THEGAYUK

Tag: Movie Genre Drama

All movie reviews for films in the Drama genre

  • FILM REVIEW | Love, Simon

    ★★★★★ | Love, Simon

    He’s just like you.

    Simon Spiel (portrayed by Nick Robinson) has a “huge ass secret” in Love, Simon… he’s gay. The seventeen-year-old hasn’t told his perfectly ordinary nuclear family or his perfectly ordinary group of friends yet, but begins communicating with an anonymous Blue via email when he finds out through the school’s gossipy blog that Blue is also, in fact, closeted. Teenage drama ensues, complications arise but boiled down to its core, you’re left with a syrupy-sweet premise and a completely revitalised romantic outlook on life.

    Despite knowing the reactions he’ll get probably won’t be as severe as they could be, Simon’s worry and fear of change encapsulate the paralysing effect of coming out – or the process of coming out – can take on any individual. As Simon attempts to figure out who Blue is, his daydreams and fantasies remind me just how much I used to do the same with every boy who smiled at me. Like Simon, I was lucky enough to have a minimal reaction when I came out; a cryfest followed by group hugs and soppy speeches from my parents. But watching the fear in his eyes when Martin (Logan Miller) threatens to leak his emails with Blue to the school reminded me just how insufferable the thought of this secret being exposed used to be. The constant guard that he has up, the fake bro talks that he has to keep having, to not let it slip is painstakingly familiar. The journey that Simon goes on, from not understanding why straight people don’t have to come out to the heart-warming post he makes where he embraces himself irrevocably, is something that I think most of us have experienced. It’s a feeling of rejoicing and acceptance that director Greg Berlanti makes you feel as if for the very first time. My eyes first watered when Simon choked on the word. He sputtered and couldn’t seem to get it out. Gay. These small nuances are what make the film more than a teen rom-com, even with the archetypal bullies and linear plot structure, there’s so much depth and warmth in this story that so many of us can see ourselves in.

    Outside of Simon and Blue, the other characters (while, for obvious reasons, not getting as much screen time) still serve valuable purposes not only to the plot but to the world built around Simon himself. His parents (played by Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) give the right balance of comedic and heartfelt, making us laugh and swoon and cry. Garner and Duhamel give equally charming and memorable performances, but Garner’s speech especially had the audience waiting with bated breath until she delivered the line – “You get to exhale now, Simon.” At that point, no one even attempted to hide their tears. Speaking of the audience, every time the drama teacher Ms Albright (Natasha Rothwell) came on screen our collective shoulders were shaking and our tummies were hurting from the amount of rip-roaring laughter she instantly produced. Out of Simon’s group of friends, while Abby (Alexandra Shipp X-Men: Apocalypse) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr. Spider-Man: Homecoming) certainly had their moments, Leah (Katherine Langford – 13 Reasons Why) shone the brightest but definitely suffered from sidekick syndrome. Maybe we’ll get to see more of her in future, if Becky Albertalli – the author of the book Simon Vs. The Homosapien’s Agenda, which the film is based on – gets Leah’s book on the big screen.

    Everything from the cinematography to the marketing to the soundtrack had undertones of the old school teen movie genre, which makes sense since it’s the first major studio film focusing on a gay love story. I feel incredibly lucky to still be a teenager and have this film validate my experience with its normalcy, opening up a plethora of opportunities for more people’s stories to be told. The tagline of the film itself, “Everyone deserves a great love story”, encourages the exemplar celebration of diversity that Love, Simon does. Simon himself feels like such an easy character to get lost in, you see yourself in him or if not you, then your brother, your cousin, your friend, he’s an every man in the best possible sense and watching him fall in love is both infuriatingly sweet and extremely awkward in the best-worst relateable way as he navigates conversations with his potential love interests.

    The characters that surround him are so vividly real, with their own quirks, going through their own things, you feel a part of Simon’s world just watching him listen to his playlist as he drives to pick up his friends. That kind of audience inclusion, be it through the editing or the camera technique, enhances the moral of the film of tolerance and inclusion. I might be biased, being the exact target audience (a gay teenager) but Greg Berlanti and the whole cast and crew have created a modern-day classic for those who liked but never identified with the Cady Herons, the Ferris Buellers, the Jim Levensteins and the Olive Penderghasts. I feel incredibly lucky to now have a Simon Spier.

