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Showing posts from December, 2018

Our Fathers

By now, I have seen a few films on this subject: the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. All of them true and focusing on different part of the world. This, as a subject, will never go old and the more we talk about it, the more people need to know these stories. Interestingly, while I was watching the film, I realized that the context and setting is the same as that of movie 'Spotlight' which won the best film oscar a few years ago. This, made for TV movie, is shown from the perspective and lawyers and the church. The film is set in the time of Cardinal Law, who during his time in Boston apparently turned a blind eye to all the cases of child abuse and sexual abuse of young boys and continued to support the priests. We see a few very uncomfortable scenes where priests are seen molesting young boys. Primarily amongst these were Father John Geoghan, whose arrest in many years later starts to uncover all these hidden truth. The victims start to come forward, and a lawy

En Algun Lugar (English) [A Place To be]

Sometimes good intentions and ideas don't always translate into a gripping movie. Especially when you are trying to leave a very strong social message through the film, it becomes even more important to get a handle on the subject and where you are trying to go with it. The film tackles the main issue too late and only touches upon it in the surface. Diego has a chance encounter with Abel on the streets of Chicago. There is attraction but both men are shy. Eventually after two more unexpected meetings, they start dating. They have instant connection and soon they are meeting families and friends. But Diego seem to be hiding something. Being of Mexican descent, we see him facing racist slurs and hence he has become a man of strong opinions. The romance is at its peak when we find that Diego's mother is dying in Mexico. Diego, actually came to US when he was 6 years old and still after so many years is an undocumented illegal immigrant. Abel convinces him and joins him to go

Ein Leben Lang Kurze Hosen Tragen (German) [The Child I Never Was]

I have always enjoyed thrillers. And this one is about a serial killer in the 60s in Germany who was arrested for murder of at least 4 young boys and their sexual molestation. Partly told as taped confessions and partly as events recreation, this film gives us an insight in the minds of a notorious serial killer. Jürgen Bartsch, while recounting events on how and why he killed those boys, tells us that he was a loner as a child. When he is teen , he doscovers that he was adopted by his parents. They do not allow Jurgen to have friends, to socialize, to have any interests. When Jurgen begins to get in touch with his sexuality, they foster care him and seek professional advice for his sickness of homosexuality, after it is found that he beat and touched a neighbor boy. Jürgen Bartsch recounts events on how he almost fell in love with a boy whom he ran away with but almost also killed him under the train just because he would then be able to express his love. He is shocked by his own

The Secret Kiss (UK)

This film was a terrible waste of my time. I have seen many bad films as you can tell from this blog, but this film definitely joins one of the worse films in the gay genre. Ray is a loner who has recently been getting a lot of dreams where he sees masked men following him around in the woods. And surprisingly for whatever reasons, he decides to roam around the same woods during day time filming on his phone. He tells his shrink that he feels his death is near. He meets Paul, a mysterious guy in the same woods and they both get a liking for each other. Every time Ray finds Paul in the woods and then in morning he mysteriously disappears and of course Ray doesn't think anything of it. Then apparently it turns out that those masked figures are after bot those boys and the end of the film forms how they get freed from those masked figures and are united. The story and execution are both so so lame, that I cannot describe in words. The only saving grace about the film is that th

Hjartasteinn (Icelandic) [Heartstone]

This film is a story of teenage sexuality and teen angst in an idyllic Icelandic village. Agreed the film was stretched too much, for something that could have been shown in much less time but that doesn't take away the fact that it is an authentic and emotional look at growing up and becoming aware of your feelings, surroundings and sexuality. Thor and Christian are two pre-teen best buddies in an Icelandic fishing village where apparently everyone knows everyone's business. Its an idle summer and the two friends spend time playing, walking around, enjoying nature. Thor has a restless single mother and two intrusive older sisters, while Christian's volatile, homophobic father and mother are on the verge of a split. In between all this, they also try to flirt with 2 sisters but clearly Christian has very strong feelings for Thor, which he fails to see. Completely dejected by his surroundings, Christian decides to take his life. This is when Thor realizes about Christia

This Close (Web Series)

This is such an interesting 6 part series on Sundance Now. The fact that the two protagonists are deaf is both the whole point and completely beside it at the same time. And to top it, the actors who play the protagonists are actually the writers and stars and deaf in real-life makes it even more interesting. Sadly, I also fall in the category of people, like when our protagonist says “You focus on our disability, but not who we are.” Michael and Kate are best friends. Michael is a graphic book writer, who is trying to get over his breakup with his boyfriend Ryan. He is on a downward spiral, most often drunk and dealing with the writer's block and hence unable to come up with the idea of next book, there by risking his future and breach of contract. Kate is confident, sparky young girl, who works at a PR firm. Her boyfriend Danny has just proposed her. Michael is not a huge fan of Danny but Kate wants them to work through. We later find out why Michael broke up with Ryan and n