THEGAYUK

Tag: Movie Genre Thriller

  • FILM REVIEW | A Most Wanted Man

    ★★★★★ |  A Most Wanted Man

    In Dutch filmmaker Anton Corbijn’s take on John le Carré’s spy thriller we are very much aware of who ‘the most wanted man’ is, but like Gunther Bachmann, a German Intelligence Officer in Hamburg, we never know why he has earned this title.

    Gunther is very much the ‘good man’ in this intricate web of international spy/terrorist catching. Gruff, scruffy, chain-smoking and a fiercely independent operator in charge of a Specialised Terrorist Unit, he is trying to get information from Issa Karpov a half Russian & half-Chechen Muslim illegal immigrant before the police or other authorities can capture and imprison him.

    Karpov has escaped from a Russian prison where he was brutally tortured and he is portrayed as being the innocent victim of the fact that his father was a notorious terrorist/criminal. Via a sympathetic lawyer, Karpov leads Gunther to Tommy Brue a wealthy Merchant Banker who is trying to extract himself from his late father’s dubious clients who he has inherited. This includes Karpov Snr. who still has a major nest egg stashed away in the Bank. Gunther wants to use Brue and these illegal millions to trap a respected Professor who he suspects is the head of a cell of terrorists. Although both the German Authorities and the CIA. reluctantly agree to give Gunther time to do things his way, they obviously do not mean it at all.

    It’s a well told thrilling intricate story, although a tad confusing at times, and it keeps you completely engaged until the very end. It’s very much Gunther’s story, which is appropriate as the great Philip Seymour Hoffman plays him magnificently in this, his final movie role. I’m unsure if Corbijn actually re-edited the movie as a result of Hoffman’s untimely death which occurred after its Sundance Premiere, but anyway Gunther is rarely off the screen. It’s a powerful swan song from this talented actor and even more poignant because he plays yet another dishevelled character that seems to be such a perfect fit for him in his very distinguished career.

    The cast is made up of Rachel McAdams as the liberal lawyer/social worker, Robin Wright as the cold-hearted double-dealing CIA. Agent, Willem Dafoe as the Banker plagued by the sins of his father, Nina Hoss as the very matter-of-fact loyal assistant to Gunther, and handsome Grigoriy Dobrygin as the hunted man who is forced to decide between his life and his religion when he is made to shave his shaggy beard off.

    We came away believing the real possibility that if the Gunthers of this world were actually allowed to use Intelligence as opposed to the usual knee-jerk response of sheer brutality to try and deal with the whole scenario of terrorists, then things may even start to get resolved. And the other totally different thought ingrained in our minds as the final credits rolled, was that the world will never quite be the same after the loss of such a very fine actor.

    A Most Wanted Man opens in the UK on the 12th September 2014

  • FILM REVIEW | Blackwood

    ★★★★ | Blackwood

    If you had just recovered from a shattering emotional breakdown, it might seem like a good idea to relocate with your wife and son to a lonely old house in the middle of a remote wood. Or so you might think. Wrong. The house, it seems, is harbouring a dark secret and Ben Marshall (Ed Stoppard) is determined to get to the bottom of it.

    Blackwood is a modern ghost story cum psychological thriller in the tradition of period pieces like The Woman in Black. According to director Adam Wimpenny and writer J.S. Hill, the team gleaned inspiration from Nicolas Roeg’s darkly atmospheric Don’t Look Now and Joseph Losey’s bleak character-led drama Accident. I’m not sure this move is on the same level of inspiration as either of those two masterpieces, but it is consistently gripping, gradually building the suspense and keeping you guessing till the end when suddenly, and tragically, everything falls into place. I do abhor those thrillers which leave you somehow hanging in mid-air at the end. This one definitely gives you a finale.

    The film looks good too with great cinematography from Dale McCready, and Adam Wimpenny has got some great performances from his cast. The name best known to most of us will be Russell Tovey, fresh from his performance in HBO drama Looking, though here in a supporting role, convincingly playing against type as the sinisterly troubled war veteran Jack and looking pretty buff too. Ed Stoppard plays a highly strung Ben, a man desperately trying to hang on to control but gradually unravelling as the film progresses. As his wife Rachel, Sophia Myles is warmly feminine, concerned for her husband and fiercely protective of her son Harry (a really nice unaffected performance from young Isaac Andrews). Completing the cast is Greg Wise as Ben’s womanising best friend and colleague Dominic, and Paul Kaye as the enigmatic local priest Father Patrick.