  • FILM REVIEW | Beach Rats

    ★★★★ |  Beach Rats

    A young man plays it very cool with his friends while he hides his true sexuality in the new film Beach Rats.

    19-year old Frankie (Harris Dickinson) lives with his mother and dying father in Brooklyn, New York. His mother constantly nags him to get a job but he spends his days doing drugs and hanging out with his gang of homeboys. They are all very macho and straight and while away the hours hanging out on the boardwalk and chatting up local girls. But what they don’t know about Frankie is that he secretly spends his time on gay hookup sites and meets other men at a local cruising spot for sex.

    There is one girl, however, from the neighbourhood (Madeline Weinstein) who he hooks up with – he really likes her and she really likes him, but expectedly it doesn’t go anywhere. And when he gets involved in an incident with his friends that involves a gay man his life suddenly takes a turn.

    UK born Dickinson is very good as Frankie. He nails down the accent and the attitude almost perfectly. With no previous film credits, he’s a natural and very compelling to watch on the big screen (and boy is he sexy)! Director Eliza Hittman gets almost everything right in this film, with the exception of the last 20 minutes that gets a bit too unbelievable. But it’s Dickinson you’ll remember when the screen credits go up. He’s on to bigger and better things.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Florida Project

    ★★★★★ |  The Florida Project

    From filmmaker Sean Baker, writer and director of 2015’s critically acclaimed film Tangerine, comes another film about living life on the edge in the bittersweet The Florida Project.

    Tangerine, which was shot on iPhones, told the story of two trans sex workers surviving by any means possible in Hollywood. The Florida Project, shot on 35mm, has a similar trajectory involving a single mother and her adorable 6-year old daughter surviving by any means and barely eking out a living in a rundown motel on the tacky fringes of Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. It’s an area filled with cheap motels (with tacky names such as Futureland Inn) and even cheaper and tackier gift shops and fast food restaurants (Orange World). And like in Tangerine, Baker uses non-professional actors in this film.

    Bria Vinaite is excellent as Hailey, a single young mother who struggles to find money to pay the weekly rent and to care for her very adorable six-year-old daughter Moonee (an excellent and natural Brooklynn Prince). Moonee has made friends with all of the little children at their motel complex (appropriately called The Magic Castle) in an area where Disney did not sprinkle magic dust on. The children spend their days getting up to no good, causing mayhem wherever they go, much to the annoyance of the motel manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe – in an award-worthy performance). Hailey’s downstairs neighbour Ashley (Mela Murder) works at the nearby Waffle House and gives them free food, but after an incident that involves her son and Moonee, she forbids her son to hang out with Moonee, and severs her friendship with Hailey. One thing leads to another and slowly the magic seeps out of The Magic Castle.

    The Florida Project is just fantastic. While it doesn’t quite come close to Tangerine with its sarcastic and biting humour, it nonetheless is a cute and charming movie of childhood through a little girl’s eyes and the hard truths that reality will eventually rear its ugly head. And the cast are just superb. Baker, who co-wrote the script with Chris Bergoch, has another winner on his hands.

  • FILM REVIEW | Body Electric

    ★★★★ | Body Electric

    Life is one big party for the characters in the new film Body Electric.

    Elias (a sexy Keiner Macedo) is the assistant manager in a factory somewhere in Brazil. He’s only 23 and quite young to hold such a responsible job, but his female boss, who is always jet-setting from here to there on business, trusts Elias completely to run the factory while she’s gone. It’s a factory that makes clothes, and Elias sees his fellow employees not just as co-workers but as friends, and they all spend lots of time hanging out with each other after work and on weekends.

    They’re all friends, very close friends. And when a new employee starts work at the factory, a West African man called Fernando (Welket Bungue), Elias welcomes him into the fold and nothing much changes for these happy-go-lucky group of people who work hard and play much much harder.

    And play is just what Elias likes to do. He’s openly gay at work and in his personal life, and there appears to be no issue with his colleagues when he takes up with fellow young co-worker Wellington (Lucas Andrade). Wellington introduces Elias to a gaggle of drag queens with a queen bee who wonders out loud where all the fabric Wellington and Elias brought to them comes from. But it doesn’t matter for these folks, life is one big party, and with that comes alcohol and sex.

