THEGAYUK

Tag: Three Star Film Review

The latest three-star film review from THEGAYUK.

  • FILM REVIEW | Mood Indigo

    ★★★ | Mood Indigo

    Have you ever want to like something so much, looked forward to seeing something so much, eager with anticipation?

    And then it happens and its, umm, well, it’s, not quite what you thought or expected?

    A film that includes the inimitable Amelie actress Audrey Tautou and the quirky actor from Populaire, Romain Duris, and has a storyline that reads like a William Burroughs script, and I really expected something kooky, something off the wall?

    I’d read about it before it came out – in itself a long protracted event as it seemed to take forever to get a UK cinema release. Based on a popular French novel by Boris Vian, it takes place in a fantasy version of Paris, where cars fly, pianos make cocktails and people stretch whilst skating – and not just their muscles!

    I hate to spoil the stories when doing a review of a film or DVD, so I won’t go into details on this score apart from the well-publicised basics – boy meets girl, falls in love, marry and then girl becomes seriously ill as a flower starts to grow in her lung… as it does.

    The boy then has to use all available funds to buy a flower to help heal his girl and takes all sorts of odd jobs to fund this. The rest is available on the DVD for you to watch.

    One word used a lot in reviews and write ups on this film is “whimsy” and it’s a great word to sum this up – it is whimsical in the extreme but it lacks some of the finesse of either Amelie and Populaire – though both actors and the rest of the cast and crew give it their all and do a good job.

    The director is responsible for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind, Rewind and it kind of shows, the story takes all kind of twists and turns, but the special effects are not up to the expected level and seem amateurish and at times awkward. The story doesn’t follow the normal narrative trail but seems to waver as it moves towards its end.

    I didn’t hate this film, how could you? But I didn’t love it and ended feeling disappointed and a little let down. Whether this is down to me and my high expectations or the film and its production, I’m not sure… As always, I’d urge you to watch and decide for yourself. I do think its worth watching, but don’t expect the usual Tautou or Duris fair….

    I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars, I wish it was more

  • FILM REVIEW | The Secret Path

    This new gay love story from a married couple of newbie filmmakers Daniel and Richard Mansfield is quite unique.★★★

    Essentially a two-hander, its the story of a pair of lovers in their late 20s who are on the run having deserted the British Navy in the early 1800s. Having come ashore near the rather lush grounds of the estate of an abandoned country house, the two men live ‘rough’ during the day whilst at night they dig up dead bodies to sell and get some funds to move on.

    In a script that is full of more holes than any net these ex-Mariners may have found at sea, we are never too sure why they do little beyond walking around in circles or just lying on the grass cuddling each other.

    They make out occasionally in a manner that one can only suggest that their clumsiness is due to being new to man-on-man sex, or that they are used to doing it on rough seas which gave them a natural rhythm. What is for sure is that the whole place is haunted, and in this supernatural thriller where Theo alone keeps seeing dead people, we know that it cannot possible end well for him or for his lover Frank.

    It’s a bold move making a gay period drama, especially on a micro-budget, and these two Brit filmmakers should be applauded for their valiant effort. The combination of the jerky hand-held cameras and an ominously eerie soundtrack go a long way to making this wee movie more watchable. The two very likeable actors, Darren Bransford & Henry Regan, do well with their parts but they, like the script could have so benefited with both more substance and better direction. The whole thin plot was far too stretched out and made one’s attention wander a little too often in the middle section in particular.

    This new movie is due to be premiered at the GayWise Festival in London in November but before that will be available on VOD/DVD at Amazon.

  • FILM REVIEW | Love Or Whatever

    Like most Therapists who spend their working day advising people how to get their act together, Corey was not that hot at getting his own life on the right track. When he finally proposed to his muscle-bound airhead personal trainer boyfriend, Jon just freaked out and ran off into the arms (and bed) of the nearest woman. He had finally come of out of his gay closet to discover that he was bisexual, or maybe straight even. ★★★

    Corey crying his eyes poured out his woes to his best friend who was his lesbian sister Kelsey, who insisted that there was only one way forward for him viz. Grindr. And soon as she had taught her brother how to use this Gay dating app. the first man he spotted was the Pizza delivery guy. Pete is hotter than hell: handsome, intelligent, articulate and is running the pizza store whilst caring for his sick Uncle the owner. He’s a saint and too perfect to be true, but this is the movies after all.

