Tag: Movie Genre Romance
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FILM REVIEW: Carol
In the new film ‘Carol’, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett play two women who fall in love at a time when it was not accepted and actually frowned upon.
Director Todd Haynes, in his first film since 2007’s I’m Not There, has crafted this movie in a style and theme that he’s used before. In ‘Far From Heaven‘ Julianne Moore’s housewife faces a marital crisis – her husband is caught kissing another man so she takes comfort in the arms of a black man. Whereas in Carol Cate Blanchett‘s unhappy housewife falls into the arms of another woman. Both of these films take place in the 1950’s where it’s all dewy and lush and beautiful. And the attention to detail in both films is amazing, capturing the fashion and essence that was the norm of it’s time, where everyone made an effort to dress up, especially the women, even just to go shopping.
Blanchett’s character, Carol Aird, is in a loveless marriage but it’s not because her husband is cheating on her with another man, it’s because Carol is cheating on her husband with another woman. It’s not a mid-life crisis that Carol is going through, she’s been linked to Abby Gerhard (Sarah Paulson) in the past, and Abby has always been in the shadows throughout Carol’s marriage to Harge (Kyle Chandler). Harge still loves Carol, he wants to stay married, but Carol insists that the divorce still goes ahead, which is very difficult for the both of them because of their young daughter. But one day Carol goes into a department store and is eyed by employee Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), who suggests to Carol to buy a train set for her daughter. Carol and Therese have chemistry, and the next day Carol invites Therese out for lunch to thank her for helping her out with her purchase. Eventually, they start seeing each other more and more, and they fall headstrong into a relationship. Carol, who has the perfect husband and the perfect house, pursues a relationship with Therese, at the risk of losing custody of her daughter. Harge, in utter frustration over Carol’s new found relationship, seeks full custody of their daughter using a morality clause as the reason. And Therese risks her impending marriage to her boyfriend Richard (Jake Lacy) to be with Carol, and she and Carol embark on several trips together. It’s not until New Year’s Eve where they consummate their relationship in a full on one-minute lip lock, which leads to a sexual act, again full on, there’s almost nothing left to the imagination. But will Carol’s impending divorce and the threat of losing her daughter and Therese’s burgeoning career as a photographer get in the way of their relationship?
Blanchett is magnificent as Carol, who risks losing her daughter yet has strong feelings for a much younger woman. Mara is even more superb as Therese, her innocence and naivete in full display. Both actresses are excellent, yet it’s Mara who ups Blanchette in the acting arena. The movie basically revolves around Therese and her coming of age not just with her career but with her sexuality as well. It would be a shame if Mara is reduced to supporting actress level as Blanchett does get top billing, they both deserve Best Actress Academy Award nominations but it’s Mara who should be on the podium. Chandler is also excellent as Carols’ husband – he’s got an ideal 1950’s look about him. ‘Carol,’ Based on the novel ‘The Price of Salt’ by Patricia Highsmith, was written at a time when it’s subject was considered scandalous, which Haynes truly captures.
Carol was filmed with Super 16mm to produce the muted hues of glamour magazines of the era, it’s romantic and dramatic and lovely to watch.
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FILM REVIEW | In The Grayscale – A Chilean love affair
Two men, who seem perfect together, fall in love in the new Chilean gay film ‘In the Grayscale.’ ★★★★
We first meet Bruno (Francisco Celhay) in his grandfathers’ workshop studio where he is living. He’s an architect, and has been assigned by the city commissioners to design a new monument in Santiago. Bruno is introduced to Fer (Emilio Edwards), a history teacher who knows Santiago inside out and will help Bruno look for a unique spot for the monument. Bruno is recently separated from his wife Soledad (Daniela Ramirez) and they share custody of their young son Daniel (Matias Torres). Soledad is very depressed about the breakup of their marriage, and there are days when she can’t get out of bed, even when she’s supposed to be watching Daniel.
Bruno, a handsome quiet type, and Fer, who’s very goodlooking, perky, full of jokes, very energetic with a perfect smile and perfect hair, spend their days together riding their bikes around Santiago. And over the course of their tours of the city, Bruno slowly starts to fall for Fer. It’s a love affair that Bruno finds surprised to be in; he always had doubts about his sexuality but didn’t realize he was going to find someone like Fer. But Bruno has responsibilities with his family, plus he’s ignoring the work that he’s been given so he’s under a lot of pressure to please everyone. And word is out that he’s been seen spending time with, and kissing, another man. Can Bruno handle the pressure of his new relationship while trying to be a role model to his son?
