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Showing posts from March, 2018

Entertaining Mr Sloane (UK)

I am not very sure if this film should be reviewed here or not. Although one of the 3 main characters is gay and there are homo-eroticism undertones, the issue or subject is never addressed head on. But then, for a film that came way back in 1968, I guess this small step was itself probably quite a big achievement. Kath is a lonely middle-aged woman living in suburbs with her ageing father DaDa. When she meets hanssome, young and very sexy Mr. Sloane sunbathing on a tombstone in the cemetery near her home, she invites him to become a lodger. When he accepts her offer and comes home, her father recognizes him as the man who killed their neighbor but is too afraid to speak anything. Eventually Kath seduces him. Meanwhile, her closeted, yet obvious gay brother visits him and also gets charmed by him. He makes Mr. Sloane his personal chauffeur (complete with a titillating tight leather uniform) of his pink convertible. Sloane takes delight in playing brother against sister and torment

Deep Water (Mini-Series) (Australia)

This is a 4 part mini-series, each episode of about an hour each.There aren’t many good thriller, mystery series which focusses exclusively around gay characters. The drama is based on the historical, unsolved hate murders of possibly 30 to 80 gay men in Sydney's eastern suburbs and beaches in the 1980s and '90s. Murder mystery, detective series and gay characters; now tis is a series that ticks off all the boxes that I like when I look forward to watch something. One morning, in one of the apartments on the beachfront of Bondi, a mutilated body of a young man is found. Tori Lustigman and Nick Manning are assigned the case. They soon discover that this could possibly be a gay hate crime of maybe an ex-lover or a hook-up gone wrong. Their boss wants the case to be closed soon but Tori strongly believes that this goes much deeper. With a series of investigation, she suspects that these murders go back to late 80’s and 90s of gay bashings and sudden disappearances of many you

King Cobra

If you are occasional gay porn watcher like me and have a few favourites, then Brent Corrigan is a name that you must be quite familiar with. This film is a true story and is based around him as the central character around an incident that became a big deal and affected his career and his personal life to a large extent. I didnt realize this until the very moment I started watching the film. Had I known this fact, I would have seen this film, right when it came out. And it has, the now famously ambiguous actor James Franco as well. Anyway, better late than never. Bryan is a gay porn producer and he own Cobra films. He meets Sean Paul who introduces himself as Brent Corrigan for his porn name. Brent signs a contract with him and Bryan starts producing a couple of porn films. Within a very short time frame. Brent gains immense popularity and becomes really famous. On the other side, we also meet a low key porn producer Joe, who runs his company Viper Boys whose sole porn star is al

Una Mujer Fantástica (Spanish) [A Fantastic Woman]

I had been meaning to this film for a while, even before it won the Oscar for best foreign language film; but after that it just peaked my curiosity. So a friend of mine and I decided to check it out in the nearest cinema. I am glad I saw it on the big screen, because somehow the impact was stronger. Also, since the pace of the film is a bit slow, I Have a feeling that I might have gotten uneasy at some points; which didn’t happen at the movies. This is a film about a trans woman fighting for simple human respect in a world filled with hatred. Marina, is a waitress and an aspiring singer. She goes on a romantic dinner date with hr much older boyfriend Orlando, who also happens to be rich. Later that night, Orlando wakes up feeling very unwell. Unable to stand up, he collapses and falls down a staircase. Marina rushes him to a hospital, but Orlando dies, apparently from a brain aneurysm. This is where the trouble begins where the cops and Orlando’s family both suspect her for foul

Gay Short Films : 56

Antiman (Guyana) Anil, an introverted young boy, is pressured by his father to become a cricket player the way he himself was years before. Although a skilled player, Anil refuses to play and takes refuge in his love for Dano, an older boy in the village.  In order to attend the local masquerade and see the boy he pines for, Anil must win the cricket tournament. False Negative (Italy) Luca is a shy and insecure guy and is hard to get along with. He has a problem with gay people: he is always very uncomfortable with them. One night, in spite of himself, he will have to face the problem and confront once and for all with himself. Thirst (Israel) Two friends go on a hike to the desert. In the desolate wilderness something hidden comes out in their friendship. From then on, the only way they manage to communicate is sexually and violently. While one of them wants more than the other, he expresses his frustration by making sure they get lost and have no water - anything to escap

Driver (Thai)

Now, finally, a decent thriller with a gay theme. My last few attempts of watching a film with this genre has been terrible, so I was a bit nervous about this one. Actually to be honest, I did not even know that this was thriller when I started watching but pretty soon, it was obvious. For some reason, one thing that caught my attention in this film was the background music. Somehow it was just really good and perfect and went very very well with the film. I usually don’t even pay attention to such things but this was good. Businessman Tae has not returned from his Korea trip and this worries his wife Kade. She asks her police friend, Tum , to help her out but he advises her to wait for a few more days, because some work emergency may have had come up. But Kade is restless and can’t wait any longer so she asks her husband’s driver Mac to take her to his office to see if she can find something. There she finds an electricity bill for the house she never knows he had. Kade makes Mac