    The two men have a very successful date and geeky Corey now has another muscle-bound super-fit boyfriend, but before they can even think about even living happily ever after, they must get through a couple of melodramas first. It turns out that Melissa, the woman who the newly proclaimed bisexual Jon is dating, is also a client of Corey’s and she insists on telling him every intimate detail of her new relationship not knowing that he was her predecessor. Eventually he tells her that his appointment book is full and she should go find another therapist.

    Meanwhile Jon decides he really prefers Corey after all so he comes back and they immediately jump in to bed only to be caught in flagrento by saint Pete. Before they can even get their underwear back on, in storms Melissa who had given Jon a lift and had been waiting in the car outside. And just before they can all say scream ‘How could you ? etc’, then into this now rather packed house comes Kelsey to say that she is broke and her coffee shop business is in Foreclosure and she’s leaving town.

    It’s a romantic comedy so you know that in this very lightweight fluffy piece it will work out in the end so everyone will have big smiles on the faces and a hot body to share their beds. Well most of them anyway. This one is cute, thanks mainly to a good cast, and not just the ex-underwear models who play two of the leads.

    As fun as it is you and perfect for a date night, you may still cynical just opt for the ‘whatever’ rather than ‘love’!

    Available to by from Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | The Perfect Wedding

    ★★★ | The Perfect Wedding

    Paul used to be a drunk. He also used to be Roy’s boyfriend. Two years later and both men have moved on with their separate lives. Paul goes to AA Meetings regularly and is now sober, thanks to Zack his Sponsor, and he lives at home with his very supportive parents in the their rather lush waterfront home in Florida.

    Paul’s sister Alana is engaged to be married and is coming home for the Christmas holidays to start planning a lavish June wedding. Besides her overly-enthusiastic mother, Alana also has her two best friends coming to help work out the details too, trouble is, one of them is Roy, her brother’s ex, and both men are nervous at meeting again for the first time after their messy breakup.

    Roy is also concerned that as he is still single, he may be perceived as a loser, so he persuades Gavin another ex boyfriend to tag along and pretend that the two of them are a couple.

    There was a time a decade or two ago, when almost every gay movie dealt with the ‘A’ issue i.e. AIDS.

    Thankfully at least cinematically we have moved on and this rom-com tackles three more big ‘A’s ‘ instead: alcoholism, adoption, and Alzheimer’s. It almost seems at times with this issue packed story that bestselling romantic author Suzanne Brockman had deliberately penned a script (with her husband Ed Gaffney) about two guys falling in love where being gay was so ordinary that it is almost over looked.

    The Gaffney’s actually wrote this for their gay son the actor Jason T Gaffney who did his mom and pop proud with his turn as Gavin who everyone seemed to fall in love with at some time or another.

    And in case you had guessed that Paul and Roy had seen the error of their ways and fallen back together, then you would have been wrong. The couple whose marriage rounds out this film (after Alana’s had hers) is that of Roy’s two exes who found each other irresistible.

    Thanks to some good performances, a very impressive location and some deft direction from newbie Scott Gabriel this small-budgeted indie movie is definitely one of the better ones of this genre. Touching and tender with very likeable characters that one wanted to find happiness… even if it’s the kind that only happens in the movies… and not a single stereotype in sight.

    It had plenty of eye-candy, and for once they didn’t keep disrobing when the story lagged at all.

  • FILM REVIEW | Ballet Boys

    Ballet Boys is a feature length documentary that follows in the footsteps of three adolescent male dancers as they are about to graduate from the Norwegian Ballet Academy and move on to the next stage of their training. ★★★

    CREDIT: Ballet Boys

    (more…)

  • 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 | Gerontophilia

    ★★★ | Gerontophilia

    Toronto based filmmaker Bruce LaBruce is no stranger to controversy, and so it is that, in his latest movie, Gerontophilia, he turns to the subject of age gap relationships, which, according to LaBruce transgress a very strong cultural taboo.

    Lake is an unusual young man with an unusual fetish. Though he has a girlfriend, he is attracted to old men, a fetish he gets the chance to pursue when he starts a job as an orderly in an old people’s home. Whilst in the home, he is appalled at the way the inmates are treated and strikes up a relationship with Mr Peabody, weaning him off the medication that keeps him easy to manage, and eventually helping him to escape so they can set-off on a road-trip together. So far, so good, but for me the problem at the heart of the movie was that the central relationship between Lake and Mr Peabody didn’t really ring true. Maybe Pierre-Gabriel Lajoie had been encouraged to play Lake with a sort of wide-eyed innocence throughout, but it made it hard to believe that there was a strong sexual bond between the two men.

