Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Not until I read a couple of reviews online did I realize that this movie was supposed to b a spoof on how the daily soaps are directed with sudden breaks, quick scenes between characters that flash on and off the screen, actors that are attractive despite being unable to demonstrate even the basics of the art of acting; situations over the top just to keep the plot from sinking into the absurd. The story of the film is simple. Millionaire victoria Gaylord is celebrating her 10th anniversary with Francis Gaylord. She is throwing a big party but is at the same time struggling with her illness. She faints at the party which is later cancelled. Francis calls Dr Bender who starts arguing to him about her best interestes. Victoria's adopted daughter Cynthia comes in to visit with her homophobic husband Philip, who all he does is work out in the gym. Philip does not want to go because he does not want to get hit on by Nicholas, Cynthia's brother. Victoria has had strained relations...

I can makeup my mind whether I liked this movie or not. Actually I did not like the movie but to what extent I did not like it, I am not sure. Hopefully by the time I am done with writing this review, I would know. Xabi, Driss and Joel run away from a jail for minors. They are all 17 year olds. They travel to Madrid. Xabi is looking for his friend Lika, a very old man. Their relationship is not very clear. He just keeps referring to him as a friend. On their trip to Madrid, they meet 2 girls. Joel hooks up with one of them and on reaching Madrid starts living with them. The other fatty girl likes Driss, an Arab guy but he wants to help Xabi with his search for his friend. Xabi hooks up with an old cop and steals his pistl. He wants to become a terrorist because we figure that this is what Lika was doing. Lika and Xabi were actually in a relationship which breaks when Xabi finds out that Lika is training for terrorism. Xabi wants to please Lika , so he tries to make a bomb and create a ...

I am so glad I saw this film. I am not a big fan of films based on lesbian theme but I had to definitely watch this one because of the fact that it had Indian actors and somehow the synopsis sounded interesting. And true to all of these things, this film turned out to be my favorite among all the films that I saw in the festival. The fim is set in South Africa in 50s when apartheid was at its peak. The story primarily revolve around an Indian family. Omar is married to Miriam. They move from Cape Town to suburbs because situation is not very good in the city because of discrimination and other things. Omar is not he best husband. He is cheating on Miriam with his brother's wife and Miriam knows it but doesn't do anything about it. They have 3 kids. Miriam is silently observing and accepting everything. On the other hand we have Amina, another Indian girl who i a trend setter. She wears pants, runs a cafe with black and indian people an raises her voice for injustice. She is h...

The same thing happens so many times. The film's synopsis makes you so excited about the film that after when you have actually seen the film, its nothing but a major disappointment.  This film is a story of high school friends, Mark, Jasper, and Lily, who reunite one Halloween for a night of good cheer. Memories of an unspoken sexual past between the two boys come back to haunt them as night turns to day and each must confront his or her own fears and beliefs. What may have been typical teen experimentation at the time is now an obstacle to continued friendship. They are joined by Mark's friend Caleb. Jasper is a quiet guy and we are watching the film through his perspective where he is writing a letter to his fiance about what happened the halloween night. So when they have had enough of the maddening crowd, they try to walk to less secluded place where they could go to some house party or something. Mark has strong feelings for Jasper because a year ago him and Jasper had ma...

Another short feature and another impressive direction. Although I might not totally buy into the concept. Mark And Jeremy are a couple. Mark is soon moving to US from Australia and they have just 10 more hour to send with each other and then quite possibly break up for life. The film shows heir interaction in their hot apartment, time spent with friends, trying to please each other by having sex, doing crazy things. Jeremy is very upset that Mark is leaving him and Mark is upset by antics that Jeremy is playing to amuse him. Soon its time for Mark to go. But within these 10 hours itself things have change so much that they probably would have broken up anyways. See the story does not make too much sense. It was all about interaction between a couple before they part their way. This was just one another facet of the society. I applaud director but I dont agree with the whole thing. Little more description and characterization would have helped. A decent watch. A new experiment. (4.5/10...

The good thing about this festival is that I am getting to watch these short films which I would have neevr thouht of watching but its good fun. This Norwegian film was no less interesting. Friends Hampus (straight) and Bjorn (gay) move into their new flat as roommates and celebrate by having a playful romp on the couch . They are very comfortable with each other and viewer gets confused that maybe both are gay. At night , Hampus wants to o out to pick girls but when Bjorn refuses , he offers to go to a gay bar with him but still gets rejected. Bored alone Bjorn leaves a funny and playful message to Hampus. Soon Hampus starts bringing a girlfriend home and things are not same now. Several nights later, Hampus comes home piss drunk and opts to sleep in Bjorn's bed. Bjorn slips in as well and ends up jerking off his friend. We have realized by then that Bjorn has secret desires for Hampus. Needles to say that a wonderful friendship that existed goes wrong by Hampus declaring in the e...

