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Showing posts from January, 2020

A Closer Walk With Thee

This was a very unusual queer film. A random mix of religion, questioning sexuality and exorcism. And at many places it was unexpected comical (not in a funny way). 4 bible thumping young people are trying to bring the Lord into the lives of people in the ghetto. The lead is Eli with Jordan and 2 girls. Jordan is totally fixated with Eli and we see how he is constantly aroused by his physical presence as well. One of the girls catches Jordan masturbating watching Eli and this creates weirdness in the group, with everyone calling hime a 'pervert'. But things start getting worse when their home gets attacked by the goons. Now, in addition to a local woman, Jordan slowly starts showing signs of demonic possession. Luckily, Eli is a self proclaimed exorcist and he’s ready to do battle with the sinister entity residing inside his friend… but not even faith can protect him from the true evil found within. I am not sure what I was really expecting from the film. I thought it wo

District

I am not very sure what was the whole point of this film. It was all over the place. Although it does reflect various themes like friendship, love, loyalty, sacrificing one's morality for money, Mother/Son relationship etc. Miller is a 20-ish young gay black man whose mother in prison for his father's attempted murder. There are a few scenes between mother-son that don't add much to the story. Miller is looking for a job and is in a weird physical relationship with another young street boy named Jay. Jay occasionally comes over for food and some sex. Miller is hired for some 'construction job' buy local goons. Even though he is warned by Jay to not trust those guys, Miller desperately needs money and hence takes the job but it has repercussions since those goons have more than vested interest in the deal. The film just goes back and forth, with continuous sex between Jay and Miller and then as random the movie started, it comes to a sudden end. This film is a

Dead Boyz Don't Scream

This film is not a gay film at all but given that in almost half of the film you see all males, full naked with their penises flopping around, I don't think anyone else besides the gay audience would be even remotely interested in the film. And trust me, their is a penis in pretty much every single frame. Chris along with his 2straight male model friends get invited by a a photographer for a cowboy shoot. But as per their agent Tess, they shouldn't do any nude modeling yet. Same night Chris' sister Callie is in town and the 2 other friends along with photographer's assistant party that night. Callie starts having sex with 3 of them but changes her mind. Eventually the assistant is pushed off the roof. To keep the models out of any controversy, their agent Tess asks them to go for the cowboy photoshoot. Surprisingly, the killings continue and one by one people start to die there as well. First the 2 other male models, then the blonde gay couple, then the photographe

Gay Short Films : 69

Roosa Kampsun (Estonia) [Pink Cardigan] Henrik is a successful actor and comedian. In his private life he is lonely and insecure, struggling with adulthood. He is not homophobe but somehow circumstances always portray him to be one. When he joins yoga and makes a gay friend, will he end up losing him? Hurt (Singapore) Explores the theme of rejection, acceptance & hurt with the underlying theme of cheating in a relationship which seems to be the norm in the gay community. I Go To School Not By Bus (Hong Kong) A coming out of age story of 2 secondary school students who study in a Christian school. Ming, is in closet and Hei is openly gay., It is a story of self-discovery, struggle through love, loneliness & religion. Do You, Andy? (Taiwan) Andy is about to propose to his boyfriend but his parents walk into the restaurant, throwing him entirely. The foursome eat together and by the end Andy's parents let him know they accept him and his boyfriend. Life Of S

Socket

What a lame idea for a film! Get high on electricity and use that to your advantage/disadvantage. The makers probably thought that this going to redefine thriller genre but OMG! it was pretty bad. Right from the story and screenplay to the acting, everything was pretty bad with no explanations given on why anything , at all, is happening. Dr. Bill wakes up in the hospital because a lot of electricity passed though him, but he should be ok now barring few nerve damages. Hot intern Murphy who has been taking care of him wants him to join a self-help group to get over the incident. Things are odd at home where his TV doesn't run anymore. His lesbian friends try to help him but no use. Bill eventually shows up to the self help meeting where people share the horrible story of getting electrocuted and how this group eventually 'saved' them. The group joins hand and connects themselves to a generator where electricity passes through them and Billy finds himself naked in bed w

Unsolved Suburbia

A so called gay mystery 'whodunnit' thriller, this film is so all over the place. This film was so low budget and amateurish that I wonder if this was some sort of a college project or something. Otherwise I would really fail to understand why someone would back this film. On paper the ides might have been good but execution and screenplay was downright bad. We hear the narration of the film by Marty's voiceover. He is best friends with Jake who looks obviously gay but says he is straight. He is the source of all news of what's happening around. Marty is bisexual and has a boyfriend and a girlfriend. New travel that their friend Thomas has gone into hiding because his boyfriend Eddi has been shot dead and now police suspects Thomas of foul play. With help from Marty, Thomas helps discover the 2 rival street gan leaders (one of them, Angel, who also happen to be Eddi's brother) might be involved. When police arrests Angel, Marty helps them uncover truth. Back ho

