Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

It’s honestly shocking to realize that even though being gay was legal in the UK for a long time, you could still be kicked out of the military for it until the year 2000.  Forced Out  dives deep into the lives of the men and women who were basically hunted down and thrown out of the Army, Navy, and RAF just for being who they are. These people didn't just lose their jobs; thousands of them had to deal with terrifying interrogations by the military police. Some were even thrown in prison, had their hard-earned medals taken away, and lost the pensions they had worked their whole lives for. It’s a pretty intense look at a really dark part of history that a lot of people probably don't know about. The documentary introduces us to several people who were targeted during these "witch hunts," and the stories they tell are gut-wrenching. They talk about living in total fear, being followed by investigators, and having their private letters read. The interrogations they went ...

I just finished watching  Queerstralia , which is a three-part documentary about the hidden history of LGBTQIA+ people in Australia. It’s hosted by a comedian named Zoe Coombs Marr. To be honest, I didn't know who she was before this, so it took me a little while to get used to her specific style of joking around. The show covers a huge amount of time, starting from when Australia was a prison colony for the British all the way to famous movies like  Priscilla, Queen of the Desert . It looks at how being gay was treated as a crime, the stories of trans pioneers, and even "bushrangers" (outlaws) who dressed in clothes of the opposite sex. It also goes into the history of the Mardi Gras festival, drag culture, and how gay marriage finally became legal there. The host starts the show by jokingly saying, "I’m a comedian, I’m not qualified," which tells you right away it's not going to be a stiff or boring history lesson. Over three episodes that are an hour long...

OMG! This was such an unexpectedly beautiful and emotional film. It tells the story of a man who adopts a baby with Down's syndrome and navigates the challenges of parenthood while surrounded by the people he loves. And in the end when we see photographs of the real man and his daughter, it is bound to bring a smile on your face and leave you with wet eyes. Based on the true story of Luca, who was the first case in Italy of a single, gay person succeeding in adopting a daughter. By refusing to give up, he has helped to smooth the way for other single and LGBTQ parents. The film begins with a woman giving birth to a child and leaves her when she hears the baby has Down's syndrome. A kind nurse gives her the name Alba. When Luca, founder of a home for children and adults with developmental disabilities, finds out about Alba in 2017, he applies to serve as her foster parent, a two-year commitment. A former seminary student, he has the requisite experience, but the rules favor coup...

Ideally, a coming-of-age film of pre-teen attraction/love/friendship between two boys, I would not classify this as a queer love story. Yes, it is somewhere there is the overall spectrum, but this film is a delicately elegant and extremely meticulous exploration of love and fear. I had heard about this film, ever since it premiered in Cannes and for some reason had been delaying watching it. And when I finally did, I realized that how much this film makes you think. The premise is about an incident with a school boy in his class, and its ramifications, both domestic and institutional; and how the story is told from three different perspectives.  We meet a single mother raising her young son Minato, who’s starting to behave strangely, ask unsettling questions, develop injuries, and chant about some sort of unknown monster. He even goes missing in a storm drain, jumping from his mother’s moving car. One day when he comes home with a facial injury, he says that a teacher Mr. Hori ...

This was such a pleasant surprise. What a lovely little film!! This film is just an hour long and it gives such a nice message while keeping everything so entertaining, that sometime high budget full length feature films fail to achieve. I can't believe this film is not being talked about more.  A really powerful depiction of growing up Trans and Tongan in a catholic school.This one is a very cute, indie teen comedy, with a healthy dose of corniness, giggles and also like really emotional moments like I almost cried. A transgender or fakaleitī student Lisa, of Tongan origin starts her fourth high school, St Valentine’s, after having to leave her previous three schools due to bullying. She was born Lewis and her mother still calls him the and identifies him as her son. She meets Moses, captain and star of the school and they do not get along as expected and also this other bitchy girl who for some reason is jealous of her and the other are in class. By constantly breaking the fourth...

