anyway. You can pass it of as porn with a story line and real actors. No mention of rusty pipes than need a lube down.

    If you’re a fan of the slightly psychedelic, smash colour, animatic world of John Cameron Mitchell you’ll like this movie. It isn’t one however to watch with your Mother. You get to see quite a bit of peen!

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon