Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

I am finding myself having seen a very similar subject recently. There have been a lot of “coming-out” stories and many film makers are trying to attempt something different with what can be easily termed as “coming-in” story. We have seen many straight man turning gay, so why not explore the reverse affect where a gay man can turn straight. I personally don’t believe in this but what the hell, I am all up for exploring the subject for a film, especially when it is dealt with a bit of humour. Jeremy finds himself waking up with a girl clearly remembering that they had sex. He is super confused because he has been living a very happy life with his boyfriend Antoine of 10 years. In fact they are even planning to get married. Jeremy’s family adores and loves Antoine. Not knowing anyone to turn to, he reaches out to his best friend Charles with whom he also runs his business abut consulting reports. Jeremy can’t get Adna, the swedish girl he slept with, out of his mind and this has af...

En El Mismo Equipo (Argentina) [On The Same Team] A young rugby player is trying to keep in the secret that he is gay, due to conformity mostly, but he struggles with it almost everyday. He longs to be free, but what exactly is freedom to the young man? He isn’t so sure himself. Good. Particularly Now, In Spring (Belgium) This is a film about the dreams you have when you are young. A seventeen year old boy reveals his life philosophy of idealism, unity and friendship amongst his mates in the sports club. Yawn ! Góðir Gestir (Iceland) [Family Reunion] New York artist Katrin struggles to come out to her relatives back in Iceland. She is struggling every minute at the family reunion about how her family is going to react. But when a very senior member whose birthday they have got together for reveals that he is gay and has decided to live with his partner together challenges all her assumptions. Things are going to be ok for her after all. Very good. Saint (Belgium) The sto...

Just finished watching 2 seasons this Australian TV Show and I absolutely loved it. Its quirky hour but that resonated with me. Th geeky, nerdy, awkward dialogues and situations is something right up my alley. An excellent take on a man’s quarter life crisis, its charming, real and extremely funny. Sure season 2 doesn’t live unto the enormous expectations that season 1 created but nonetheless it is still really good. Just in time for his 21st birthday, Josh gets dumped by his girlfriend, kisses a man for the first time, and learns that his mom, Rose, tried to commit suicide. He lives with his best friend Tom of many years who is dating this girl who totally uses him. Claire forms the trio of this friendship group and is the girl whom Josh dated. Geoffrey is the man whom Josh kisses and soon they start dating. Meanwhile since Josh’s mother’s attempted suicide, he has to start living with her to take care since she is divorced. But Josh’s father, who is now dating May, an asian girl...

What the fuck was this documentary. It was painful and embarrassing. I am all about “more power to indie film-makers”, but I think this one totally missed the boat unless I am the only odd man out who thinks this way. The story is about Jon and Daniel. Daniel’s father has just passed away and is in his hometown while Jon updates us about whats going in their lives. They are a bit of unhappy couple and are trying to deal with their issues. Jon is bipolar and Daniel is recovering alcoholic (perfect!). Daniel comes back after 2 weeks and then we hear his side of story , his past and where the couple is currently according to him. There is some more blabbering and by then I have completely lost interest in them. The film ends with the couple telling us thatchy have decided to go with long distance relationship since Daniel will move with his mom and Jon is not ready to move with him because he has a life. First of all, when these are such trying times in their life; one has lost his f...

Boulevard is a movie about choosing truth, regardless of how many years may have been lost to a lie. Watching Robin Williams film attempt a very serious role was one of the reasons that got me attracted to watch this film. Most coming-out films talk about youth but this one is different because certain events in his life trigger the changes that lead to our main protagonists accepting the truth about himself. Nolan, in his sixties, is a married man with a very routine & monotonous life. His days are spent in bank and at home his relationship with his wife is more of companions. They sleep in different rooms. He has a best friend Winston whom he occasionally spends time with. His father is in a care house and is dying. One night while driving home after visiting his father he accidentally runs into a gay hooker and befriend him. He starts confronting his closeted homosexuality. The young guy is Leo, who doesn’t mind spending just time with Nolan, listening to what he has to tal...

I am not sure what category does this film fall into. The film came out in 1999 and focuses on the central character of a gay middle aged professor. A mix of psychological drama, sexual bramble. It also has a few parallel stories going on and how the lives of some of these people intertwine with each other. By the way, the poster of the film is quite misleading. This film is definitely not a sleaze fest. Jaume is a middle aged professor who is dying (we don’t know of what). His best friend os fellow university friend Pere, who Jaume loved all his life but is now his best friend. Here has a lovely wife and a 19 year old daughter, who has just found out that she is pregnant. The child is of David, a rebel-without-a-cause kind of college student. Pere hates David while Jaume thinks that he is one of the most brilliant students, albeit a rebel and Jaume finds himself falling in love with David. He is shocked when he finds out that David actually hustles as a male prostitute to make mo...