    In Body Electric, director Marcelo Caetano relies on lots of lingering shots to portray his cast in ways that make them look and feel so real, it, at times makes you feel like you’re eavesdropping on their lives, and loves. But Body Electric is all about Elias and how happy he is, and how happy his co-workers are who toil away at the factory day in and day out, and we are very happy for all of them.

    Available to buy from Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | Patti Cake$

    ★★★★ | Patti Cake$

    FILM REVIEW | Patti Cake$

    Can a white overweight girl from New Jersey become a rap star? You bet – and her name is “Patti Cake$”.

    Danielle Macdonald plays Patricia Dombrowski, an unemployed 23-year-old who has been given the nickname ‘dumbo’ by her contemporaries.

    There’s very little opportunity for her; she’s been fired from her most recent job, her mum is an alcoholic, her grandmother is confined to a wheelchair, and she’s a dreamer about hitting the big time. But when she gets together with her friends, including pharmacist Jheri (Siddarth Dhananjay), she’s no longer just plain Patricia, she’s Patti Cake$.

    When an opportunity arises for them to enter a rap contest, Patti has doubts, not only because the competition will be fierce, but also because she lacks the confidence which she never got from her own mother (Bridget Everett), who is always trying to show her up. But where there’s a will there’s a way, and Patti and her gang (now called PBNJ) must prove that they’ve got what it takes. And this makes Patti Cake$ a sweet and engrossing tale of a misfit girl who can and will make it.

    Australian Danielle Macdonald is superb as Patti Cake$. She nails it as the rough around the edges but very soft to the core Patti who will have the audience in her corner. Everett also has a showy role as Patti’s mother, always trying to look good for potential male suitors. New Jersey native and music video director Geremy Jasper showcases the real New Jersey in this film and brings us a sweet tale of a girl who has larger than life dreams and tries to make them happen.

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Norman

    ★★★★ | Norman

    Richard Gere is excellent as always as a man who is desperate to do a deal but can’t seem to get a break in the new film Norman.

    Gere is Norman Oppenheimer, a New York hustler who appears to be living a life of lies – he doesn’t appear to have a place to live, he spends most of his time at a church that could possibly be a homeless shelter and talks about a daughter who may or may not exist. But he sees his fortunes possibly change upon a chance encounter with an up and coming politician. Then One day, after attending a conference, he sees Israeli politician Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), Norman ingratiates himself with him by buying him an expensive pair of shoes, shoes that Norman probably can’t afford to pay for, but he does (though luckily for him Eshel refuses to get a suit as well). Three years later, as Norman still struggles to get one of his deals done, Eshel becomes the Israeli Prime Minister, so Norman realises that this could be his big chance to get into the big leagues. But what turns out to be a friendly relationship between Norman and the Prime Minister turns into nothing as Eshel sees Norman’s desperate attempts to be close to him a liability, which leaves Norman basically back to where he began – a fixer with nothing to fix.

    Gere does a nice turn as the ageing New York Norman who never quite seemed to have been much of a success in life. He plays Norman with such believability, desperateness, and a bit of wit that it’s hard not to fall for him a bit. The film’s subtitle – The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer – pretty sums up this film – but it’s Gere, who was excellent as a homeless man in 2014’s Time Out of Mind – who shines and makes this film worth a watch. And he’s as handsome as ever.

    Norman is now out in UK cinemas.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Naked Civil Servant

    ★★★★| The Naked Civil Servant

    Produced in 1975, The Naked Civil Servant is based on the autobiographical work by the self-proclaimed “England’s Stately Homo”, Quinten Crisp; who lived an openly gay lifestyle in 1930’s London, when homosexuality was illegal and his lifestyle was more than frowned up. Determined to live his life how he wished, Crisp’s journey through Belgravia, Chelsea and Soho is charted in this compelling TV drama.

    Naked Civil Servant review

    Despite being over 40 years old, the film remains essential viewing for its social relevance and its fascinating insight into LGBT history. There are points in the film which garner feelings of disbelief, such as Crisp being excused from the army during the Second World War, on the basis that he was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as “suffering from a sexual perversion”. Crisp was subject to prejudice both from the “roughs” (the ‘queer bashers’), the police and even from the members of the underground gay scene, who were terrified that Crisp’s flamboyant and feminine presentation would out them or place them at risk of imprisonment. But in the face of such difficulties, Crisp continued undeterred, refusing to be anything other than himself, as he promoted himself as the self-appointed spokesman for the cause.