    With a little more depth of character than we often get in thrillers or ghost stories, it is an eminently watchable movie, sure to give you the odd start.

    Blackwood opened in cinemas across the UK on August 1st

  • FILM REVIEW | Truth

    ★★★ | Truth

    When middle-aged Jeremy turns up at the coffee shop for a first date with Caleb a young barista he met online he thinks he has hit the jackpot. The boy is a hottie and a total charmer too, and before you can say ‘I’ll have a latte’ the two men are sitting on the couch holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes. Back home in Caleb’s rather large house, the sex is hot (it’s sensuous rather than explicit) and a good time is had by all.

    Caleb wakes up alone next morning with no sign of his new silver fox lover who has left without even a phone number and who remains incommunicado until he shows up unannounced at the coffee shop three days later. His explanation for his absence is feeble but Caleb thinks ‘this’ could be the real thing so he just accepts Jeremy’s lame excuse. They have some great make-up sex and declare their undying love to each other and are prepared to live happily ever after. But it’s what they don’t tell each other over the next few months that is going to shape their futures and not in a way that either had hoped and wanted.

    Pill popping Caleb suffers from a borderline personality disorder and has not disclosed that the mother he claimed had died is a psychotic alcoholic, who had abused him, is now in an institution. When Jeremy hearing part of the story thinks he is helping by locating the mother, Caleb, and the plot, start to fall apart.

    Jeremy it turns out has also his own big secret and when Caleb uncovers this nine months into their relationship he loses it completely. This overwrought melodrama suddenly changes tack and turns into a psychological thriller as Caleb holds the older man captive until he learns the whole truth.

    Caleb is played by Sean Paul Lockhart, who in a previous life was Brent Corrigan a porn actor/star. To give him full credit Lockhart gives his all, clothed and often naked -and shows that he put in a very credible performance even given some of the howlers that pepper this whole script.

    Written and directed by Rob Moretti (Crutch) who also cast himself to play the part of Jeremy which was probably not the best decision. Moretti is a competent actor but had he kept behind the camera he may have noticed that there were too many histrionics (don’t get me started on the foul-mouthed speeches of Caleb’s over-the-top mother…). And including such a loud dramatic soundtrack will (sadly) not drown out some of the wince making script.

    There’s a message in here somewhere about child abuse and how it can create monsters about the victims too, but the oddest thing about a movie with a title like this, is none of it seemed remotely truthful at all.

    If you are a fan of Brent Corrigan than you will like seeing him all grown up and showing so successfully that he has a life beyond porn. His wardrobe/costume provider quite rightly gets its own mention in the Credits: it’s Andrew Christian.

  • FILM REVIEW | Tom At The Farm

    ★★★★ | Tom At The Farm

    Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan may be sick of being constantly described as a wunderkind, but when you are just 24 years old like he is and have already made four head-turning mind-blowing Award winning movies, then the description is more than apt. Not content with writing and directing each of them he usually loves to edit, design the costumes, create the music, and now in his latest one, a taut psychological thriller, he stars in it too.

    Tom is grieving the death of his boyfriend Guy (known to his family as Guillaume) and he travels to a rather bleak part of Northern Quebec to attend the funeral and share his loss with the family he has never even met. He quickly discovers from a very scary encounter with Francis, Guilliame’s older brother, that not only was he ‘not out’ to his mother, but that Francis had actually created an imaginary girlfriend so that she would never suspect. In the first of many threats, Francis menacingly insists that Tom stays and keeps quiet about being gay and also adds some credence to the existence of Guillaume’s ‘girlfriend’ before he then goes from the family farm for good, never to return.

    To avoid doing just this, immediately after the funeral Tom tries to leave to go back to the city but in his panic he forgets his luggage and turns the car around to head back to the Farm to retrieve it. In doing so he confronts Francis and so refuses to go along with the subterfuge, which results in first of the beatings he will get at the hands of this psychotic bully. It also soon becomes obvious that despite all the violence both men are attracted to each other…Tom to Francis despite all the vicious physical abuse… and Francis to Tom even though he is bitterly angry about his own repressed homosexuality.