This was a weird film to understand. I tried hard and wanted to understand and was hoping that something logical will come out of it but unfortunately it didn’t. It doesn’t mean that film was bad or story was odd. The problem according to me is the way the treatment was done of the film. Constant flashbacks and pretty much no explanation of anything that happened in the past just adds to more confusion. Having to write the synopsis now itself is a task because that will completely depend on what my understanding of the film was. By the way, also it is not really a gay film. It might be gay interest because of Clemen's character but thats it. Leo is Sugar, Clemens is Orange. Together, they are two ten-year-old boys who are inseparable, really close friends. Cut to current day, when Leo is all grown up, running a club and has jus stated a romantic relationship with Lena who turns his feelings upside down and awakens his inner child, the one still searching for unconditional frie...

This Taiwanese film is more about political movement than a gay film, per say.  Set in 1980s Taiwanese sociopolitical reformation movement, it just happens to have a gay character who is also very central to the plot. Interestingly according to the director, he wanted to focus on freedom and in fact both politics and homosexuality represent that theme. I may not necessarily agree with him. But at least that gives an insight into his idea behind making this film. Starting in 1985, we are introduced to three Taiwan high-schoolers Mabel, Liam and Aaron. All of them are activists rebelling against the martial law during the turbulent period of 1980s Taiwan. On the personal side, Mabel loves Liam a lot, but Liam doesn't really have a feeling for her. So she ends up falling in love with Aaron instead, who constantly pursues her once Liam tells him that she is not his girlfriend. Liam, in the meantime, is actually a closeted homosexual who's been longing for Aaron. Another few ye...

This was a very interestingly done documentary-drama that depicts the social scene that revolved around Der Kreis (The Circle), a gay publication in Zurich, in the 1940s and 1950s. The magazine was published from 1932 to 1967 and distributed internationally and was also used as a scapegoat for the murders of several gay men in the city. The docudrama primarily focusses on relationship of Ernst Ostertag and Röbi Rapp, which is told through documentary interviews with this sweet elderly couple and a conscientious dramatization of their courtship in the 1950s. The Circle, is not a magazine but is also a gay community within itself. This is during the time when things in Zurich were a bit more lenient compared to anywhere else in the world. This is where Ernst and Robi meet. Ernst is a girls high school teacher while Robi is the main drag act performer for the club’s ball parties. We see how the two lovers meet and their story goes forward. Things are done in secrecy but it is still i...

It was so embarrassing to watch this show. You know how sometimes the directions so flat, the interactions between the actors are awkward and hard to interpret and some sex is thrown in just for the sake it; this show is full of these cliches. I really would love to know what the actors think of this show if they were to watch all of the episodes in a marathon run. Sure, we have seen bad acting and direction before as well and it could also be pardonable to a certain extent, but these flaws are too in your face to be ignored in this series. DLTA stands for Downtown Los Angeles, where the show is based in. The show is focussed around 4 so called couples, their lives and interactions. The central characters are Lenny and Bryan. Lenny makes good money but Bryan has no job and now they have to sell their downtown apartment because they can’t afford it. Bryan doesn’t even have any prospective jobs or is even looking for it, which makes Lenny piss and is starting to affect the relations...

I am enjoying my time watching all kinds of short films. Like previous series, this one  surprises and delights with 10 new short films, exploring relationships, dark desires and confronting hidden secrets. As expected this one also turns out to be a mixed bag of sorts. Surprise (USA) After misbehaving at school it s time for young Jack to confess to his mother, but the solution to his problem is not like anything he could have imagined. This time its the mother who maybe has a surprise for her son. Boygame (Sweden) Best friends John and Nicolas aren t confident about having sex with girls, so to avoid embarrassment; they decide to get some practice on each other. This is one of the best portrayals of interactions between 2 boys trying sex with each other for the first time without being awkward or guilty. Caged (Netherlands) Read review here Vis-à-Vis (Australia) When a government official comes to inspect Richard and Martin’s relationship for visa approval, it is c...