This low budget BL series comes from the small indie company OxygenZ Station from Cambodia, a country not traditionally known to bring in many BL series. This is a hapless story of a young man named Phano who is anchored in the knowledge that he is gay but is tormented and discriminated against because of it. The series is only 4 episodes, where the first three episodes are 35-45 minutes long while the last episode is only 20 minutes. Phano is a young boy, who discovers that his boyfriend Toy has been double crossing him and has also been secretly dating a girl. When Phano confronts him, he insults him saying that no one would ever wanna love such a femme gay guy and that he has been using him only for fun. The same day he finds out that he did not get a job and that his final assignment in college was also rejected. Thinking of this as the worse day ever, dejected and heart broken he goes and sits in a cafe, where a new barista guy Prince takes pity on him and befriends him by giving ...

Riley is a film about self-acceptance, belonging, societal labels and identity. The hardest part of coming out is always first coming out to yourself. Choosing between the life you want and the one that society constructed for you is never easy, so you can only imagine when we have an over straight football player, from whom everyone has expectations, how wil his life start to crumble under the weight of his own queer identity. The film is a raw and powerful attempt at untangling the knots of stereotypes and fear within society. Our protagonist is Dakota Riley, a rising football player on this journey, dealing with the consequences of denying himself of who he really is. His girlfriend Skylar wants to have sex, but he’s resisting because deep down she doesn't excite him. He knows he is attracted to men. His best friend Jaeden , who is temporarily living with him after his mother kicked him out (for reasons unknown to us), seems to be sending out flirty vibes. They seem to be doing ...

This Vietnamese series is very mellow, given its base in a countryside setting. The series has an interesting premise but the makers have added too many characters and too many parallel stories and they all keep vying for attention. So what happened here is that the leads barely get any time to develop their romance and focus on it, making it really hard to connect with them or root for them. The show is 9 episodes with average 20 min each. Yes, the Vietnamese BL scene is improving but this is going to take time. Dang is a student in city who is not very good in studies and has already failed twice for university entrance exam. Tired of his antics, his mother decides to bring him to the village to his grandma after finding out that there is this teacher in village who could possibly help Dang study. We meet Son, a young man, who has taken responsibility of teaching younger kids so that the family members can work. While not a teacher by profession, he reluctantly agrees to teach Dang. ...

I am not sure why this film was made. Featured in Cannes festival, I have too ay that when it comes to experimentation in movies, French are way ahead, but this film remains very much an oblique a non-needed film. Mostly delivered through VoiceOver by various characters, while we see multiple gardening scenes, this film is another great example of film makers taking vanity to another level. Pierre-Joseph is a young man years old when he joins a training center to become a gardener. There he meets Françoise Brown, the director, Alberto, his botany teacher, and Adrien, his employer, all of whom are decisive in his apprenticeship and the discovery of his sexuality. At multiple given opportunities he hooks up with these older men a they are all sort of happy in a commune sorta situation. All this while we keep hearing of this India guy Kutta, born to a French mother, owner of this. Agriculture institute and how everyone is waiting for him. 40 years later, Kutta arrives and is now owner of ...

What a fascinating documentary. It s a wildly entertaining and a very refreshing perspective on black trans life. We har from four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City, who unapologetically break down the walls of their profession. Holding nothing back, the film vibrates with energy, sex, challenge, and hard-earned wisdom. The start itself is a bombshell. One of them telling us a story about a time she thought she was going to die at the hands of a guy who hired her for sex. about a time she thought she was going to die at the hands of a guy  who hired her for sex, but it’s not the story that immediately catches  the audience’s attention and this immediately grabs your attention and you wanna see what this film will offer you next. In addition to Liyah (from Decatur), we meet Daniella Carter (from Queens), Dominique Silver (from Manhattan), and Koko Da Doll (from Atlanta), and their stories are all different. Koko, for example, started when her family was...