    Lauded for the quality of the acting, John Hurt’s award-winning performance as Crisp is quite simply outstanding, and given that the film opens with Quinten Crisp introducing the piece; you realise as the programme unfolds, just how perfect Hurt’s performance really is, nowhere more evident than in the scene where Crisp is forced to defend himself in Court for approaching men in the street. There is good support from John Rhys Davies and Patricia Hodge, and the film remains a great piece of drama, with wonderful period details and one which never really shows its age.

    Re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray; the film has been digitally remastered, meaning that the picture quality and soundtrack has never been better. The Blu-Ray is presented both in the original picture format and in widescreen, and comes with a number of extras including a very interesting World In Action profile on Crisp, a commentary with John Hurt, a making-of documentary and an interview from 1979 with Crisp himself.

    Highly relevant, highly informative and highly recommended, The Naked Civil Servant is released on DVD and Blu Ray from Network Pictures on the 5th June 2017.

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Heal the Living

    FILM REVIEW | Heal the Living

    ★★★★ | Heal the Living

    Heal the Living (Réparer les vivants) deals with a tragedy that changes the lives of two families – it’s very sad and very dramatic like most French films are, but it’s also well acted and well told.

    It deals with the delicacy of life, family, relationships and decisions that need to be made in a tragic time. Teenager Simon (Gabin Verdet) is experiencing his first true love, but when he and his friends get into a tragic car accident it’s up to his parents (Tahar Ramin and Emmanuelle Singer – both very good) to make a heartbreaking decision.

    Meanwhile, Claire Méjean (Ann Dorval) needs a new heart, and while she is waiting she can feel her life ticking away. She’s got two grown boys, and she loves them very much. But without a new heart, she doesn’t have much time to live. So Simon’s tragic accident has very sad consequences for one family but the opposite effect for another family – in a film that is both beautifully and delicately told. Heal the Living, directed by Katell Quillévéré, will leave you in tears. It’s hard hitting yet it comes with an excellent original story (Maylis De Kerangal and Katell Quillévéré) and superb performances all around.

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Handsome Devil

    ★★★★ | Handsome Devil

    One of the most buzzed-about films at London’s recent Flare LGBT Film Festival is getting released this Friday.

    Handsome Devil played to sell-out crowds at the festival (though at one screening there was a power outage so all the attendees were invited back to another screening). Irish movie Handsome Devil is the charming story of an out and proud young gay man who is attending a boarding school for the first time. Fionn O’Shea plays Ned and shares a room with jock and star of the rugby team Conor (Nicholas Galitzine). The rest of the school doesn’t quite know what to make of Ned, he’s a bit of an outcast, yet he and Ned form a special bond, after a rocky start between them, they realise they have more in common with each other than being roommates. Ned’s school life is made much easier with the help of teacher Dan (Andrew Scott in a very winning and sexy performance), who also happens to be gay. But it doesn’t help Ned (and teacher Dan) that the rugby coach is on to both of them – he’s full of prejudice and lets everyone know it. And it’s just a matter of time until the rest of the school comes around and accepts Ned for who he is, especially just in time for the school’s big upcoming rugby match.

    Writer and Director John Butler’s coming of age story is a winning combination of great performances and a story that’s time and tested and that never gets old. Winning lead performances from O’Shea and Galitzine make this one to remember, but it’s Scott as the supportive English teacher that will tingle your loins. His sympathetic teacher is handsome and oh so sexy, especially when he brings his boyfriend to the rugby match outing himself on the spot to the principal. More of these kinds of roles please Mr Scott. Though at times some of the accents are a bit hard to understand, Handsome Devil is very charming and memorable.

     

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Their Finest

    FILM REVIEW | Their Finest

    ★★★ | Their Finest


    A film about London in 1940 during The Blitz is finally being released in theatres – Their Finest – a year and a half after principal photography began and 6 months after it had its European premiere at the London Film Festival in October 2016.

    I’m not entirely sure why it has taken this long for the film to finally make it into the cinemas – it’s not a bad movie, but it’s also not a great movie.