I had been waiting for this volume for such a long time. It had been a long break. As in other series, there is a theme that is followed. This volume exposes private lives, uncover secrets and present a choice - to conceal or to confess? Duration wise these stories are quite short and hence, overall is not a tiring watch at all. After a disappointing last 2 series, this one is a welcome break. Home From The Gym (USA) An unnamed, sexy man comes home, alone and starts to undress. The male form put forward in all its nudity, sexiness, full front and centre. What’s the point o the film? Don’t ask me. :) Showboy (Australia) A young football player, Julian Maxwell, finds himself struggling to support his unemployed, recently widowed father while fighting to keep safe the secret he once shared with his mother: He's not only gay, but performs a drag act in a local bar. Very good. Cruise Patrol (Netherlands) An animation film, this one explores what happens on a long and dusty r...

This film has his heart in the right place and could have been a very good film. Unfortunately it fails very short of that feat. The biggest problem with the film is lack of consistency. It never focusses on one single issue. The makers have tried to fit in every possible issue that needs to be addressed or talked about and in the process, any of those fails to register. Our main protagonist doesn’t get any space to explore all the issues that he is dealing with. Randy, a 17 year old choir boy keeps having these wet dreams about making out with his fellow male singer and also a good friend. He is a devout of Jesus and prays everyday. But this is not the only issue. He lives with his mother who split up with his father after mysterious disappearance of their 5 year old daughter and now the mother is mentally not so stable. Fortunately Randy’s friends are all sweethearts and warmly embrace the possibility of him being gay, but it is he who keeps rejecting the notion. He ends up also...

13 Ans (France ) [My 13] Jonathan is in love with Julie, the most beautiful girl of his school. However, Julie doesn't even know him. He becomes friend with Charles, Julie's brother. One day, he sneaks in Julie's room to steal her diary and finds a drawn heart, with the quote "I love Jonathan". He is overjoyed until he finds out the diary is not Julie’s but it is of Charles. A refreshing and sensible short film. Message Sent (USA) Michael Collins has a perfect set of friends and life as a teenager including a girlfriend. Except for the fact that he is gay and wants to come out. He decides to send an email describing truth about himself to all his friends. A Cuestas Con Mis Padres (Spain ) [Nowhere Without My Parents] Ever since Pedro confessed to his parents his sexual status, unable to remove it from the head, even he imagined his parents in the most embarrassing situations, like his parents telling him what to do and how to do when all he wants is a ...

Sometimes you just want to watch a film for escapism, to have a smile on your face, and to not have to think too much about the complications of life. The director Eytan Fox is known to have delivered some really hard-hitting but good gay Israeli cinema, so this film is also a huge change for him. A musical comedy, this film is charming, simple and good fun to watch. Every year 6 friends get together to watch UniverSong contest on TV, an ode to EuroVision. This year should be no different. The group of friends include middle-aged baker Anat, whose husband has recently left her;  gay schoolteacher Ofer, who likes to entertain his kindergarten class by performing musical numbers in drag; shy blogger Keren, whose interactions with the world are primarily online;  lesbian singer/songwriter Efrat, whose career is limited to coffee shops; former beauty pageant winner turner lawyer Yael; and repressed Dana, who works as an aide to a conservative female politician. But today is t...

Throughout watching this film, i kept being reminded of one of my all time favourite christmas films ‘The Family Stone’. I don’t know why but it kept feeling that this film was a wannabe ‘Family Stone’. There were lot of similarities, which I don’t know were incidental or on purpose but regardless I couldn’t help but subconsciously compare the two films. That doesn’t take away from the merits of this film at all. I would also like to mention that this film is not a gay-themed film at its core. One of the main characters happens to be gay and his short story line is just part of the main story. The film is about a wealthy family’s gathering over a labour day weekend  at their beautiful stone home on Lake Tahoe. Mom and Dad have decided to sell their home but have nettled anyone. Painstakingly, the mother has prepared and panned for entire weekend and wants to make it special. They have 2 sons. One of the sons, Theo, has just been fired from his job with a financial firm over an...

There are very few films or documentaries from India that touch upon the subject of queer-ism. So I alway forward to anything that comes out. This documentary delves into human rights violation and lives that got affected because of Section 377. Although the maker ays that its his personal journey, I disagree. We actually don’t see anything personal about him. But what we do see and hear is much more dreadful and real and scary. Travelling across various parts of the country and talking to various individuals over a period of seven years. We hear individual stories from gays. lesbians, hi-res etc who have been assaulted , blackmailed and a lot of times even sexually abused by police and cops by using the fear of section 377 to the individuals. We hear some horrific stories. We also meet a lot of activists from Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai , Delhi etc and also the lawyers who have been fighting with community to get 377 repealed. Since it is filmed over a period of 7 years, we do see...