Using topics like alcoholism and sexual abuse, this B grade film mixes genres like murder mystery, slash horror, queer identity etc making it a decent watch at least once. But honestly, dont have too much expectations from this. ITs heart might be in the right places but it's rough in many places. A topic like this need to be handled with sensitivity and care and experience which is clearly missing in this film. A year after a failed suicide attempt, Alex is trying to get back his life in order. Thanks to a good sponsor, he is on his way to reconcile with his father. Alex, a gay man, has intimacy issues with men as a result of an unhealthy relationship with his father. But when he reaches there, he finds his father murdered. The shock is softened by a cold comfort; Alex inherits his childhood home so long as he can make the back payments. Enter Shane, a good looking, muscular and enigmatic Shane, who immediately swoons over Alex and despite red flags and warnings form his best frie...

This was a very cute fluffy, no frills romantic film. It focused on the core story without diverting our attention to anything happening on the side, which was good in this case. A simple, straight forward, slice of life love story between two adult men which almost feels like a teenager's first love. I can see some people may find it too simple, but for me it worked. Ayuma is a shy guy who works in an office. One day when the vendor machine refill guy is working there, he talks to him using his desire to add orange juice to the options as an opportunity to talk to the man he’s been crushing on. In turn the next day the guy introduces himself as Yamashita and gives him his business card with his personal chat id. The duo exchange a few messages. The next day Yamashita invites Yuma to join him for dinner, which they both very much enjoy. Later Ayuma confesses to him that he is gay and he wants to be honest because sending tine with Yamashita is starting to give him feelings. Yamashi...

As per its director, The Writer is a film that explores the art of conversation. And I couldn't agree more. Two people in an apartment talking. Sure we will talk about further nuances of things, but watching this film I wondered if this would have been better enjoyed as a play. You see, for films like this you need to have patience, which is scarce in today's time. A story of two friends and former lovers who reconnect after any many years asking questions about what defines us as human beings, whether politically, sexually or nationally. Their talk jumps back and forth from the public to the private, as if in an attempt to provide an overview of past repression and today’s prejudices towards queer people through private experiences, against the backdrop of ongoing political turbulence between the East and the West. Ethnically Russian and now Lithuanian Dima is in New York for an interview. He meets his old friend and ex-lover Kostas (original Lithuanian and now American). Thro...

Internalized homophobia can be a powerful force. We tend to think of it simply as lingering shame, or even as something that goes away upon coming out, but in fact its can take many different forms and is often culturally specific. We have seen many films about homosexuality and religion.  Add to that superstition and witchcraft and you get a nice little new genre that we probably have not seen before in gay films in recent times. With Egypt as the background and it looks visually stunning, this film is a taut, suspenseful thriller about gay men trying to reconcile their homosexuality against their family’s religious beliefs. It gets intense with several jump scares, but it is artfully made. Mo and Hisham are a couple who are visiting Egypt to meet Mo's mother after his father's death month ago. They need to pretend to be just friends in order to stay safe in Egypt’s very homophobic environment. Coming back to Egypt, however, leaves Mo especially anxious and uneasy, because he ...

This is an intimate look into Vietnam’s quietly thriving queer and trans communities. Through a series of portraits, the director explores different individuals from various marginalized groups across Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) who are all trying to live their lives authentically. It follows an intimate collective of people who both challenge and reinforce traditional concepts of family and love within the LGBTQ community in Saigon. The one big thing to note here is that this documentary is made by a Vietnamese born director (but raised in Canada), which is quite a contrast as clarified by one of the participants saying "There are a lot of people who have filmed the Asian LGBTQ+ community but most of them don’t understand our reality and don’t get it right in their films." Family is at the centre of the film. A wedding is being planned. Relatives have to be won over. Parents adjust to their kids’ sexuality and get to know their new partners. Some of them dive headlong into que...