Geography Club

I don’t know why but I have been holding off to watching this film. Somehow the name did not seem  inviting enough for me to give it a chance. Finally I did and honestly it wasn’t that bad. Sure its a bit cliched and we have seen plenty of movies with similar theme about high school teenagers struggle with sexuality and coming out and what not, but even this film manages to hold on with its individual merit Russel and Gunnar are best friends since kids. But Russel has a secret. He is gay and can’t even bear to tell anyone since his father has high hopes from him. For his friend Gunnar’s sake , he goes on double dates but is very frustrated. But his dreams soon start to come true when after a few meetings, he gets into a secret relationship with the hot and hunky Kevin, the school’s quarterback. At their first kiss, their classmate Min sees them and invites Russel to join ‘Geography Club’ which essentially is a cover for clandestine LGBT club. Initially reluctant, Russel does join

The Passenger (German)

There are just a handful of thrillers in gay genre, and most of them are not even good. This film is sort of thrillers but not strictly in gay genre. Regardless, it is difficult to put this in either suspense thriller or psychological mind fuck. Actually if you look at the film as a whole, I don’t really get the point it is trying to make but anyway. more on that later. Within first few minutes after he kills one of his male lovers, our protagonist tells us how he is dealing with issues of lust and killing and he can’t control it. He comes as Nick to Berlin and rents a room from Philipp. Philipp loves his charm and good looks and also introduced him to his best friend Lily. Clearly both of them are charmed by Nick and at the same time Nick systematically seduces them both. Lily with his charm and love and Philip with his friendship, although clearly Philipp has feelings for him. Nick is also sad about this whole thing because even though he genuinely likes both of these folks, he

Nächte in Wilhelmsburg: Die Trilogie (German) [Night In Wilhelmsburg: The Trilogy]

This trilogy is actually a set of three interconnecting short sitcoms and was quite interesting to watch. Each of the story is placed an year after the previous one, so its essentially a growth of characters over a period of time. Wilhelmsburg is supposed to be Hamburg’s worst district, where a lot of immigrant population lives. Episode 1: Eine Nacht in Wilhelmsburg Martin, a budding actor, has a crush on Murat, who works in a video store, but doesn't know whether he's gay or not. One day Murat invites him over for dinner but Martin's buddy Christopher however is convinced, that Murat is a gay-basher as Murat lives in the worst part of Hamburg. Martin leaves Murat’s address with Christopher just in case. Love eventually finds its way between the couple but has a hilarious ending when the cops show up. Episode 2: The Lucio Fulci Experience Martin and Murat are going through a rough patch after being together for one year. Murat conspires with one of their friends to

&Me (English/ French/ German/ Spanish)

Oh god! Another one of those wanna be pretentious movies, where probably the film maker thinks that its the best damn movie ever made. Only if the wishes could come true. European movies have sometime gotten away with what some people call as “weird” or “different” kind of cinema but this film has such a poor story and screenplay that it is unbelievable. I have never seen a film where no work has gone in any sort of character development. Eduard, possibly gay, leaves his good life in Berlin to move to Brussels to take up a big bureaucratic position in EU parliament. His sister and his friends can’t fathom why. Around same time, Edurne, leaves her over protective mother’s home in Sitges and takes up an intern job in the same building. They have a chance meeting and they start hanging out and pretty quick Eduard asks Edurne to move in. They have a strange connection, while Eduard is still struggling with his sexuality. We see he hooks up with a guy when she is not around. Edurne enj

The Journey of Jared Price

Dustin Lance Black is the name that became famous, at least for me, after his phenomenal oscar winning speech for Milk. So, when I realized that this film was directed by the said man, my expectations were high, but, to be fair to the man, this film came much before Milk came and hence I had to give him some slack even in terms of expectations. The film is actually a simple yet vulnerable story of a young man's search for independence and sexual discovery; the people who he meets along this journey, the deceit, the loneliness and perhaps a chance to love. Young and very innocent 19 year old Jared arrives in LA from Georgia and books himself in a hostel. Jared’s room mate is hustler and he needs to use his room with clients often. Jared has no choice but to live with this arrangement. During one such time,, is when he meets Robert, openly gay, they become friends and even share a kiss but Jared is still an inexperienced man and doesn’t know what he wants. He soon finds a job as

Mango Souffle

Oh My God!! This film brings back all kinds of memories. This was the first-ever gay film that I saw in my life. I was doing my masters degree and hadn’t come to terms in accepting my sexuality. I used to love to watch independent films and went to the only local theatre, where this movie was playing. I din’t know what to expect, but I remember being slightly uncomfortable watching the film since it was my first exposure to the gay cinema and I was suddenly conscious of people around me and probably judging me. The movie ended and I went back to my room, had to make up stories for my room mates because I couldn't have told them what film I just saw. Thankfully, 16 years later, a lot has changed in my life and I am glad for everything. But watching this movie again was a reminder of what my growing up years were like and what I used to feel and go through. It just makes me more empathetic to other people’s struggles and stories. Ok enough of that, and now coming to this film. K