    Their Finest details a motley crew of screenwriters tasked with writing a script for a film that would hopefully lift up Britain’s flagging spirits during WWII as well as inspire America to enter the war. That’s a lot of responsibility for three people to take on, in a film based on the 2009 novel by Lissa Evans. Gemma Arterton’s character Catrin Cole (based on a real woman, Diana Morgan, who wrote for Ealing Studios) actually has no screenwriting experience, but she’s basically just looking for a paycheck to help her artist husband Ellis (Jack Huston) pay the bills. But she gets more than what she bargained for when she’s hired by the British Ministry of Information to assist Tom Buckley (a very good Sam Claflin) on a film script. Winston Churchill tells them that they need to write a story that will inspire the nation, and so they write a propaganda film amidst all that is happening in Europe. But it’s Bill Nighy as the leading man of their film (playing Ambrose Hillard) who steals the movie. He’s wonderful and witty and oh so debonair when he’s on set in the making of the movie within the movie, and he’s wonderful off the set when he’s telling jokes to the rest of the cast and crew, and tender and fatherly when he is giving advice to Catrin. But all is not ok in her life, she catches her husband cheating on her on one of her few visits she makes to their home, and her and Buckley realize they have more in common with each other than just putting words to paper. Set this all against the backdrop of WWII and what you’ve got is a classic in the making.

    But Their Finest is not quite a classic. Some of the scenes look a bit staged, not very realistic for a film that relies on the portrayal of London during the Bliz. Arterton is fine and lights up the screen with her beautiful face, and Claflin is very handsome as her mentor, but director Lone Scherfing (who directed the wonderful An Education with Carey Mulligan) along with a script by Gaby Chiappe, don’t quite make it 100% believable. Production values are fine, costumes wonderful and the score very dramatic when it needs to be, but it’s Nighy that you will remember – he’s deserving of nominations for this film – but the film itself not so much.

  • FILM REVIEW | 71

    ★★★★★ | 71

    Getting left behind by your Army platoon when you go on a dangerous military mission is not exactly a novel idea in the movies, but this new version with rising star Jack O’Connell, this feature debut from TV director Yann Demange is certainly one of the best.

    Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the height of ‘the Troubles’ and just one year before the infamous ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre in 1972, O’Connell plays orphan Gary Hook who had joined the Army as a route to being independent and self-sufficient. He had expected a cushy first assignment and so like the rest of his platoon is shocked to be suddenly deployed instead to be part of the peacekeeping forces in Ulster.

    The first house raid backing up the police in a hostile Catholic area of Belfast that Hook’s unit takes part in, goes dreadfully wrong and the lieutenant in charge orders a hasty retreat when the large crowd of onlookers start getting very violent. In the mayhem to hot-foot it out of there in one piece, Hook and fellow soldier Thommo are left behind. When the two men are cornered by members of the IRA, Thommo is shot dead at point blank but Hook manages to escape into the darkness.

    Totally lost in the warren of backstreets of a hostile alien city the young soldier tries to find a way back to the barracks but meanwhile he is being hunted not just by his Commanding Officer, but also by a covert British Intelligence Unit who are anxious that he doesn’t stumble into any of their operations, and also by two fractions of the IRA who are fighting amongst themselves in how to resolve the situation once they capture him.

    As Hook makes his way around avoiding flying Molotov cocktails seemingly hurled everywhere in the scary streets full of upturned vehicles set on fire, he is aware of being very much alone. He falls into the hands of a young kid who takes him to the HQ of the UDF the Protestant paramilitaries.

    It’s obvious that come to the final showdown when Hook is finally reached by one or all of the parties out to locate him that there will be more mayhem and shootings in this conflict that never shows the slightest indication that it would ever cease.

    Full marks to cinematographer Tat Redcliffe and production designer Chris Oddy for making the streets of Blackburn (in the North of the UK) standing in for Belfast, look so utterly menacing and full of fear. It’s a very impressive story and is directed with such remarkable style that it earned Demarge a British Independent Film Award for his work.

    It is, however, young Jack O’Connell’s dynamic performance as the scared young soldier immersed in a bloody struggle that he neither understood or could even relate to, that makes this movie so very compelling. His fight was for his own life and to simply ensure that he would survive and be there to support his kid brother still trapped in the Orphanage back home. O’Connell’s talents lie in convincing us with his steadfast bravado and his powerful physical presence, yet somehow at the same time never letting us forget he’s still a big kid at heart. This role follows his outstanding performance in the prison drama ‘Starred Up’ and with his starring role in Angelina Jolie’s ‘Unbroken’ about to be released, this young British actor is clearly destined to be one of THE next batch of Hollywood’s leading men.

    This review was first published in Dec 2014