Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

This documentary, made by Chase Simmons, brings together eight black gay men from Atlanta who open up about their relationships with their fathers and eventually read letters they've written to them. In the director's own words, he talked about growing up unable to find any media that reflected who he was, and wanting to give black gay men actual faces and stories they could see themselves in and connect with. The whole project came out of watching a former friend go through intense emotional pain because of how his family reacted to finding out he was gay. Same gender loving people are met with a variety of challenges. Same gender loving black men are met with a particularly unique set of social and systematic challenges that impact how we experience life. Arguably a central figure in a young mans rearing is his father, especially young men of color. Add not being heterosexual to the equation and a lot of these young men lose a connection with their father early on and are pus...

This series lands somewhere around decent, mixing romance, fortune telling, and a bit of chaos into one package. To its credit, the basic idea works fine, it's about pretending to be someone you're not just to win someone's heart, and then slowly getting buried under the guilt once the lies pile up. That's the core of it, but like most BL shows it plays everything out in a pretty light, fluffy way. Ten episodes here, each running close to an hour. Rit's our lead, a final year architecture student who unexpectedly turns into a viral sensation on campus known as the Prophecy Master. He reads fortunes using rune stones at his best friend Pure's neighborhood bar. What started as just a drunken story he told for fun ends up going viral and actually boosting business at the bar, so he just rolls with it. That's when Itthi enters the picture, the guy Rit's been crushing on for ages, who also happens to be the good looking heir to a wealthy real estate family. I...

On paper this should've been a show I really got into, especially with how much love it's been getting from fans online, but somehow it just didn't click for me. The first four or five episodes had me so lost that I started checking out mentally, and honestly it never really recovered from that for me. There were definitely bits here and there that I enjoyed, but as a whole it just felt like too much was happening at once and I kept losing my grip on what I was watching. Doesn't help either that this is a twelve episode series where each episode runs somewhere between seventy and ninety minutes in its uncut version, that's a lot to sit through and process. Nakhun's a twenty year old college student living in Bangkok who doesn't buy into superstition at all, but his twentieth birthday turns into a disaster anyway, everything that can go wrong does, he even gets mistaken for a thief at one point. Later that night, feeling down, he's out watching shooting s...

This is the short film series from NQV Media. This collection explores stories about boys in difficult situations, fumbling their way through the best they can as they find out who they are. That theme runs throughout all of the films and is explored in many different ways. These aren’t your average coming-of-age tales. each exquisite story embraces themes of fear, change, rejection, rebirth and belonging. Rouge amoureuse (France) [Red Love] It centers on Gaël, a guy who's kind of lost and still hasn't gotten over his relationship with an older man falling apart after Victor, the love of his life, left him for a woman. Desperate to win him back, Gaël shows up at Victor's apartment in the middle of the night wearing heels and makeup, hoping it'll be enough to make Victor reconsider things. He pounds on the door and threatens to wake up the entire building if Victor won't let him in, and the door swings open fast, putting the two of them face to face again for the fir...

Watching this movie honestly felt like sitting through a Spanish soap opera, the way it's shot, directed, acted, and presented, all of it had that vibe. The pacing feels really off throughout. Just like a typical soap, it drags out the buildup way longer than it needs to before rushing through the payoff. And then the final act just speeds through everything with a few half baked speeches and a bunch of smiling faces, landing on a really underwhelming ending. To be fair, the film does dig into some genuinely important themes worth talking about. It's a decent reminder of how damaging prejudice can be and how much family really matters. David and Bruno are a gay couple who've been together four years and are trying to have a baby. David's twin sister Virginia offers up her egg so they can use a surrogate along with Bruno's sperm. Her husband Miguel is furious about the whole decision, and it creates real tension within the family. A month goes by with no pregnancy an...

