Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Okay so this one had a strong start, genuinely fun and engaging for the first two or three episodes, but then it completely flips on itself as it goes on. The comedy around the games and challenges gets cranked way too far, basically turning into full blown reality TV territory, and at some point it just feels like the whole thing exists to sell you on the island it was filmed on. I'd bet there are more plot holes in here than anyone bothered counting. And then the ending just rushes past everything, the leads suddenly patch things up out of nowhere, and I genuinely sat there confused by how random it felt. Twelve episodes total, each around twenty five minutes. Yoki's a well known actor who's hit rock bottom after a string of scandals combined with ongoing insomnia tank his career. His manager pushes him to sign onto a reality show as a way to rebuild his public image. Not thrilled about it, he heads out to a small fishing village, where he unexpectedly runs into Yang Meng...

This movie was just plain weird. I really went in wanting to like it, but the whole pretentious, overly poetic vibe, combined with this choppy editing that keeps hopping back and forth in these tiny five to ten second bursts, just made it feel dragged out for no real reason, way too self indulgent if you ask me. Honestly this could've been trimmed down to a fifteen minute short and lost nothing. And I still don't get what the deal was with women dancing along the beach while some overwrought, flowery narration plays over the top. The plot creeps along at a snail's pace, slowly building toward some confrontation that you can see coming from a mile away and that just gets duller the closer it gets. By the time it actually happened I'd totally checked out as a viewer, even with two genuinely good looking guys leading the film. The setup itself is pretty basic. Lorena and Diego are trying to settle into a new life in a small town by the coast, both nervously starting fresh ...

Like the recycled tropes across pretty much every vertical BL show weren't already enough, now the writers aren't even bothering to try anything new. The second I started this, it felt weirdly familiar, so I actually went back through my old reviews to check, and sure enough, this is basically a carbon copy of Hard Shift, just with the jobs swapped around and a bit more thirst trap content sprinkled in. Seriously, put in a little effort here. Set in a Christian university, Brady is the campus heartthrob, a well known playboy and captain of the hockey team, who takes a hit to the crotch during a game and gets injured. Medical intern Marven rushes over to help, and right away Brady feels this weird pull toward him. During the exam, which actually makes Brady finish, Marven tells him he might have erectile dysfunction and needs to spend a few days under Marven's care to sort it out. Brady's always considered himself straight, but Marven's upfront about being gay, and B...

I was a huge fan of season one, that sharp, satirical humor really worked for me and I rated it pretty high, so I went into this season with high hopes. Unfortunately it let me down hard. Not only did the jokes just not land for me this time, I actually found myself checking out and bored during nearly every episode. Honestly I'm not shocked the show got cancelled after this season. Same as before, it's ten episodes, each about twenty minutes long. Same cast is back, but everything felt off somehow. Alvarez's character Mr Evans shifts from being this loveable mess who deals with life through neurotic charm into more of a grown man trying desperately to fit into some kind of Bro Code Brotherhood of America thing. We've still got Malcolm as the boyfriend, Gwen as his high energy best friend, Markie the gym teacher, plus the principal and Rick. Evan and Malcolm are officially a couple now, but things are rocky between them. Markie's still saying offensive stuff with go...

Its been a while since I saw a film set during Pandemic days, and this one pulled me right back into that strange bubble of time that somehow already feels like it happened in another life. A Brazilian filmmaker who also wrote the script and plays the lead character Chico puts you straight back into that headspace, the endless indoor days, the isolation, the Zoom calls, the social distancing that started to feel like the new normal. The problem is the film itself is genuinely dull. Whatever point the director was trying to make could have landed perfectly in a short film, but instead everything gets pulled and stretched into long scenes of pretty much nothing happening. Chico is a bear living alone through lockdown, watering his plants, following along to workout videos, and treating covid protocols like they are basically sacred law. His friends have actually started calling him the protocol police, and that rigidity has slowly pushed them all away from him. A Zoom call brings more ba...