‘In the Grayscale,’ which literally translates to being in a state of flux, or being in a range of gray without any color, is pretty much a depiction of Bruno’s life, and is an impressive debut feature from Claudio Marcone. It’s an eye opening film depicting one man questioning his sexuality pitted against another man who’s very comfortable with his. The two male leads are very good, confident in their roles, making the story very believable. But the best bit of the movie comes at the end in the form of a song called ‘Disfruto’ by Carla Morrison which rolls over the closing credits. Morrison’s voice is angelic, and the song, which translates to enjoy, is an ode to secret love, where she sings (in Spanish) ‘be with me during this time, to guard the secret, and to be careful with these moments.’ It’s a beautiful song that wraps up the love between the two men in the film.
Available on Amazon
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FILM REVIEW | Big Eden – a rerelease of a very much beloved gay film
The award-winning gay romance film Big Eden is celebrating its 15th anniversary by being re-released on VOD and Blu-Ray. ★★★★
It’s a film that takes us back to the simpler times; pre 9/11, a time when the hardest thing one had to most worry about was being single in a large city.
Henry Hart (Arye Gross), a very successful NYC painter, and eternally single, finds out that his grandfather, who lives alone back home in Big Eden, Montana, has had a heart attack. So foregoing a big opening for his latest artwork, and much to the behest of his very pregnant assistant Mary (Veanne Cox), Henry jumps on a plane to be with his grandfather Sam Hart (George Coe).
Going back home, to a state with beautiful lakes and mountains, brings back lots of memories for Henry. First of all, it’s where he met his first love Dean (Tim DeKay), a man who ended up leaving town and getting married. It’s taken a while for Henry to forget about him, including years of therapy. Back home is also where lots of his old friends still live, including Grace Cornwell (Oscar-winning actress Louise Fletcher), now a schoolteacher who was the one who informed Henry of his grandfather’s condition. Henry goes back home to a place that accepts his sexual orientation, times have changed and so has the community. Local busy body Widow Thayer (a very funny Nan Martin) makes it her job to nose into other people’s business and arranges teas for local people to ‘meet.’
Once she sees Henry back in town she arranges a tea lunch for Henry with the local single women, but when she realizes he’s gay, she arranges a tea lunch with the local gay men. But it’s not any of these men that Henry is interested in. He’s back in town specifically to take care of his grandfather and is not interested in dating any of them. But soon enough he finds out that the very good looking Dean has moved back to town with his two sons. Seeing Dean again brings back memories from the past, and also questions as to why they never got together. Meanwhile, Widow Thayer has volunteered to cook dinner for both Henry and Sam as Henry claims that, being a New Yorker, he simply doesn’t know how to cook. So for the first few nights Thayer makes and brings over dinner, but it’s local store owner Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig) who volunteers to take over the cooking duties. He buys recipe books to make the most delicious meals, meals that he delivers to the Harts but always saying that they come from Widow Thayer. When Pike delivers the dinner, he quickly leaves, never staying to join Henry and Sam when asked to. Pike is something of an enigma in town, he’s quiet, reserved, but at the same time tall and strong. Pike seems to be hiding something, is it something about Henry’s homosexuality perhaps? Henry stays on in Big Eden as his grandfather continues to improve, he appears to be in no rush to get back to New York. Will Henry decide to stay in Big Eden permanently and leave the big city behind?
Do Henry and Dean finally hook up? Why is Pike to mysterious? And what does Widow Thayer have up her sleeve next?
Director and writer Thomas Bezucha crafts a beautiful romantic film with characters who could be from anyone’s hometown. The actors are all wonderful in their roles. And it’s a credit to Bezucha and his team that the setting is perfect. Every last detail is thought of and captured on film, and certain shots are set up perfectly, from the beautiful landscapes to the items in the local grocery story. Plus the country and western soundtrack gives the film a perfect flavor. It’s a must that you watch ‘Big Eden’ as it takes us back to a simpler time. It’s one of the most romantic gay films of all time, and proving that yes, you can always go back home again.
‘Big Eden has won numerous Audience Awards at several film festivals and in 2001 was named Best Fiction Feature at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Best American Independent Feature Film plus Best Film at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
‘Big Eden’ is available for the first time on Blu-Ray, new HD version for VOD, which includes new bonus materials.
Available to buy here -
FILM REVIEW | The Lobster
Imagine a world where if you can’t find a parter in 45 days you will be changed into the animal of your choice. That’s what ‘The Lobster’ is all about.
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FILM REVIEW | 45 Years
Tom Courtenay is Geoff, while Charlotte Rampling is Kate, both giving superb performances. ★★★★★
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FILM REVIEW | A Funny Kind Of Love
★★★ | A Funny Kind Of Love
You could be forgiven for thinking from the opening scenes of this new comedy from Australian actor turned director Josh Lawson that you are about to watch a movie that is like a Wikipedia of sexual practices, or even some soft-core pornography.
Thankfully it is neither of those although Mr Lawson does want us to laugh at the absurdity of fulfilling sexual fantasies, which never ever turn out like you had dreamed and wished for.
