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Madfabulous (UK)

By Golu
Madfabulous retells the real story of Henry Cyril Paget, the fifth Marquess of Anglesey out in Wales, a guy who came back at the tail end of the 1800s to claim his aristocratic title, only for his over the top lifestyle to put him at odds with practically everyone around him. It's a genuinely gorgeous film to watch, worth checking out honestly just for the incredible outfits alone on its iconic queer lead. This version does stray from what actually happened growing up in his real life, but it still pulls in all the major chapters of his story and turns them into something visually rich and beautifully done. Nothing about his sexuality gets stated outright anywhere in the film, but it's pretty clear he's meant to read as queer, which should make this an easy watch for queer film fans. Back in the 1890s, Paget, the black sheep of his family, shows up in North Wales to take on his title as the fifth Marquess of Anglesey, and immediately shocks his uptight relatives with how mu...
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Pit Stop

By Golu
Not many films have focussed on the loneliness in a gay man's life. This loneliness is much more manifold if you are stuck in a small town Texas. Unfortunately, since the focus of the most of the film is on this aspect, it misses addressing some other fun important issues and fails to rise above getting sympathy for gay men in a small town in Texas.

The film follows parallel lives of 2 single gay men. Gabe lives with his daughter and ex-wife to support raising their daughter. They broke up after Gabe had an affair with a married man and it ended up badly. Neither seems superbly excited about any activity in other's love life but they both try to be supportive. Across town, we have Ernesto. He spends his evening take care of an old friend who is in coma after an accident. He recently broke up with his Boyfriend Luis, a younger guy but still lets him stay at the house till he finds a place. Soon his patience runs out when he sees that Luis is not even trying to find a place or find a job and he gives him just one day notice to move ou of the house. The 2 men are now even more lonely now. Their paths almost cross a few times, but they don't actually meet until fairly late in the movie. They go to the same places and work 100 ft away without even knowing each other. The 2 guys finally meet courtesy online website. The 2 guys meet, hang out and fall madly in love showing us how you can "move on" when you least expect it.

The pace of the film is slow but it demands it to portray the loneliness in the lives of the 2 men in their mid-thirties. The focus is on Gabe and Ernesto but everyone in the film is a real person with a story to tell. All are portrayed in a thoughtful and empathetic way with no one casually discarded for the sake of storytelling expediency. Even the interaction of Gabe with the school teacher is quite realistic where you feel sorry for the guys trapped in the town. This is a true character study of people finding their way in life and love and one cares about what will happen to them. A much as I understand the importance of establishing characters but it borderlines to boredom sometimes and this is when I wish the makes thought of maybe adding some pace or lighter or tense moments in the film. I have nothing against slow films, if you have been reading my blog regularly, but a little something more would have helped the film immensely. Acting by everyone is very good, above par than most shitty american gay films.

Its real, too real with characters that seem to jump off pages of real life. If you are a patient film-goer, you may actually be rewarded by something unexpected. (6/10)
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