From the very first minute, this show makes it crystal clear that you are not meant to take any of it seriously. It is a bizarre little sci-fi comedy, a Korean-Thai BL collaboration, about an alien prince who crash-lands right into a struggling bakery. These kinds of joint productions are usually trying to tick boxes for audiences in both countries at once, and this one is no different. Eight episodes, about 25 minutes each, and the whole thing somehow still feels undercooked. The production quality is surprisingly weak for a collaboration of this kind, the editing feels awkwardly stitched together, and while the whole palette screams goofy sci-fi fun, the series never actually manages to pull that off. Wooju is a young guy trying to get his late father's bakery back on its feet, except he genuinely cannot bake to save his life. One night a spaceship comes crashing down right on top of the place. Out of the wreckage come two aliens, a prince named Raon and his loyal canine servant ...

I honestly think the people who made this movie had big dreams that their budget just couldn't keep up with. It’s got a cool sci-fi concept at its core, but the way they actually put it together leaves a lot to be desired. The biggest headache for me was how they handled the flashbacks—they kept jumping around without making it clear where we were in the timeline, which left me feeling pretty lost. While the gay romance is a huge part of the story, the movie actually spends way more time on the fight between the mean government and the rebels. It really tries to lean into that contrast between a cold, scary dictatorship and the warm, secret bond between two guys from totally different walks of life. The whole thing takes place in a version of America run by a brutal police state, with the city of Harpswell serving as the home for a growing rebellion. We follow Godfrey, whose dad, Thomas, is actually the tyrant running the whole show. Even though Godfrey was born into a rich, powerf...

I remember being so annoyed at how abruptly the first season ended, so I was actually glad to see they made a sequel. But honestly? They could have just tacked on two more episodes to the original and called it a day. Dragging this out into a second season felt totally unnecessary, and the excuses they use to keep the plot moving are so weak they barely make sense in the modern world. Just like before, this season is eight episodes long, with each one only lasting about eight to ten minutes. If you remember, the last season wrapped up with Jeong U and Han being a happy couple right until Han’s ex showed up out of nowhere. The ex wanted a second chance despite their messy past, but Han shut him down fast. The ex didn't take it well, though, and warned him there’d be trouble. He even called Jeong U to talk trash about Han, but Jeong U stayed loyal, and the two planned a getaway trip to escape the drama. But on the day of the trip, Jeong U never showed up. Han was devastated when his ...

This movie is supposed to be a psychological horror about a girl who becomes totally obsessed with a gay guy and won't leave him alone. It starts off feeling like a quiet drama about a guy dealing with grief, but it eventually tries to turn into this claustrophobic look at how trauma and proximity can get dangerous. Unfortunately, it was just way too boring to actually sit through. Even though the acting wasn't terrible, there was zero thrill or tension, and I found myself yawning through most of it. The story follows Rowan, a barista and aspiring musician who’s trying to pick up the pieces after his fiancé, Tucker, passed away. Out of nowhere, an old high school classmate named Mag shows up wanting to reconnect. They dated briefly back in the day, but now she basically forces her way into renting the spare bedroom in his apartment. Once she moves in, she starts taking over his entire life, though Rowan is weirdly blind to how creepy and intrusive she’s being. She calls herself...

I was really hoping that this film will be good. But as its title suggests, it was so vanilla and I wasn't sure what was it even trying to say. The synopsis says that it is a poignant exploration of gay relationships and infidelity between an interracial gay couple. To an extent yes it is, but the film never gos into the extent of details and everything is touched upon just superficially. I didn't connect with it at all. Bastien and Matt have ben together for a while, but they have hot a rough patch, since Bastien slept with a woman 8 months back. They are both now visiting Barcelona hoping to mend this rocky relationship. The communication between them seems strained. As Matt grapples with the lingering hurt and its impact on their intimacy, enter British guy Florent, who catches Bastien’s eye and offers top show them around the city. It is obvious that he finds Bastien extremely attractive and given his infidelity before, this just makes Matt more and more angrier. Of course ...

