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Showing posts from March, 2013

Gone, But Not Forgotten

This is one of those movies, which I would have tremendously enjoyed, had I seen few years ago and rated it very high. Nevertheless, it is still a very decent movie about falling in love, doing the right thing in your life and not lying to anyone or yourself about anything. Follow your dreams. Made very simplistically with bare minimum characters needed, the film goes right on what it wants to show and then it goes form there. Drew and his brother Paul work as forest ranger officers. Drew saves life of a man who is now in a hospital. When he wakes up, he realizes that he has amnesia and can't remember anything. Drew pulls some strings to visit him and while introducing himself, The guy suddenly remembers his name as Mark. They get along very well and Drew starts paying him regular visits to the displeasure of his older brother. They share real chemistry. Realizing how bored Mark would be in the hospital, Drew requests to bring Mark to his home so that he can recover better. Paul

Hustling: Season 1 (Web series)

This is a 8 part original web series of about 8-10 minutes duration each episode. I had no idea what to expect but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the contents. Each episode though distinct, showed us the life of main protagonist and what he is going through. Rod Driver has been a very famous gay porn star because of his huge asset and an escort since his twenties. But things are not the same when he is now 40. As his original self Ryan Crosby, he gets odd jobs here and there but he wants to change his life around. Suddenly he is worried as to what he is doing with his life and where is it going. Everytime, he wants to do something new and different, he gets pulled back in the word of escort and porn, because he needs money. No one lets him move on with his life, because he is known of sex and his appeal and no one would let him do anything except that. He ultimately discovers that cooking is his passion and he would like to pursue that further. But even in that, he ha

Zurück auf Los! (German) [Return To Go!]

This film is not just a story about friends and friendship. Rather the film focuses on deeper issues of living with HIV, alcohol issues among gay youth and finally the challenges and insecurities that most people have in relationships, be it gay or straight. The film primarily focuses on these different aspects throughout the film where the central characters in my opinion are 2 friends. Sam and Bastl are very close friends. After having diagnosed with HIV, Sam goes into depression and alcohol. Sam is an afro-german wannabe singer. He leaves his boyfriends house and find another place to live which is completely run-down. His friend Bastl deeply cares for him. We see that Sam meets another guy Rainer and completely falls in love with him because this guy likes him despite his HIV status. They break-up because Sam finds him cheating with another guy and throws him out of the aptt. He is trying to get his life back together and move on without the fear of Aids. Meanwhile, both Bastl a

Kanrei Zensen Conductor (Japanese) [Cold Front Conductor]

This film was an odd mix of good and bad acting and a good and bad story. There were points in the film where I started to like the film and there would be times that I would think wtf! The movie apparently is a film adaptation of Fujimi Orchestra series. I don't know anything at all about it, so my views are solely based on this as a film and nothing else. Morimura Yuuki heads a music orchestra as the concert master and he is the leader of the grip. The group consists of all oddballs and they all play for fun. Morimura Yuuki has a crush on this girl in the class. Enter Tonoin Kei as the conductor of the group. Tonoin Kei is supposed to be a very gifted young man fro a very known instate and everyone is surprised to see him as their conductor. Slowly under his guidance, the class' music starts improving. This girl is now interested in Tonoin Kei and asks him out for a drink. Tonoin Kei comes out to her that he is gay and is interested in men and that in fact he is interest

Les Amitiés Particulières (French) [This Special Friendship]

It was so refreshing to see a black and white film with an underlying gay theme, with such old world charm. Released way back in 60s, this film felt so much ahead of item time but then, I dunno at all what France was like way back in 60s. All I want to do is salute the producer/director for taking up the challenge of such a bold subject and treating it with respect, empathy and tenderness that it deserves. The film will be as relevant in today's time as it was probably when it released. Georges, a 15 year old boy begins his boarding education in a catholic school. He is from an aristocratic background. He strikes up an immediate friendship with a fellow student of his own age, Lucien. On discovering that Lucien already has a close relationship with another boy, André, Georges contrives to get the latter expelled from the school. I am not very sure whether it is out of jealousy or whether Georges dislikes the idea of 2 men being so close.  One day Georges sees Alexandre, a youn