These then are the totally separate stories of five couples and the tenuous link to them is the fact that they all live in the same suburb neighbourhood, and they are all white and middle-class. The first concerns Maeve who confides to Paul her live-in boyfriend that she has a rape fantasy, which he is as reluctant to comply with as he is with proposing marriage. Evie and Dan’s marriage has hit a rocky patchy so the counsellor they consult suggest role-playing to spice things up a bit. The trouble is that Dan gets so into it he quickly forgets why the started doing this as he is now completely obsessed with becoming an actor so he can play dress-up every day.
Richard and Rowena have been trying to have a baby for so long that sex has become a monotonous chore, for Rowena anyway. That is until her husband gets really bad news and bursts into tears and she suddenly discovers she has dacryphilia (that thankfully is explained on screen). It means that she gets sexually aroused at the sight of tears, which is harmless enough until she finds has to plot to constantly keep Richard sad enough to weep whenever she fancies getting laid. It is an odd condition, but not quite as potentially objectionable as the somnophilia that Paul has when he drugs his nagging wife Maureen so that when she is passed out, he can finally have sex with her.
The fifth and final … and by far the best scenario, is of a couple of strangers who have not met in person. Monica works as a signing translator for deaf people wanting to make phone calls, and one night Sam calls into use the service. He wants to be connected to a sex line and poor Monica has to be the conduit for the funny and bawdy language that passes between the ‘working girl’ and Sam a cute young graphic novelist. Despite its set up it has the most tenderness of all of the scenarios because of the very real chemistry between both the caller and the operator, and it is such a genuine connection.
There is one other tenuous link between this group of vignettes in the shape of a new neighbour who is going around introducing himself. Whilst handing over welcoming gifts he slips into the conversation that fact that he is a registered sex offender, but every household he calls on is so wrapped up in their own problems that the last part simply doesn’t sink in. Just when you think he may get back to his old ways, Lawson finishes him off. We had expected something fatal to happen because of the original title of the movie had been The Little Death and he is one of the ‘little deaths’.
The movie ends up being more bizarre than bawdy although it does heavily on the basic assumption that many people who find sex funny will find this movie comical too. The troubles are that the laughs are rather intermittent and some regarding the whole concept of non-consensual intercourse are bordering on being offensive and in extremely bad taste.
As well as giving himself a plum part (Paul) Lawson does pepper the piece with an extremely talented cast of well-known Australian actors. Particular mention to the pitch performances from TJ Power and newcomer Erin James as Sam and Monica. By placing their story last in the proceedings it did at least mean the movie ends on a much higher note than the one it started on.
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FILM REVIEW | Seek
Twenty-something-year-old Evan Brisby is ambitious. Currently working on a gay magazine that covers the local community in Toronto his hometown, he aspires to bigger things and so sends samples of his writing to The Gazette, one of the city’s daily newspapers.
★★★
He doesn’t get offered a job but the editor is suitably impressed to give him the assignment to write a freelance piece on the city’s nightlife, something that shy Evan is not really an expert on. He does, however, accept the challenge, as he knows that this could be his big break, and he also knows that Aidan his colleague at the gay magazine will be able to connect him up with exactly the right sort of people.
Aidan comes up trumps and hooks him up with Hunter who despite the fact he is Evan’s age is evidently THE king of the night who runs clubs and hosts parties that are the best in the city. It is also obvious that Jordan quickly takes a shine to his interviewer who is so single-minded and determined to get the best story he can, is totally oblivious to his new admirer. Evan is also distracted by the fact that he cannot shake of the memory of a recent ex who very inconveniently keeps popping up in his mind and his dreams quite regularly.
This micro-budgeted homegrown movie from first time writer/director Eric Henry is evidently partly autobiographical and besides being a fond love letter to the city of Toronto, is very much about different kinds of acceptance. When Evan is not shadowing Hunter for his article he is still doing his regular writing job that includes interviewing people like the gay couple into fetish sex, or the straight couple who have embraced the husband’s cross-dressing. Even when he is off-duty having a drink he has an uncomfortable encounter with an old man looking for company. Very admirable reminders about everyone needing to find their own path to happiness, but still a tad too preachy and really unnecessary to the flow of the story.
Kudos to the fact that the production values of the piece that are much higher than one has come to expect from movies of this type. Henry helped this by making good casting calls using Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski a very impressive newbie as Evan, Ryan Fisher as Hunter, and hunky male model/actor Matthew Ludwinski as Evan’s lost love, even though the script he gave them had more than the occasionally grimacing moment.
The whole affair is an enjoyable boy-lite romance that may not stretch your mind too much, but if this is a genre you like, will nevertheless put a big smile on your face when you see that everyone does in fact live happily ever after in the end.