Confusing is the first word that comes to mind while I was watching the series and even after it finished. The idea of parallel universe have been explored in a few other BL series before, but man was this weird or not! Even the ending did not make much sense. If you were to ask me, what really happened, honestly I am not even sure. The show is 8 episodes of 30 minutes each. During this lunar eclipse, Yang You inexplicably crosses over into a parallel universe through a mirror into another world like his own but definitely not his. In what he thinks is a serendipitous encounter, yet it is not, he meets Chen Shi. He realizes that he must be near Chen Shi in this world or he will fade from existence and so he convinces him of his destitution and therefore he needs to live with him. During their time together, Yang You discovers that despite Chen Shi's tough exterior, he is unusually caring toward him. Gradually, Yang You falls for Chen Shi and boldly confesses his feelings. However, ...

Set in a small town middle America, the film likely had an interesting idea with them but the execution of the film is so drab and boring that you just can't wait for the film to finish. Also, when you take a subject that has some medical ailment behind it, it's always advisable to do some research, which clearly this film failed to do. Alzheimer's rarely is a death sentence and more often than not the patients lead a long life. Anyway, back to the film now. Michael is in his mid 40s and is a gay romance novel writer. He meets James at a bookstore and dating/romance soon follows. Michael has been feeling bouts of sickness where he suddenly forgets things and stuff gets blocked out. When he gets checked, he is told that he has early onset Alzheimer's and that he will need support of people around him, who love him and will see mood swings and that his life expectancy is only about 6 years. He keeps the information to himself but confides in a couple of friends. One of wh...

This 4 episodic mini-series was really basic BL story with a supernatural twist. Even though the episodes were only 4 and about 22 minutes each, this would still have been better off as a short story. But then I believe the idea was to do some promotional marketing of the sponsors which was very much in your face. This is a mini series from an upcoming tiny studio with very basic production values.  A new tenant Mew moves into a new building, where he feels presence of a ghost (or a spirit, as they like to call themselves). After initial awkwardness, we find that this spirit is of the boy named Meteor, who had committed suicide. He had a major fallout with his 2 friends in the trip group and was in love with the boy, who fell in love with a girl. Meteor has been offered a second chance to life if he convinces Mew to fall in love with him. If Meteor fails, he will get banished to the afterlife. He has thirty days to complete his mission. There's also one strict rule. He cannot leave...

Trade is a dark love story that focuses on self-identity, exploration and one's fight for acceptance, which hits home with so many individuals today who fear from the backlash of being gay or transgender. It shows us the story of two men, one a streetwise hustler, the other a straight-laced lawyer, who meet and form a relationship that brings to light who they really are. ON paper the idea sounds good, but the biggest problem of the film is that the director doesn't know when to cut a particular scene. Some scenes in the film go on and on, while other's do not get proper closure. More on that later.  Shawn is a black gay man, who works on the street as a trans hustler Coco. He lives with his aunt. Then we meet Michael, a man married for 10 years, whose wive desperately wants to have a child, who is rich and a successful lawyer, but he has been hiding his identity of being gay and wanting to dress up as a female. The two have a chance encounter when Shawn is being harassed b...

This series was made in 2024, so there is no excuse for making it so cringy, atrocious and bad. I am realizing that these low production Filipino have some standard templates. 2-3 hot guys withe Nic bodies, then 2-3 trans girls to provide comic relief and lust over other hot guys, take the setting on a nice resort or something, then put some 5-6 extra chatters who add absolutely nothing to the main story line and then somehow weave a story around all this. This worked when some of the Asian countries were just starting in the bL race like right around 2021 during covid, but to make such atrocity now is no excuse at all. Thankfully this lasts for only 6 episodes each of 15-20 minute duration. Max and Sky are a gay couple. Suddenly Max decides to go abroad and work so that their life can be better. Sky is sad to see him go but understands and they both hope that they will be able to make this long distance relationship work. After a few days, seeing that how sad Sky is, his group of frie...