Bite Marks

There are gay movies, there are comedy movies and there are horror/vampire movies. Now you just mix all these genres, and what you get is a miss-mash called Bite Marks. This film was so bad on so many levels. It is one of those films which are so so so bad that by the end they seem not so bad, if you know what I mean. The film is cheesy to the core, very low production values and overall a trash film. Truck driver Brewster has to take up delivering a loa dog coffins to a funeral home because suddenly his brother goes missing. We also see a gay couple who are walking along the road, trying to make their relationship work. They hitch-hike with Brewster and some silly scenes follow, just involving the buildup, which includes a sex scene between the couple that Brewster watches and gets excited. The wrong feed in the GPS of the truck leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere around a deserted junkyard. And then make the appearances by so called vampires and the silly fight the 3 o

El Sexo De Los ángeles (Spanish) [The Sex Of The Angels]

I absolutely loved this film. It was fantastic. Agreed, some aspects of it were a little unbelievable but still the story, the direction, the actors were just spot on. As a subject, the film is not easy to digest by everyone but I have reviewed a couple of film here on my blog before which talk about relationships between 3 people and not necessarily two. This film also explores a similar theme and the director does do the job with flying colors. Bruno and Carla have been together for a long time. Bruno loves with Carla in Barcelona, whose parents gave her the apartment. A chance meeting with Rai changes Bruno's life. Bruno feels this instant connection towards Kai who is a karate teacher and a dancer. Starting of as a friendship, Bruno, can't control himself for long before he gives into Rai's seduction. But very soon we find out that it i snot about just seduction. The 2 men feel much more for each other. At the same time Bruno is very much in love with Carla. One da

Faustrecht der Freiheit (German) [Fox And His Friends]

This movie shows a facet of life, which is raw and true. This film shows how people manipulate each other for personal gains. The film explores how this can affect individuals and how greed has no end. Made in 70s , this film also shows german gay subculture. Everyone knows franz as Fox. He is a lower class gay kid who works in street fairs. He is addicted to lottery hoping to win day and win he does. Handsome rich Max just randomly meets him outside a public bathroom and introduces him to the rich gay culture. Max;'s friends initially despise him for his earthy looks, for his low class upbringing but when they find out that Fox has just won a lot of money in lottery, their outlook completely changes. One of the friends is Eugen who takes Fox as his lover hoping to get money out of him. He talks naive Fox into sponsoring his father's business, buying I'm a new house and a car. Eugen's parents tolerate their son's life with a low class fellow and ridicule his ma

Sassy Pants

I was looking forward to this movie for 2 reasons: the  title and i heard that the kid from sixth sense film was playing a major role as a gay man. I missed watching it when it was premiered at QFest last year but now I finally got time to catch up. The writing though smart and funny is a little unbelievable in today's time. Although we have seen stranger things happen in today's world. This is also not exactly a gay film. It's more about this girl with some major gay characters. Bethany and her brother live with their domineering mother June. Just because her husband decided to become gay and run away with another man, ever since she has been shielding her children from the world by schooling them at home and essentially keeping them at house arrest. One days when she can't take it anymore, Bethany runs to her dad where she finds a new friend in her dad's young boyfriend Chip. He helps her with some clothes etc and eventually she even gets a job in a clothing

I Want Your Love

I wrote my review for this short film here . Almost porn, I was very impressed with the short but never thought that it could potentially be made into a full length feature (which I hoped they did) and when I did see a full length version of it, I was really happy and excited. I was looking forward to similar things. Great natural acting and lot of real sex. Film starts with Jesse, a 20-something gay artist who is moving from San Francisco back to his hometown in Ohio. He’s broke, recently broke up with his boyfriend and in an artistic rut, and needs a change. He’s searching for something and it becomes clear that he’s not even sure what that is – his father’s love and approval, artistic vision and motivation, financial security or just love and friendship. Keith, his neighbor and fellow artist is his closest confidence who tells him what he really thinks and doesn't sugar coat things. We also meet Jesse's roommate, a bear who is dealing with his own issues with his lover