    Tom settles into some sort of routine and looks almost set to stay at the Farm and when he actually arranges for the fake girlfriend to come visit to appease the mother, he refuses to leave even when it is obvious to her and Tom that he is in real danger if he stays there a moment longer with the mad sociopath brother. He claims that it’s because that Francis could not manage the Farm on the own, but it’s clear that he actually is drawn to Francis’s deranged behaviour.

    It is a superb fist-clenching piece with an atmosphere of real fear that never ever lets up. I am not sure what was worse, knowing what Francis was actually capable of (and there is much more that I haven’t even touched on) or the realisation of what a pliable and willing Tom would accept. In amongst all of this, there is one most glorious scene where the two men tango together in the barn where the intimacy will only give way to violence again. The high pitch tension never ever gives a clue as to how it will develop or end up.

    Mr. Dolan sporting tousled dirty blond hair turns in a convincingly effective performance as Tom, and it is matched by veteran Canadian actress Lise Roy playing the mother with such a defiant tone, and also Pierre Yves- Cardinal as a very intimidating latently gay Francis.

    I am unashamedly a big fan of Mr. Dolan’s work and have never subscribed to the notion sometimes proffered that he is always about style over substance… the reason I am passionate about the work is the fact that he combines both so very well. However with this movie you can sense a more mature quality, and I believe that Mr. Dolan really can quite rightly claim the crown of being an out queer Hitchcock.

    P.S. The only fact I have given this a less than perfect score is there were two strands of the plot that puzzled me. I couldn’t believe that the mother could have been so completely unaware of what was going on in either of her son’s life. And secondly would an urbane copy editor at a city ad agency really take to farming so eagerly as Tom did?

    It did however won the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and is a totally unmissable movie.

  • FILM REVIEW: The Adored

    FILM REVIEW: The Adored

    ★★ | The Adored

    Maia is a model who finds her life in turmoil when a personal tragedy befalls her which severely impacts on her relationship with her husband.In an attempt to increase her self-esteem and to try and kick-start her career, she books a weekend with a prolific photographer, Francesca, in her secluded house in the remote Welsh countryside. But Francesca, who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, becomes increasingly fixated with Maia and tries to control her feelings towards her. But with a combination of guilt, paranoia and infatuation increasingly impacting on the relationship between the two of them, their past appears to be catching up with them.

    The film stars Laura Martin-Simpson and Ione Butler as the two women whose physical and emotional relationship develops over the course of the film’s 90 minute running time. The story unfolds with long scenes of the two women in the isolated house and surrounding area spliced with some rather intense scenes of a man called Adrian talking frankly with his therapist about his self-awareness of his violence and his troubled marriage. Who this man is and his relevance to the two women is a mystery which feeds into the slow burn of the story.

    The performances from the four cast members were all perfectly serviceable, with Jake Maskill as Adrian as the most notable. The direction of the film was functional, but never flashy or over-stylised and the scenery surrounding the house was a naturally beautiful backdrop.

    One of the main problems with the film was that the characters were all so unlikeable that as a viewer, there was the potential to not share any empathy or connection with characters. Furthermore, the development of the story was far too slow, so that by the time the reveal arrived, any dramatic impact was lost given that the narrative had struggled to hold the attention.

    Where the film does deserve some recognition is in its portrayal of the exploration of the female characters sexuality. Their intimate moment manages to steer well clear of tacky titillation and that aspect of the story is more about establishing their sexuality as one aspect of their complex characters rather than being the trait that their characters are built around.

    Overall, the film is a slow watch, which some viewers may find rewarding, but one which, unfortunately, runs out of steam. It is a bold attempt at a low budget film noir, but never quite lives up to its potential.

    The Adored is available to buy from Amazon and iTunes and further information about the film can be found on the films official website at http://www.theadoredmovie.com

     

  • FILM REVIEW | In Bloom

    ★★★★ | In Bloom

    This is the rather gritty story of a hip very young gay couple in Chicago’s ‘Boystown’ coming to terms with how tough one’s first love can be.

    Kurt is a small time drug dealer who supplies pot to his peers, whilst Paul his boyfriend of two years has a dead-end job in a local grocery store that he can barely tolerate. When the long summer starts, they are having fun and very much into each other and seem the perfect couple, but some seven months later they have separated and can barely talk to each other.