Aya Arcos (Portuguese)

It is very evident that this film was made on a shoe string budget. Also the film is set in the run-down parts of the Rio city which is more poor than seedy, and where old man paying for sex with young hookers is par for the course. To be honest, the direction and the treatment of the film felt a bit amateurish to me. No wonder, later I realized that this was the first film by its director. Middle age successful writer EduFalls for young and charming prostitute Fabio. Surprisingly the feelings are reciprocated. Edu is going through a writer's block while Fabio on the other hand is young and carefree and spends his time hustling, hanging out with his other young friends. Edu resents the fact that Fabio doesn't seem to care in the world. Also Edu constantly worries that since they are having unprotected sex and Fabio sleeps around, they are risking themselves. Surprisingly Edu comes out positive but Fabio is negative. This adds more tension to the relationship coupled with t

Downriver (Australia)

By now I have a seen a few Australian dramas and films that follow the pattern of small mystical town where characters are mysterious, motives questionable and sometimes there is also some sort of sexual exploitation. This film has a nice premise on its hands but in my opinion is let down by a weak screenplay. It is so much all over the place, that its hard to keep a track of everything that goes on, and especially frustrating when the movie just ends and you have to spend next 30 minutes trying to decipher what actually might have happened. James returns from juvenile prison where he was convicted of drowning a boy whose body was never recovered. He bids a tender farewell to his cellmate and lover and joins his mother who is reluctant to have him back in his life. James' uncertainties concerning the boy's death are made worse by his having blacked out at the time due to an epileptic seizure. He goes back to the area where the incident happened and begins questioning peopl

The New 30 (Web Series)

Gay web series are an in thing these days. The creators of this series in an interview mentioned that they noticed lack of content about gay men in their 40s and their issues in life. According to them, unlike the popular belief that by 40 one has figured out what they want from their life, there are many folks out there who are still struggling as if they were in their 30s. The 6 episode series follows Elliot and his diverse group of friends as they navigate their 40s and discover that life isn’t quite what they expected it to be. Elliott is still living with his ex for about a year now. He cheated on him with a guy called Diego, who incidentally shows up as the date of his best friend Reid. This trio goes through ups and down over the episodes on especially when Elliot and Diego get back together thereby breaking Reid's heart. We also meet another gay couple Preston & Aaron who have been together for a while and are thinking of getting married. They are looking looking t

Macho (Spanish)

My first thoughts were that this film was a reverse gay comedy but as the film progressed, I felt that it kept getting more and more confused. Was it a farce, a wannabe comedy, a satire or just a comment on social expectations. What started off initially as fun, the handling of the gay portions of the film felt so regressive, which is completely unacceptable given the film came out in 2016 in Mexico. Evaristo is a famous fashion designer of women's clothing. Apparently he used his gay-ness o gain more popularity than his actual designs. We soon find out that even though physically he comes out as very effeminate, he is not actually gay. In fact he uses this perception to his advantage to hook up with women. He is getting a documentary done on him to record his creative process. As there are threats to his prospective empire, his partner suggests that he bring a man in his life and hence he forces himself to date the handsome office boy Sandro (a handsome gay man recovering fro

Urbania

This film had received amazing reviews all over and I believe has also won multiple international film festivals. Naturally my expectations were high, and sadly they were not met. A non-linear format of story telling needs a lot of patience and somehow after 30 minutes into the film, I completely lost interest and was barely able to finish through the film. Charlie is no longer with his boyfriend Chris. He prowls on the streets (either hallucinating or with dreams) of manhattan looking for a man he saw several months earlier.  harlie has other encounters with men who care but he finally meets Dean, who is unabashedly racist, sexist and homophobic. Nevertheless, Charlie, pretending to be straight, buys Dean drinks and smokes a joint with him. Dean takes Charlie to a gay cruising area looking for victims, but Charlie is able to warn away the intended target. We soon find out that  Dean and his buddies had murdered Chris several months ago in a hate crime and Charlie is here to take

Boys On Film 19: No Ordinary Boy

Wow! This is the 19th film in this series. It sure has come a long way. As the last in its teenage years, we take a look at those unique boys; Boys who will go one step further, who excite, invigorate, and always impress. Boys who break boundaries, shape their worlds and are more than what they appear to be. Michael Joseph Jason John (USA) A single man imagines how life might be with a mysterious stranger he picks up on the New York City subway. A romantic thriller exploring one-night stands and the inherent thrill and risks of our hook-up culture. Maacher Jhol (India) [The Fish Curry] Having decided to come out to his parents, Lalit spends the day cooking his father’s favourite dish, Maacher Jhol. He pours his heart and soul into the meal before serving his father the delicious fish curry, but will his dish be more palatable than his confession. The film is in an animated format. Blood Out Of A Stone (UK) Because first impressions matter Michael sets Dan a challenge on the