Firstly this is not really a movie. It is more like 6 episodes stitched together for a total of about 50 minutes. Now I dont know if the came this way or the version I saw was more like 6 episodes stitched together, whatever be the case, it was just a bit silly and something that I did not enjoy much. The story was basic, acting slightly over the top, and really not much memorable to take back home. Troy recently moved to Brooklyn with his friend Pat and his then-boyfriend Chance, but Troy and Chance broke up, and haven’t yet post-processed the breakup to see if they might reconcile. Troy works as a busboy and just generally walks around grumpy and bitter, still having feelings for his ex. When a new neighbor moves in, the sweet looking 29 year old middle school teacher Abel, Troy's hope for a rekindled romance with his ex-boyfriend gets officially placed on the back burner. Troy and Abel begin getting to know one another, complicating the “will they or won’t they” reunion with Cha...

The fact that this film came out back in 1978 in itself is a big surprise to me. Sure, from a story perspective there may not be much going here, but again the fact that the film was made years ago is HUGE deal. The life of gays and transvestites portrayed with empathy in a comedy that has Bent, a factory worker, as its main protagonist. We meet his mother, who makes no bones about having always wished for a daughter rather than a son; his closet days at work; and his let-it-all-hang-out off hours with kind. Brent, an aging gay man is the main protagonist of the story. He is a huge fan of his mother, whose used to be a famous artist and is now on death bed with cancer. He has lived in the shadow of his famous mother all his life, and is constantly trying to survive and find out who he really is by stealing and doing odd jobs here and there. Along the way, we meet his group of eccentric and quirky friends, who might be a bit more colorful than most people. A woman friend who runs a bar,...

This film is a gay coming of age film of an angry teenager. The film takes us on a journey into the life of a 16-year-old boy, grappling with his intense emotions. I thought the film was extremely basic and amateurish. The dialog is bad, the acting is awful, and the camerawork needs help. But the story is quirky enough to be interesting. Alex is a misfit at school, enduring bullying and harsh scrutiny at the hands of the hall monitor. Alex takes solace in the world of puppetry and filmmaking. His neighbors are quick to judge his every move. At home, his father is a strict disciplinarian, constantly demeaning Alex and never trying to understand him. His mother attempts to bridge the gap, but Alex remains distant. She herself is dealing with issues of her own, dealing with identity crisis and likely extremely unhappy in her marriage. When Julius, a new student joins the class, things start to change for him. They have instant connect and friendship and start to hang out. As their bond de...

This is a rather simple low production BL series from Cambodia. Playing on the age old, enemies turned lovers turned misunderstanding turned lovers is played here as well. Keeping this simple story to go on for 7 episodes felt like an unnecessary stretch. Each episode is about 20-30 minutes long. The actors felt new and story could have used more gravitas. Also the title of this series made no sense to me, in the context of it all.  Hengly is like the bad boy of his class. He doesn't conform to rules and often blame onto everyone else except himself. On morning he runs into Same on his motorbike and the two have an altercation that doesn't end well. Same is a studious student who stands up for himself. After a few misunderstandings, their friendship starts to grow when it turns out that Same's brother is close friends with Hengly's cousin. They spend sometime together, and it seems like Hengley is almost flirting with Same. Same’s feelings for Hengly grows stronger and ...

I have to hand it to the audacity of these French film makers to try and come up with a sequel to a film that was likely panned by most people. I remember I did not like the film at all and felt that the title totally suited the film. Imagine my surprise when I saw this sequel and once more, there could not have been a more apt title than 'Bizarre Again'. We are back in the world of Maurice and Lucas, this time 7 years later to witness whats transpiring in their life. We are 7 years later. Lucas and Maurice have never seen each other again and have no contact since the tragic events of the BIZARRE cabaret in New York. Lucas (is he a trans person? I am not sure since it is never clarified or maybe he is gender fluid) now lives in Denver, Colorado. He is married to a slightly older man who is the father of a 16-year-old child. One night Maurice just visits Lucas and sadly a shocking incident happens the same night. John/Lucas' son Marlon has just stabbed two black guys one of...