    Everything had been going well with them until one night one of Kurt’s good-looking customers puts the moves on him, and although he initially resists Kevin’s advances does it opens his mind to the possibility that there is more to life outside of his cosy relationship with Paul. Suddenly that starts to look painfully inadequate to him now, and in a fit of impulse he starts a ‘break-up’ that he will only regret when it is far too late.

    If that is not bad enough, the real world outside is even scarier than usual right now as there is a serial killer on the prowl whose victims have all been young gay man from the area. With Kurt making late night deliveries to hip parties all over he is probably more at risk than most.

    This look at contemporary edgy youth culture is the work of a 22 year newbie filmmaker Chris Michael Birkmeier who based this work of fiction on his own story of when he broke up with his first ever boyfriend. The plot is steeped in innocence and naivete and full of well-meaning intentions. It’s a remarkable debut feature and as such one can overlook the slow-moving story line that almost grinds to a halt at times.

    Credit too for the great wee cast full of untried talent, and very good photography too.

    The comparisons between Mr Birkmeier and the French/Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan who picked up Awards at Cannes for his first movie at the tender age of 19, are natural. Especially when Birkmeier makes no bones of the fact that he is a big Dolan fan. But there is very little similarity in their work and this movie is of a much simpler construction and far more straightforward. The two young filmmaker’s works complement each other, rather than complete.

    No doubt at all that C M Birkmeier (as he bills himself) is one to watch in new queer cinema, and I for one cannot wait to see how he follows this fascinating first movie.

  • FILM REVIEW | Stranger By The Lake

    ★★★★ | Stranger By The Lake

    Alain Guiraudie’s intriguing new thriller is about as homoerotic as can be without crossing the divide into soft porn. It’s set on a tranquil isolated lake in a beautiful corner of the French countryside where the beach front is sparsely occupied by a handful of men sunbathing in the buff. Behind them lies a small wood which is a busy cruising area for gay men.

    Young Franck is a regular visitor to the lake each summer, and as he is currently unemployed now hangs out there most afternoons. He befriends Henri a sad overweight man who is more interested in just chatting and sitting on the rocks rather than getting his rocks off. Franck is however obsessed with a handsome hunk called Michel who with his Tom Selleck bushy mustache is another element that insinuates a distinctive 1980’s look to the whole movie.

    Michel however already has a young man in tow who he takes off to he woods at regular intervals.Then at dusk one evening as Franck is leaving the woods after a quick hook up with another man, he turns to look at the lake and is horrified to witness Michel drowning his date before swimming back to shore.

    Instead of being put off by the fact that the object of his affections is a killer, Franck actually uses the absence of he young man to make his moves on Michel. It gets hot and steamy and although this excites both of them, the mysterious Michel refuses to continue when it’s time to leave the lake or even give Franck as much as a hint to what his real life is actually about. The fact that the dead boy’s clothes are still lying on the beach and his car is in the car park doesn’t seem to concern anyone at all until his body resurfaces and a police Inspector comes around asking questions.

    The policeman is shocked at the callous indifference he encounters and when Franck is even unable to name the man he was having sex with to support his alibi, the Inspector comments ‘you have a funny way of loving each other’. Franck prefers to keep silent so that Michel will keep having sex with him. However Franck’s love is only Michel’s lust and when the older man suspects that Franck knows what happened that fatal night, things start to look decidedly dangerous for the younger man.

    Asides from the cold-blooded murder, Guiraudie’s story is as much about carnal desire and as such he doesn’t shirk from portraying that with some very explicit sex scenes. There is no effort here to disguise the fact that these very blatant hook-ups are purely sexual and an escapism from the reality of the men’s lives. What the men will do for some momentary passion is very obvious here, but why it spurs Michel into becoming a killer is left to our imagination.

    This is a wonderful erotic thriller, well-written and beautifully photographed in a way that belies the fact that this idyllic looking spot hides such violent and deadly deeds. The story places passion before danger and proves that it is not always a wise choice.

    Winner of both the prestigious ‘Queer Palm Award’ and ‘Un Certain Regard Best Director ‘ at The Cannes Film Festival. Highly recommended.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | Amazon Prime | iTunes