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On The Sea (UK)

This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...

Hurricane Bianca

A campy film, I wasn’t expecting much from it to be honest but it wasn’t bad at all. Broadly divided into two halves, the first part is actually a bit of drag (no pun intended) but the film gets a lot funnier, quirky and exactly what you hoped for once we have our main character in drag. Which one us doesn’t like the offensive and insulting one-liners specially from drag queens. This film definitely delivered on that front but how I wished there was more of it.

The plot is simple. Richard has been in New York for a while and soon moves to a small town in Texas to teach in a school in the middle of nowhere, as part of the Teaching Ambassador Program. But the stint lasts only a couple of days till the Vice Principal realises he is gay and gets him kicked out. He meets an RJ at an empty bar who soon makes Richard realise that he may have some hidden talents. Richard soon transforms in drag as Bianca Del Rio and applies for a job back at school. The cat and mouse fun games begin now with hilarious incidents with school kids, the vice-principal, the principal and most importantly with the very good looking gym coach. She cuts down the students who try to mess with her to gain their respect and protects the kids who get teased. The film ends with people in the school coming around, being accepted and Bianca winning the teacher of the year award.

As mentioned, the first 30 minutes of the movie was a a little slow but provided the groundwork for the plot. As soon as we got the Bianca transformation, the movie was full of sarcasm, wit, and more insults. Her equation with Vice-principal was hilarious. As an actor Bianca was fabulous. No doubt. But as Richard, he fails completely. I could not have empathy at all. I mean, I agree this is supposed to be over the top, camp, quirky style movie but still a lot was missing. Things just feel into place a little too conveniently including the affair with the coach and the family acceptance by the RJ who has a hidden past. Some other LGBT related topics were highlighted but not addressed, which is fine with me, since the film is a bit superficial anyway. The fact that they were brought up itself was a good gesture. had the film focussed a lot more on Bianca’s wit and humour, that would have received an other plus one from me.

You can enjoy this film only if you like over-the-top camp sensibilities and total sassiness. (5/10)

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