Another queer film with religion as the backdrop. But here the conflict is different and relatively new. The gay couple here needs to confront themselves and each other on their beliefs on what they want before they start to deal with problems that the society throws their way. During an era where legislators and religious organizations are weighing in on queer rights all around the globe, this film provides a considered perspective on the juxtaposing relationship one can have with organized religion, God, and queerness as a whole.  Peter is an English Vicar now serving in New Zealand. He was happily married, and he currently has an adult-aged daughter as well. After his wife died, in his moments of grief, he met Jason, who happened to be in prison at the time. Before this occurred, his queerness wasn’t something Peter ever really thought about. But then Jason fell into his life and the two fell in love an make for a beautiful couple and everyone knows about them. Jason runs a yout...

Queer holiday movies are something that can give you a warm cozy feeling but the timing has to be right. This film, unfortunately, is so slow moving, that irrespective of when and in what mood you watch it, you will lose interest. The acting is flat, there is not much going on and basically very low production and an extremely indie film that sadly leaves nothing memorable. Bailey is a single middle-aged man living with his medicated mother in Florida, who suffers from chronic pain. He’s also going through his own issues, having recently losing his dog by a tragic accident, and being informed that he will be losing his job at the end of the year due to company closure. His mother tells him that her close friend and her son Greyson are looking to move to their town and for that Greyson will come and spend 2-3 days with them. Greyson and Bailey used to be close friends when they were younger but it's been 30 years now. Greyson and Bailey spend a few days together remembering memories...

Three unconventional housemates - a daycare worker, an escort and a senior widow - navigate relationships and existential crises while supporting each other through mishaps and getting high together. Apparently this was an article that occurred in a magazine based on which the film makers decided to turn this into a fun fledged series. The show has been 2 seasons of 5 and 6 episodes respectively averaging at a 10 minute duration each. Ian, a day care worker running an after school program and his boyfriend Lamar (a nurse and a prostitute) move in with a scrappy old widow Delores in her house. The first season focuses more on the adjustments these three people are doing to be with each other, while getting to individually know them better. Ian gets berated by angry mums from the daycare he works at; Lamar meets a client he escorts for but the hookup goes sideways; and Delores has a private lesson with her choir director that gets steamy. Then pillow talk between Ian and Lamar turns into...

OMG!! This show was so bad that it was almost an embarrassment to watch. Please don't ask me why and how I ended up watching this. I do understand that this was likely made with zero budgets , on phone, with friends for YouTube, but then how I came to know about this and spent my time wasting on this is beyond me. Even writing this review feels like an utter waste of time, so I will keep it short. On a bright side, the show was only 4 episodes of about 18 minutes each. It is a confusing story, to be honest. Yohan has some disease and is soon dying. His boyfriend Ace, who is only pretending to be in love with him because it was his dying mother's wish, wants to leave him but thinks he will come out as an asshole to leave him while he is dying. Meanwhile a group of three random friends keep an eye on happenings all around. One of them figures out that the guy dying is actually Yohan's twin Gohan. At some point they switched (yes!! Kill me). This random dud era the real Yohan ...

Never Let Him Go is a four-part docuseries about the mysterious death of Scott Johnson, an openly gay academic whose naked body was found at the bottom of a cliff near Sydney in December, 1988, and the grueling, decades-long investigation his brother Steve launched to get to the bottom of the case spending over 30 years of his life to get the justice. An American prodigy studying in Australia, Scott had a bright future ahead of him. But it was cut short when his body was found at the bottom of a cliff, naked and mutilated, with police concluding simply that Scott had committed suicide. Over the course of decades, however, multiple leads would come up that suggest Scott could’ve been one of the many hate crime victims whose violent and bias-motivated end went unacknowledged. In four efficiently edited, objectively studied yet emotionally told episodes, Never Let Him Go tracks this years-long affair and studies how it evolved from a simple unresolved mystery to a landmark case that expos...