Somefarwhere

OMG!! Somehow I had high hopes from this film. Something about the title and the poster made me think that this movie would be different and make sense. How wrong was I! Well, it sure was different but on the wrong spectrum. This was a total turkey. We meet  price, a young American who is touring around Iraq border (or wherever the film was shot), looking at ruins with his guide, Marwan. Marwan thinks Price is hot. Soon we see that he is looking for his partner Bo, who is in marine and has been missing for a few days. We also meet Combs, with a southern accent, who randomly appears and disappears and is not very clear who he is or what he is doing. (Apparently he is CIA). Few erotic scenes follow and we also meet a few homophobic nationals, who randomly appear, threaten Price and go away. By this time, you are totally confused. Turns out that mar wan and Combs had a plan throughout but they tell that Bo is probably killed. But later they say, they have him. Bu this time you lose t

Homophobia (German Short Film)

I usually do not write separate posts to review a short film. Rather I club them together but this one was actually really well done and I just felt that just a couple of sentences for this film would not be sufficient. Michael, a gay guy serves in Austrian military. He has been away from home and isolated form friends and family. This isolation and the attractiveness of his fellow comrade Raphael, gets Michael attracted to him very strongly. Michael is very used to being bullied on a daily basis. Jürgen, the alpha male in the group, has found the perfect victim in Michael. During taking a shower Jürgen bullies Michael once more but this time something is different, Michael bring about Jürgen's downfall both literally and figuratively. The game is on and Jürgen uses his most powerful weapon - his knowledge about Michael's secret and in a fight ends up punching him. Michael is emotionally hurt that Raphael didn't rescue him. The same night on a mission, Raphael and Michae

Melting Away (Hebrew)

The movie dramatizes the rejection and stigmatization of transsexuals, and the obstacles they face in simply trying to lead a normal existence. A beautiful film in not just acting but also production values, sensitive, background music etc, this film definitely deserves a wider audience. I have seen a few films on a similar subject but the sensitivity with which things have been handled here, definitely calls for applaud for the director. Shlomo and Galya have a teenage son. When Shlomo discovers women's clothing and accessories in his son Assaf's room, , decides to 'teach the boy a lesson' and lock the home's door for him on a rainy night. His theory is the boy will learn fast and get back to house, get into studies and forget everything. Four years late, Galya comes to a detective to find her son since Shlomo has cancer and is dying. The detective son finds out that Assaf is now Anna and has undergone a sex change operation and she lives on her own and has fr

My Beautiful Laundrette (UK)

I know a lot of people have loved this movie over a period of time. I saw this film , I guess 6 years ago and vaguely remember not being too impressed with it. But now, with time gone by and my experience with gay themed movies being much broader, it was time to revisit this film for my blog. Sadly, despite some decent performances, the film still did not manage to rise beyond average in my mind. It is quite possible that I amassing seeing something in the film that the others are. Nasser and his ally Saleem have a number of small businesses and are doing very well for themselves. Meanwhile his brother, a once famous journalist  and now alcoholic Ali, lives in a seedy flat in a poor neighborhood with his son Omar. To help his brother, Nasser gives Omar a job doing menial labor. But Omar, with bigger plans, talks Nasser into letting him manage Nasser's run down laundrette. Enters Johny, a friend of Omar's since they were kids who has been a street punk for a while. Omar inv

Soldier's Girl

I have to first thank one of my followers from my blog, who recommended me this film. The film had been in my backlog list and if not for his recommendation, I probably would not have seen it sooner. This film will challenge your definition of gender and redefine love. The fact that the film is used on a real story makes it even more heart-wrenching. To see that someone actually has to go through all this, just because he was in love which the social norms don't accept!! Its a shame. Barry Winchell has just joined army is becoming friends with people around. His room-mate is a little crazy and takes pills for something which we still don't know about. One night, 5-6 folks from the army go to this gay club where they see drag queens performance. After initial joking around, we see that Barry gets interested in one of the performers Calpernia. His room-mate realizes this but he himself is quite fucked up. Love soon blossoms between the two. Calpernia can't believe her st