THEGAYUK

Tag: Movie Genre Romance

  • FILM REVIEW | The Big Sick

    The Big Sick | ★★★★

    An unusual romance blossoms between a Muslim comedian and a white American woman in the new light-hearted comedy The Big Sick.

    The not funny title is completely intentional because halfway through the film Emily (Zoe Kazan) gets really sick and falls into a coma. But before this, we see the beginnings of a romance (and the breakup) between her and aspiring comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani). Even though they come from two totally different backgrounds, they fall head over heels with each other after Zoe heckles him at one of his shows. But it’s when Zoe is diagnosed with a mystery illness, and after they break up, that Kumail decides that he really wants to be with Zoe, but he’s got to share her hospital room with her parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, who are both excellent). Meeting her parents for the first time in the hospital tests him and his love for Zoe, but it’s also her parents who have to do some soul searching themselves because they are not quite yet able to accept a Muslim man as their only daughter’s boyfriend. And to make matters worse for Kumail, his family insists he marry a Muslim girl with his mom constantly inviting single Muslim women over for dinner and tells Kumail that ’they happen to be in the neighbourhood.’ Kumail has lots of dilemmas in his life.

    The Big Sick is the true life story of Kumail and his real life wife (Emily V. Gordon), who had become very sick when they were dating, and this is where the story of this film comes from (they co-wrote the script together). Directed by Michael Shwalter, The Big Sick is a very funny and light hearted comedy that will tug at your heartstrings. And it’s Nanjiani (from television’s Silicon Valley) who lays his heart out and lets us in on his real life relationship that has now been turned into a very good romantic comedy.

    Available to order from iTunes and Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | Four Days in France

    ★★ | Four Days in France (Jour de France) is basically one very long advert for Grindr.

    One man uses the app to find his missing partner – in the middle of France! I can’t even find a shag in my own neighbourhood much less find someone in the middle of nowhere. But that’s the premise of this film, very far fetched and not quite durable.

    Pierre (Pascal Cervo) up and leaves his partner Paul (Arthur Igual) in the middle of the night with no explanation whatsoever – he just gets in his car and heads out of town. Pierre drives and drives and drives and uses Grindr to hook up with various men along the way – to nowhere.

    He also encounters all sorts of people, including taking a man’s photograph on the very snowy border between France and Italy, is then yelled at by a woman who is tired of gay men using her neighborhood as a cruising area, and a much older man who refuses sex because Pierre smells (he’s been sleeping in his car). What is Pierre’s motivation for doing this?

    This very long 127-minute film doesn’t give us a clue. Paul, meanwhile, is hot on the trail looking for him and narrows his search by using Grindr. It’s only a matter of time (a very long time) until the predictable happens, but before we are expected to believe that they both picked up the same woman on the side of the same road and had the same conversation with her (she tells both of them that they look depressed), and that Pierre goes out of his way to deliver a package to a woman who lives high up on a mountain because one of his shags asked him to do so. Really?

    Writer and director Jérôme Reybaud really tests the viewers’ endurance as some of the driving scenes are way too long and this film could’ve been cut by at least 45 minutes. It’s a bit of an indulgence that Reybaud puts us through this journey, it’s a journey that’s very unbelievable and the payoff it not even worth it. And while there is only one hot hookup in the film, it may be better that you spend your time looking for sex in the middle of France, because according to this film there are lots of lonely and sexually frustrated men there, and all are on Grindr.

     

  • 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 | 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 | Retake

    FILM REVIEW | Retake

    ★★★ | Retake


    An unusual love story takes place in the new film ‘Retake.’

    But is it really a love story? Handsome businessman Jonathan (Tuc Watkins) has returned to San Francisco to relive a trip from his past – a trip that was with his late lover Brandon. So Jonathan picks up hustlers on the streets and pays them to play the role of Brandon by adding a few squirts of cologne and a black wig. One of the hustlers fails miserably at the task, however, another one, Adam (Devon Graye), who looks a bit like Brandon, easily settles into the role, enough so that Jonathan takes him on a car ride to the Grand Canyon, a trip that Jonathan and Brandon were never able to complete because of Brandon’s death from a drug overdose on the trip.

