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Showing posts from September, 2010

Gay Short Films : 03

Parabéns! (Portugal) Chico wakes up on his 30th birthday to the sound of his girlfriend singing "Happy Birthday" to him on his answering machine. When sexy boy Joao wakes up in bed next to him, he realizes that this is not his typical birthday. Amen (India) - 24 min Andy and Harry meet through internet. Andy is about to get engaged, wanting to have a fling on his last bachelor day meets Harry. The fling leads to talking and Harry trying to make Andy feel comfortable in his gay skin. “Amen” makes two characters meet, experience hope amidst confusion, explore truths about sexuality and the self and delves into the profound meaning of life in the continuum of its trifles. Good acting and story. Office (Pakistan) - 15 min It traces the life of a prostitute in Karachi on her typical work day, the men she meets and the different roles she plays to satisfy her clients. And finally after she returns home to her female lover. The 2 women ultimately find happiness

Eleven Men Out (Icelandic)

This film is both comedy and also shows dysfunctional characters in Icelandic areas. This is an identical plot to the German movie Guys and Balls but where the Guys and Balls was funny and very interesting, the same cannot be said about this film. Eleven Men Out is a very depressing, serious, and awkward movie where the acting is barely passable. And I did not like that the main character's son gets caught in the middle of his father coming out and his mother being a slut and a drunk. Ottar, a famous local football player playing for the first and most popular team in Iceland announces in the beginning of the movie that he is gay just to get a story and a picture in the local magazine. Life is not the same then. He is forced to quit the team. Being a rebel, he joins a local third rate local gay team to show everyone that he can still be gay but a great footballer. The rest of the movie is the tribulations of him adjusting to his new life and team. His father is a psychiatrist and a

Bedtime Stories (Short Stories)

This DVD was a collection of 25 short gay stories. I think this collection was targeted for Spanish audiences because films were either in SPanish or English or some other language with subtitles in Spanish. I am gonna mention the names of the shorts that I could see not the ones which were completely in Spanish (which were only 13 in number)  $ 30: A father forces his son to go to a prostitute to become a man. He is gay and ends up befriending the girl.  America The Beautiful: A few seconds film that just shows 2 men kissing.  Birthday Time : A young boy is about to turn 18 and wants to be kissed before that by a man. He forces his neighbour who is taking care of him for the weekend.  Doorman: A young renter seduces the doorman for sex when he moves in and then makes him fall in love with him and dumps him.  El Primo: A boy visits his Latino cousin who takes him to a club and then they both decide to go to a prostitue. Thats when the man realizes he is gay.  El Reloj: 2 teenage b

Surprise, Surprise

Its been a long time since I saw a gay film. I just finished watching this one and let me tell you that it was a major disappointment. The story line was interesting but there was a lot of shouting and screaming for no reason. Plus the film never leaves the huge house in Malibu which restricts the viewers. Den and Collin are a couple. Den is a closet TV star and Collin is much much younger to him. Collin who used to be a dancer met with an accident and is now on wheelchair. Enter David, a swaggering 16-year-old homophobe who unexpectedly arrives at their doorstep. His arival sets in new hardships for the couple wherin Den has to suddenly realize and act being a dad and deal with David's instant hatred for Collin because he thinks he is too young. Together the 3 of them have to figure out a way to accept each other's presence and live like a family. The film also has characters in David's grandmother and the couple's fag hag. The biggest problem with the film is that i

XXY (Argentina/Spanish)

How many times have you heard of movies that deal with 'hermaphrodite'. In fact, how many times have we even heard of this except maybe on occasional book called 'Middlesex' (which I must say here was remarkably awesome). This film beautifully does that and apparently a film like this coming from a first time director from Argentina holds a special mention for the theme of the film. Adolescence is always a roller coaster ride. Add the premise of being a 15 year old Hermaphrodite,and things can get even scarier. Alex is a 15 year old troubled teenager girl. She is hermaphrodite. They live in a village by the sea when her father decided to move there because of her condition. Now that she is a teengae, her father wants to give her a choice to undergo surgery to become a boy or girl but Alex wants to remain the way she is and even stops taking the hormones that her mother gives her. Alex's mother pressures her to decide about surgery by invite her friends from Buenos A

Sommersturm (German) [Summer Storm]

Another one in the category of 'I have seen this before but have to watch it again so that I can review it on my blog'. I saw this film about 5 years ago and vaguely remembered liking it. I still loved the movie but having seen a lot more gay films, the perception changes. Had I reviewed this movie 5 years ago, I would have rated it very high but now my expectations are very high , so maybe not that high but this movie was still pretty good. Tobi and Achim, 2 teenage boys, the pride of the local rowing club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp to win a big tournament in the countryside of Germany. As Achim's relationship with his girlfriend Sandra, who's also on the team, grows more and more serious, Tobi starts to realize that his feelings for Achim run much deeper than he's willing to admit to himself. He feels confused, unsure of himse

Happy Birthday

This film can be described as 5 short films intertwined with each other in some way. Its about 5 lesbian/gay characters who share the same birthday. The film delves into darkest issues that each character struggles with.  Kelly has recently broken up with her girlfriend when her first crush, Martha, a college friend she hasn't heard from in years, calls to invite her to dinner. Ron confidently runs a ministry for "ex-gays" at his church, until a church member calls his bluff. Javed, a Pakistani immigrant rejected by both his family and his Muslim culture, awaits the decision on his asylum application, while his porn star boyfriend earns money to support them. Tracy, a Chinese-American woman who is not out to her family, tries to find common ground with her traditional mother visiting from Taiwan who ultimately discovers her daughter's sexuality. Jim, an obese man too ashamed of his body to dance in a club, is named telemarketer of the year at "Fat No More."