Skip to main content

Stories of Our Lives (Anthology)

By Golu
Stories of Our Lives is an anthology of five short films with LGBT themes from the East African republic of Kenya. It was made by the Nairobi-based art and activist group The Nest Collective, many of whose members prefer to conceal their identities to avoid possible persecution under Kenya’s notoriously draconian anti-gay laws. The film is still banned in it some country. The five dramas are mostly personal and domestic inspired by true incidents. ASK ME NICELY Kate, a rebellious young high school girl, meets first-love Faith, a fellow student. They begin a secret relationship, until the school principal takes action to separate the two by suspending Kate from the school. Back at home, Kate impulsively has a sexual encounter with a boy in her neighborhood. Two weeks later, Kate and Faith have an awkward reunion leading to their separation. RUN After negotiating a business deal, Patrick stumbles upon a local gay bar with his homophobic best friend, Kama. Patrick later returns to the clu...
Post a Comment

Traveling To Olympia

By Golu
Its a shame to see when the intentions behind a film are decent but the execution is so amateurish and bad, you can't help but laugh. This film is, in a few very cases, a story about how some gay men can come together and help each other in time of need with work, emotions and love and make each other a better person. Sadly, only if the intentions translated in the right way.

A young boy Johny has just been released from a juvenile facility and now wants to turn around his life. He is on his way to Oylmpia, and manages to get a job in a restaurant since he doesn't want to sell his body. Soon he meet Joel, a guy who works helping gay men who are assaulted for some other case that happened in the restaurant. They soon get into a platonic relationship because Joel never forces himself on Johny understanding very well that he has a troubled past. In parallel we have another story of two fo Joel's friends: a young wealthy college student and his 40 something politician lover. The relationship changes viewpoints and makes our politician come "out" while supporting gay rights. The four get together occasionally and discuss about gay rights and issues.

The one big problem with the film is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. Shot through video camera on probably a very low budget, there are two long drawn out full on sex scenes which were so not needed and come as a surprise in an otherwise ok-ish film so far. I am not saying they were bad to watch but they just didn't fit in. The love story between Johny and Joel was done quite well and they acted pretty decent. The relationship between The other two guys was alright though it would have been good to know some back story on them how they met and got together. Because a young successful lawyer falling for a closet middle aged guy doesn't seem likeliest of things to happen. Johny is a very good looking guy but I couldn't say the same about the others, who were strictly ok. 

I think the film was started with good intention, but somewhere the makers lost the plot, got bad actors, tried to fill in scenes with sex to make it more commercial and in the process ended up making this a mish mash of nothing. I might have been more forgiving 15 years ago when I just started to watch gay films, and I know it's a bit unfair to this film that I am watching it now but I guess part of a film's journey is to also see how they have aged. (3/10)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Tuxedo (Thai Series)

By Golu
When I saw this series with 8 episodes of about 20-25 minutes each, I thought, good: Finally someone has come to senses and made a show which is not stretched out and they have tried to squeeze in a decent storyline in a good small episode format. But unfortunately, despite a decent premise on hand, the clunky writing, bad screenplay and an extreme tasteless portrayal of mental illness makes this show, not a fun watch. By the time it finishes, you just want to laugh off at the entire absurdity of it all. Aioun is talented tuxedo designer and very much in demand but he has handful of clients and he builds suits only for people who he feels a connection to. One night when his younger brother is about to get mugged, he is helped by a total stranger named Sichol. Since he tears his suit in the fight and has an interview the next day, Aioun gifts him a suit form his design as an expression of thanks. Sichol's interview is for. Personal assistant of a man named Nawee, a wealthy heir to h...
25 comments
Read more

Heartstopper: Season 2 (Web Series) (UK)

By Golu
Heartstopper Season 1 was a universal hit. You could not have read one bad review or heard from anyone who has seen the show not liking it. It was the kind of series that is easy to love, with sweetness exploding out of every scene without overwhelming you. So naturally, when Netflix greenly Season 2, expectations were naturally high and the same happened with me. I didn't know what to expect, but I had high expectations of this very very sweet teenage love story. And with eagerness and being a little late to the game by a few days, here I am, pouring my t thoughts down having just finished one of the most anticipated shows of the year. The second season also has 10 episodes and has all of our loved ones from the original season. The show continues from where it had left off in Season 1. Charlie and Nick are a couple and only their very close circle of friends know about it. This includes Charlie's best friend Tao and his trans best friend Elle. The center of the show is still ...
19 comments
Read more

2 Moons 2: The Series (Thai)

By Golu
This reboot/sequel is interesting. I had reviewed 2 moons earlier on my blog, but the season 2 is a combination of being a reboot and a sequel in true sense. Whatever the legal reasons were for the old cast to not continue with this show are none of my concern. Like most people. I was also apprehensive of watching new actors take over characters that I had already associated faces with, but it didn't take much time to like these actors as well. The first 4 episodes does a recap of what we saw in prequel, right till the moment of Ming winning the Moon title. The following 8 episodes takes the story further. Recap of 2 Moons. Wayo and Ming are best friends. The moon competition has just ended, which Ming has won.Wayo is now in love with medical student Pha and they are officially a couple now. Ming continues to flirt with Pha's best friend Kit, who still can't decide whether he likes Ming or not. Beam is the other friend, with whole we have not seen much yet and finally ...
8 comments
Read more