    Jonathan has Adam totally re-enact Brandon’s persona – from having him wear his actual clothes to making sure he drinks Brandon’s favorite drink – and Jonathan also has Adam copy Brandon’s gestures. Lines are blurred when Adam starts acting like himself and Jonathan appears to be falling for Adam and not Adam’s Brandon. But will their relationship survive the road trip after Adam confronts Jonathan about photos he has found in his briefcase that all too weirdly mirrors the exact places and poses Jonathan had Brandon pose for on their ill-fated trip?

    ‘Retake,’ aptly named because of the re-staged photos with Adam, literally takes us on a journey of a man who tries to relive his past. Watkins is a bit stiff as Jonathan, however, Graye is everything you would want him to be; sexy, charming, flirty, fun, and after he cuts his hair to look like Brandon, handsome.

    Writer and Director Nick Corporon brings us an original story that, though at times falls flat and and is a bit unbelievable, ultimately win our hearts and becomes one we can identify with for those of us who have suddenly lost a partner.

    VOD/DVD release is on Jan. 10th

     

  • 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 | 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 | 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 | Those People

    FILM REVIEW | Those People

    ★★★★ | Those People

    Those People

    Spoiled rich kids on Manhattan’s Upper East side have lots to deal with, including lack of parental guidance, and secret crushes on each other in the gay romance film Those People.

    But it’s Charlie’s story. Played by Jonathan Gordon, Charlie, a painter, is one of five people in his very very tight knit group of friends, which includes two women and two other guys. One of the guys – Sebastian (Jason Ralph) – is who the group revolves around. Every emotion, laugh, anger that is emitted from Charlie has effects on the rest of the group. He’s at the center of everyone’s attention because his hedge fund father has just been sent to prison for swindling money, and it’s up to the gang to rally around Sebastian to make sure he’s protected from the media spotlight (and to perhaps help spend some of his money). And Charlie is at Sebastian’s every beck and call 24 hour seven days a week. When Sebastian asks Charlie to move in with him in his big empty house (poor him!), Charlie does so right away. You see, Charlie, for the past 15 years, has been carrying a torch for Sebastian, and Sebastian has known this but has never let on that he knows. Sebastian gets a kick out of it, without reciprocating back. But when Charlie meets successful pianist Tim (Haaz Sleiman) and slowly starts to fall in love with him is when Sebastian realizes that he might be losing Charlie to Tim. It gets all the more complicated after Sebastian’s father kills himself in prison, and Tim announces that he wants to take Charlie with him to San Francisco where he’s offered a great job. It’s a move that will make Charlie chose between his love for Tim or his loyalty and friendship and more for Sebastian.

    Those People shows us what a group of young, rich, and goodlooking upper east side kids get up to. It’s a life of parties, drama, drinking and secret crushes. It’s a sophisticated, beautifully debut film brought to us by Director, writer and Producer Joey Kuhn. It’s a world he seems to know (he was born and raised in NYC), as he captures the lives of these upper crust young adults very well. And the cast are all respectable and fine. It’s a classy movie without being too snobby.

    AWARD WINNER
    Audience Award, Best Narrative Feature, NewFest, New York LGBT Film Festival
    Best Actor, Jonathan Gordon, Atlanta Out on Film
    Audience Award – Best U.S First Feature, Outfest Film Festival
    Jury Award, Best Feature Film, Kansas City LGBT Film Festival

    Those People is now available on DVD/VOD

  • FILM REVIEW | Holding The Man

    FILM REVIEW | Holding The Man

    ★★★★★ | Holding The Man

    A moving and very emotional film about a gay couple during the height of the AIDS crises is beautifully told in the new film Holding the Man.

    CREDIT: PeccaPics
    CREDIT: PeccaPics

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