I went for this movie at the very last minute. There were Sold Out boards everywhere. I got in after I finally got the ticket and boy was I disappointed. The theatre had quite a few seats empty and the film was at least not my cup of tea. Abandoned by his father and raised by his single mother, Debbie, Nate Merritt joins the Marines to support his soon-to-be fiancée, Trish. While on leave in Palm Springs he meets Andy, a magnetic, seemingly free-spirited young gay man with dreams of escaping to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Andy has still not gotten over his ex-love and he looks for him in every single guy he meets. Though the bond between the two men is initially platonic, the nature of their relationship unavoidably shifts into something physical and intimate. It turns out that Andy has a baby boy and its time that Andy accepts his responsibility. Nate has always wanted to know about his father but always got weird answers from his mother. Unexpectedly, by delving deeply withi...

The drama takes place over 24 or so hours in the life of 7 (or maybe 8) gay or bisexual men and youths. Different story lines are juggled and the various characters find their lives engaging with others - often by the most spurious and improbable of coincidences. I will try to sum up what I remember. Will and Gavin are getting married after gay marriages became legal. Their waiter Alfie gets Will's attention and Will tries to get in his pants. Will resists but doesn't wrk. WIll gives him his number and his ring. That night Alfie goes to a bar. Terry hits on him but Alfie ignores him. Later that night Terry goes with a guy but ends up hitting and beating him bad. 14 year old Theo who is just discovering his sexuality is waiting for his parents to go to a party so that he can masturbate while watching his neighbor Tim whom he has occasionally seen in the library. Tim is rumored to be a pedophile. Robin, a screenwriter being rejected an offer of a gay film goes to a public bathro...

A comic flare in the movies is always welcome. But sometimes title of the film gets misleading. You might expect something totally different after reading the title of the movie, but you dont get it. That does not mean the film does not deliver. Its gives you more than what you expected. Its funny, its lovable, its something you can identify with. Wolfgang is a 50 something salesman who's is arrogant, self absorbed, humorless and very inattentive and insensitive to his wife Erika and his son Karsten. When he's caught driving with a suspended license, Wolfgang abruptly cancels the planned study-abroad trip Karsten had saved for, demanding the boy instead spend the next weeks chauffeuring him around to his appointments as a women's clothing sales rep. The clothes he sells are suddenly being edged out by cheap and more fashionable clothes being sold by a rival salesman, Steven. By sheer coincidence, Karsten and Steve meet and sparks fly with both unknown of their relation wit...

I am starting to like this whole concept of short movies. Sometimes they turn out to be better stories maybe because of the sheer fact that the director doesn't try to stretch out things beyond a certain point. Danilo and Marcus are boyfriends and one day Danilo asks Marcus to move in with him as soon as he leaves his parents house. Wen he reaches home, his parents are dead and he nw has the sole responsibility of his younger brother Lucas. It seems Danilo had no idea about what Lucas likes and what he doesn't. He starts trying his best to be a father figure to him. Now that he has so much responsibility, he spends more time with Lucas and less time with Marcus. Marcos occasionally joins Danilo and Lucas but always feel that Lucas comes in between them though he understands the intentions of the small kid. One day Marcos picks up Lucas from chool and they chi chat. Lucas tells him that he likes Marcos and he knows he is Danilo's boyfriend. Earlier Danilo and Marcos had plan...

From the previews that I read, this one seemed to be an interesting film, but somehow I was not able to identify with the film. At the end of the film, the question that I had in my mind was what was the exact story that the director was wanting to tell. Somehow I think thats where the director missed the pulse of the audience. Ricky is a houseboy with a couple Simon and DJ. Its been a year since he has been with the couple. The couple leaves for Christmas to visit their family and Ricky is left alone. We soon realize that Ricky is very alone in his life. Ever since he came out to his mom, his family does not want to have anything to do with him. Its christmas week , with celebrations all over and Rick is all alone. He decided to commit suicide and leave his body for Simon and Dj as a gift. During this period, he has a few sexual encounters with about 3-4 people. After sex, he asks everyone of them that would they care or do anything if they know that Ricky would commit suicide on chr...

One of my friends had seen this movie and he was praising this movie endless so obviously my expectations from the movie had raised quite a bit. And thats where the problem started. Going into a movie with lots of expectations just kills it. I wished I had not heard about the movie. I am pretty sure I would have liked it much better. A real estate agent is looking to buy property in boystown and is trying to make the area as most beautiful , posh and liveable area. He knows these kind of areas are big hit specially with gay couples. To do this he has to buy certain apartments which actually belong to old ladies. He gives them a good price option but none of them want to sell their home. So he starts killing the old ladies. Meanwhile there is this odd couple Ray and Leo. They are awkward, not physically fit, never care about their appearance, maybe dumb but are very happy with themselves. Their neighbor gets killed by the real estate agent and Rey and Leo are prime suspects specially af...