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FILM REVIEW | More Than Friendship
★★★ | More Than Friendship
Twenty-something-year-olds Lukas, Mia and Jonas have been best friends since their childhood, but then three years ago this all changed.
They fell in love with each other and became a very happy ménage-a-trois. They decried society’s contempt for their unusual relationship and became totally committed to each other even though it meant making a break from their parents who vehemently disapproved of their arrangement.
Since then once a year every summer the trio went on a camping trip together touring the countryside where they were able to be completely free from everyone’s prying eyes and pointed fingers. This year, however, is different as Lukas has just been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and although the tight-knit lovers agree to take an oath that the holiday should be focused just purely on joy, they soon realise that it is difficult to completely forget that this will be their very last summer together.
The trip starts off all light and love and it is surprising that they actually get to their first destination as they cannot keep their hands off each other and are always making out in the back of the van. However, it is inevitable that they cannot avoid the elephant in the room especially when Lukas shares with them the Living Will that he has written that gives them both control over his final days rather than his estranged parents.
When Jonas gets taken sick and is rushed into hospital the trio’s joy and hope deserts them and is replaced with fear and grief and they have also to deal with the anger of Jonas’s parents who turn up and insist that the Doctors keep him alive even though that is against his express wishes.
This sophomore film from German writer/director Timmy Ehegötz is overly melodramatic even given its themes. The three good-looking young leads play their parts passionately but despite this, it still seems that there is not enough actual chemistry between them to convince us that their relationship is as deep and real as the script would have us believe.
This well-meaning movie is full of energy and brimming with enthusiastic performances and has a lot to commend it for particularly, in its attempt to de-mystify the whole thruple relationship concept.
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FILM REVIEW: Elsa And Fred
★★★★ ELSA AND FRED | Newly widowed Fred has been coerced by his control freak of a daughter to sell his large house and move into an apartment in New Orleans.
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FILM REVIEW | Hidden Away, A Spanish Teenage Gay Love Story
Don’t be fooled into thinking that Hidden Away is just another boy meets boy love story with a less than great cover photo of its two male leads. It’s a very well told and acted Spanish teenage gay love story that’s very heartwarming and enduring as well. ★★★★
Hidden Away is not told as a simple coming of age story, and it’s not told in chronological order, which makes understanding and piecing the film together a bit confusing. Director Mikel Rueda has decided to tell the story in a way in which is supposedly meant for the viewer to put themselves into the characters shoes. So it opens with Ibrahim, a 14-year-old young man, walking along the road hitchhiking, escaping from something which we won’t know until the very end. He’s from Morocco, but had gone to Spain a few years back looking for a better future. He’s been living in shelters, hoping to get his official papers so that he can stay in Spain. He lives in Bilbao, fully settled, attending school and living in a shelter for boys just like him. Then there is Rafa, also 14, Spanish, living with his parents. Rafa hangs out with boys just like himself, yet there’s one thing different about Rafa. He doesn’t like girls. There is one girl in particular who practically throws herself at him, but he just doesn’t reciprocate, much to the horror of his friends. Even though Ibrahim and Rafa’s paths initially cross (at one point in a club urinal), they don’t meet until a bit later in the film. And there’s a spark. A spark that at first betells an evolving and very close friendship between the young men, but then evolves into more than that. While there is no actual sex scenes in this film, Rafa and Ibrahim’s bond appears to be more than just physical, it’s emotional as well.
Ibrahim gets mixed up with a local gang that gets him to sell drugs, while Rafa whiles away the time looking for any reason to be with him. They initially bond over a cigarette, but their friendship, and romance, blossoms after they spend a day together hanging out and going bowling. It’s a relationship that we know is too good to be true. And when Ibrahim receives a letter from the government wanting to extradite him back to Morocco, he sees no other way but to run away, with Rafa by his side.
It’s the performances that make this film fantastic. German Alcaruz as Rafa brings an innocence to his part, a young man who knows what he wants and doesn’t care what his friends think. His facial expressions will melt your heart – Alcarazu gives a believable and touching performance. Adil Koukouh is also very good as Ibrahim. He’s bigger and more mature looking than Rafa, but he also has a special something that makes Rafa’s attraction to him seem very credible. Also very very good is Joseba Ugalde as Rafa’s best friend Guille. He knows he’s losing Rafa to Ibrahim and he’s OK with it, even when Rafa and Ibrahim have to go on the run, there’s a very touching scene when Rafa and Guille say goodbye to each and Guille tells Rafa that’s he doesn’t quite understand what is going on.
Hidden Away is a bit difficult to comprehend in the beginning as the scenes do jump around, and the subtitles on this film are quite small and at times hard to read, but stick with it till the very end and you will be rewarded with a love story that’s unique in it’s telling and at it’s very core is a film that tells the story of young love, young love that we’ve all experienced.
Hidden Away is now available to buy on DVD.
by Tim Baros