    However, with the veteran Walter Borden putting in a wittily amusing performance as Mr Peabody, it is a very enjoyable film, as much about how modern society responds to old age as it is about age-gap relationships.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | GBF

    ★★★ | GBF

    When Tanner is accidentally outed in school, whilst the other boys in his class may resort to taunting and bullying him, the girls start to seriously compete for his attention.

    Three of the most popular teen girls in particular believe that if Tanner would be their G (ay) B (est) F(riend), which their favorite fashion mags say is ‘the’ must-have accessory of the season, then this would seal their election to become the next Prom Queen. There is Fawcett a very pretty buxom blond, ‘Shley the slightly serious good-time Mormon girl, and Caprese the African/American drama queen.

    Whilst Tanner glows in his new-found popularity as the girls fall over themselves to capture him for themselves, his best friend Brent who is still stuck in the closet, is so jealous of all the attention that so starts to plot Tanner’s downfall.

    This rather charming ‘boy-lit’ high school comedy is peppered with some very good performances by a very professional young cast who have cut their teeth on TV :Michael Willet as Tanner (The United States of Tara), Paul Iacono as Brent (The Hard Times of RJ Berger),Xosha Roquemore as Caprese (The Mindy Project),Sasha Pieterse as Fawcett (Pretty Little Liars) andAndrea Bowen as ‘Shley (Desperate Housewives).

    It is however the adults that inadvertently steal all their scenes particularly Jonathan Silverman and Rebecca Gayheart who play Tanner’s supportive parents. However even they are trumped by a wonderfully funny turn by the ever delightful Megan Mullally (‘Karen from Will & Grace’) who is hysterically funny trying to drag her son out of the closet. The two of them watching the ‘Brokeback Mountain’ movie on TV together is unquestionably the best scene in the entire film.

    It’s all very cute, has a few really good one-liner’s like the one on Mormon’s ‘they smile to your face, then Prop 8 you in the back,’ but it is a squeaky clean teen-movie that is meant to be for the young… or at least the young at heart.

    P.S. Don’t miss the ‘bloopers’ at the end!

    BUY FROM iTunes | Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | The Cat

    ★★★ | The Cat

    The Cat is a Korean horror film which tells the story of a young woman, So-Yeon, who is an animal groomer in a pet parlour. Following the death of one of her customers who dies in a lift, she cares for the abandoned cat found next to the body. But So-Yeon soon finds herself haunted by the ghostly figure of a young girl with cat like eyes and as people around her start to die in small spaces So-Yeon tries to uncover the truth about the link between the cat and the violent deaths of those around her.

    The Cat was very typical of the Asian horror films which have become more popular over the last ten years or so. Films like The Ring, The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters and Dark Water have brought the Asian film industry to the attention of the West and this film is a good, if standard, example of the ghost story genre. It has all of the elements you would expect in such a film – a ghostly figure, a few jumps, a slow build of the tension and an uncovering of the truth behind the shadowy figure. Whilst the structure of the story was nothing ground-breaking, it held your attention and built to a satisfying enough conclusion.

    Overall, the film is a slow burner, with the story gently unfolding throughout the first two thirds of the film before reaching its denouement and revealing the reason for the hauntings. Those expecting an all-out action packed gore fest will be disappointed, but for those who want a decent ghost story and something more atmospheric, there are some nice set pieces (as some of the characters meet their demise) and the ghostly figure of the little girl comes across as both menacing and creepy at times.

    Overall, the performances of the cast are perfectly functional and the special effects are muted but effective. However, viewers should be aware that throughout the film there are some scenes of animal cruelty, which may make uncomfortable viewing for some people (although the film very clearly states that no animals were harmed in the making of the film). Also, the film is subtitled, which may also put off some people, although it shouldn’t. If you have never seen an Asian horror then this is a decent enough introduction.