I am so glad I am watching these films in the film festival. So many new concepts and ideas and the fact that they are actually executed well makes me feel so good and happy. I sometimes feel that I should somehow be a part of all this. The film is a modern day gay drama about falling in and out of love. Sometimes you can think that everything is going in favor of you until some unseen forces come to destroy your life. Kyle and Marcel fall in love the instant they see each other. They are so perfect for each other. Since they cannot marry and live together legally, the french Marcel gets married to his lesbian friend Sara so that he can live with Kyle. Everything seems to be just so perfect and then enters April, Kyle's sister ( a transsexual and a prostitute). She has instant disliking for Marcel and soon we realize that her aim is to break this wonderful love that Kyle and Marcel share. She starts poisoning their life slowly and methodically. Marcel can clearly see what an why A...

So my tryst with the film festival continues with this film. I liked the film but it still bothers me that why was the film named so. Except for a reference when one of the characters mentions that she wants to go to Antarctica, there was nothing else about it. Anyways, I should stop caring and rather write about the film. The film starts with a guy bringing different men every night in his apartment. Every man has shown to be with some peculiar features. After first five minutes the film moves 3 years and starts showing life of few people in the city of Tel Aviv some of whom eventually turn out to be men whom this character sleeps with. Omer, a young guy soon to turn 30 works as a librarian and is looking for his love. He meets Danny for a blind date which goes well but he thinks that Danny is too young for him. Danny lives with Ronen, his ex-boyfriend who is a journalist and often visits the library. Omer and Ronen have noticed each other. Then we have Shirley, Omer's little sist...

Another Gay Movie was one of the funniest movies I had seen with a buddy of mine. Wen I saw about the sequel, my curiosity was sky rocket but I was a little disappointed. Firstly I saw it in the film festival and the projector there is just not good. Secondly this time the performances and even the story idea seemed a little too over the top.  Andy, Nico, Jarod and Griff are back and ready for action in a big way with a sun- and fun-drenched excursion to Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break. After a bumpy ride, they eventually reach and start enjoying vacation. They enter the Gay gone wild contest which obviously is about who gets laid the most. Griff and Jarod are struggling with their relationship and are not sure whether they should enter the contest or not. They decide that they should but eventually turns out that they can't. Andy wants to get laid desperately but ends up meeting this hot Cuban guy who is full of love and romance instead. Nico is just not getting anyone's atten...

I am still confused whether I liked or not liked the movie. It was a good concept. Even the acting was not bad. The execution was very very different and at some places the film just dragged on and on. I am usually open to new ways of film making but this one was a little too different. The story is about a family and on day in particular in their lives and how they are not what their family thinks. The son has to appear for an exam which he does not. Instead he wanders around after meeting his friends and ends up going to some sex booth where he encounters some guy. The guy seduces the son but eventually leaves him high and dry. This frustrates the son and this is his story. Then we see how the father (a cop) is sitting at the train station talking to his daughter. Next he helps a woman with her luggage to her apartment and they try and start seducing but mid way the father just gives up and leaves. The audience in the meantime is very confused. The story of the mother is that of a ve...

My first film in the Philadelphia GL film festival and I am so glad I started the festival with this film. There are always expectations when one watches a film and it definitely turns out to be a pleasant experience sometimes. For records, Mulligans is a term in golf when a second chance is given. And the film is based around this statement. One summer Tyler brings home his best buddy Chase for the summer. He has his parents Nathan and Stacey and a very young sister Birdy. Both Nathan and Stacey are young. We are told that Tyler was from a teen pregnancy. Chase and Tyler are best of buddies and love hanging out. They are here to work for summers in the golf course and Chase gets a warm reception at Tyler's house. We feel that there is some sort of tension going on between Stacey and Nathan but never know exactly what because they are always in the process of depicting a perfect family portrayal. This is till the time Chase comes out to Tyler. After the initial shock that Tyler has...

Its time I think to start reviewing some short films. My first short film barely lasting 13 minutes, but it was very impressive. The story is simple, well edited and to the point. Darren and Connor are 2 star crossed lovers bound by blood. They are brothers. Right from first scene where Darren saves Connor in swimming pool as a kid, we realize that they share a special relationship. Film progresses to present day and the boys find themselves struggling for emotions and love they feel for each other. They realize that the world is never going to understand the love that they share. The ending just breaks your heart. Their parents find out and Daren and Connor run away form home. They know they can't live without each other and the world would never understand their relationship. They commit suicide. I guess the message that the director tried to tell was that love can come in the most unexpected ways. Connor and Darren love story is sweet, tender and sad, oh so sad, but not a bad k...