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon | iTunes

  • FILM REVIEW | Interior Leather Bar

    ★★★ | Interior Leather Bar

    Director William Friedkin claims that he had to take his notorious movie Cruising about the gay S&M sub-culture to the US Ratings Board on 50 occasions before they would give him a ‘R’ certificate that permitted it to be shown in cinemas. Whether that is totally true or not is part of the myth around the over-rated but little seen psychological thriller released in 1980 to great controversy. The gay community were its fiercest detractors, but the critics slammed it too.

    To appease the censors Friedkin was forced to cut 44 minutes of what one assumes from his inference were graphic sexual acts. We will never be sure how accurate that is and gay filmmaker Travis Mathews and actor James Franco never bothered to check with Friedkin when they set about trying to re-imagine what the footage may or may not have contained to make this curious new documentary.

    Heterosexual Franco has a growing reputation for his limitless fixation with gay culture and he used his celebrity to pull this very spurious event together. On a day and a half, he and Travis gathered together a bunch of actors – some gay and some straight – stuck them in a warehouse with a script treatment and told them very vaguely to simply get on with it. Franco himself copped out of recreating the main role played by Al Pacino in the original movie and instead persuaded Val Lauren (who has just starred in Franco’s directorial debut ‘Sal’, about yet another gay figure Sal Mineo). Lauren was either alarmingly nervous about playing gay, even for pay, or just following a script, we never really know. But he was uncomfortable to watch, and like others, annoyingly kept repeating that he had only agreed to the project because of James!

    The gay members of the cast had joked that they had only agreed to take part in the hope of seeing Franco naked, but that wasn’t going to happen. He pontificated excessively before the shoot intellectualising about sex, but on the day itself he part filmed a scene where a couple of guys are going full at it, before totally disappearing. Incidentally most of the hour long running time is taken up with all the behind the scenes angst than the actual ‘missing footage’.

    This is not the first vanity project by Franco, He made an experimental film from scraps that Gus Van Sant cut from My Private Idaho, and the main question I can only raise about his intentions with all of this, and the making of this film is, WHY?

    Available to buy / view on: Amazon

  • THEATR REVIEW | Northern Ballet’s Cinderella – Leeds Grand Theatre

    ★★★ | Northern Ballet’s Cinderella

    In a magical retelling of Cinderella, the well-known story is transported to Imperial Russia, whereby following a shooting accident, Cinderella’s father dies and she falls victim to the wicked ways of her evil stepmother. But with Prince Charming looking for love, will Cinderella make it to the ball?

    Northern Ballet’s sumptuous production of this beautiful and original ballet is a festive treat and provides a fresh take on an established story. The story itself is familiar but there are a number of aspects which not only elevate this production but which also refreshes the classic fairy tale. The fairy godmother is replaced by a cunning magician, the coach is pulled by huskies and; with the transportation of the story to Russia, the ballet provided a number of scenes set outside the kitchen and the ballroom – including a graceful sequence set on a frozen lake, with the cast “ice skating” across the stage and a carnival scene allowing the stage to be awash with dancers performing a variety of magic and circus skills.

    The show was choreographed in beautiful fashion, with superb performances from the cast, all of whom were technically excellent in their dancing. Flashes of Russian dance inspired moves allowed the choreography to be relevant to the setting but never in a way which intruded on the traditional ballet. In terms of the cast, the highlight was Pippa Moore who gave a powerful and commanding performance as the wicked stepmother, portraying the character superbly, demanding the attention of the audience and coming across as icy and vindictive. The remaining cast had mastered a number of other skills, including stilt walking, juggling and acrobatic balancing for the carnival scene. The first act of the show was more narrative based, setting the scene for the second act, which was more focussed on the dancing, including a superb opening number in the ballroom and an elegant dance between Cinderella and the Prince.

    The original music was skilfully performed by the live orchestra, with the score ably portraying both the story and the emotions of the piece as it resonated around the opulent Leeds’ Grand Theatre. This production felt like not only a ballet, but also like a classical concert. As always the costumes were put together incredibly well and the whole production was filled with class. One of the strengths of Northern Ballet is their ability to convey the narrative of the story throughout the ballet which makes the whole thing accessible to all. Aside from the dancing, there are enough additional aspects to the show to hold the attention of those who are not necessarily the biggest fans of ballet.

    As a piece of theatre, this show was enchantingly staged and provided a delightful evening with a number of magical moments and an abundance of charm.

    Northern Ballet’s Cinderella is currently playing at Leeds Grand Theatre until the 4th January 2014. Tickets and more information can be found at http://northernballet.com/?q=cinderella