I've got pretty conflicted feelings on this one. It kicks off strong with all the mind games and manipulation, but somewhere along the way it turns into such a confusing, repetitive slog that I started checking out mentally. On top of that, the whole BL angle ends up feeling like an afterthought compared to the bigger story the show's actually chasing. Instead of playing out as a standard romance, it goes for something much darker, building relationships around trauma, power dynamics, and serious emotional imbalance. I can see this concept working if someone really committed to making it a proper drama, but for me personally, my patience ran out. Each episode also clocks in around seventy minutes, which is a lot to ask of anyone, and the whole series runs ten episodes total. Our two main guys are Vier and Kelvin. Vier's the confident heir to the VPG group, polished, calculating, and used to coming out on top. Kelvin's on the flip side, the ignored son from a rival famil...

Merman BL shows seem to be having a moment, this is actually the third one I've come across that centers on that whole merman fantasy vibe. The setup here actually starts off kind of intriguing, but it doesn't take long before the show just leans into the cheapest stuff it can, mostly shock value and skin. There's a ton of moments in this that made me cringe hard. But honestly, once you see it's from Oxin Films, the same studio behind Hermoso which I'd also watched, you kind of already know what you're signing up for. Every single episode has some random sex scene crammed in, and they even flash a little message telling you to subscribe for VIP access if you want the uncensored version. Gross, honestly. This one runs ten episodes, each sitting around fifty to sixty minutes long. The first ten minutes lay out the basic setup. Kai's a merman who's basically being held captive by this tacky witch named Ursula, and because of her hold on him, he can't le...

There's this trend I keep noticing where a handful of gay porn performers are trying to break into reality TV. I've watched a couple of these shows now and credit where it's due, these guys are clearly stepping outside their comfort zone. Whether the shows themselves are actually good is a totally separate question though. OutTV is one of the pioneers in this space, and after watching this one my first reaction was that it's heavily scripted. There's just no way this counts as reality, and that becomes painfully obvious the second the police show up and arrest one of the cast members. Producers will clearly do whatever it takes to get a reaction out of viewers. That said, I'm sure there's an audience that genuinely enjoys this kind of thing, and just because it's not for me doesn't mean I get to judge it outright. Six episodes here, about twenty minutes each. The show is set in Miami where Boomer Banks is putting together some kind of residency, a wo...

Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger with someone drowning in a storm and honestly I assumed it was Kyle but it turned out to be Andre, the fisherman boyfriend. I was actually surprised the makers came back for a second season given how that first one went. This one is marginally better because at least there's an attempt at a story, even if the execution leaves a lot to be desired. 13 episodes but only about sixteen minutes each, so it moves fast and you're done before you know it. A year after Andre's drowning, a doctor living alone in the mountains finds him and nurses him back to health. Andre wakes up with no memory of who he is or where he came from and the two slowly fall in love during his recovery. Back home Kyle is running the business, still missing Andre, and has this gut feeling that Andre might still be out there somewhere. His trans friend is in a relationship with another fisherman from the village but things between them are rocky and they're talking about s...

This Thai mini series is bad and full of red flags where you question so many of the protagonists motives, yet somehow you wanna watch it and finish it. This mini series is just 10 episodes of 10 minutes each, but it should have multiple trigger warnings. I thought we were done with rape eat few years back in the BL worlds in the name of love, but I guess not! Pakin kidnaps a a luxury hotel heir Venus, holding him captive in the unforgiving wilderness. He blames him for making his younger brother fall in love with him and breaking his heart which led to his brother committing suicide. Venus pleads and begs saying that it was his twin brother Saturn who must have done this but Pakin would take none of it. He rapes Venus, makes him do household chores and other atrocities. Meanwhile, the hotel heiress grandmother is worried at where have the town grandsons disappeared and ask her trusted advisor to find them. Her evil niece meanwhile has been eyeing the whole property and is not happy th...

This movie actually came out as two different parts, or you could say the sequel just followed right after the first one. Honestly, there was no reason to split it up like that. They tried to sell them as short films, but since each one is about 50 minutes long, I’m just going to review them together as one big story. Ace and Gio are a really happy gay couple. Gio makes his living as an online sex worker, and sometimes Ace even hops on camera to join him. Things take a turn when Ace brings Gio home to meet the parents, and Gio finds out his boyfriend is actually super rich and comes from a big-deal political family. Ace's mom is a real piece of work and thinks nobody is good enough for her "perfect" son, though Ace’s sister is actually really sweet to Gio. During dinner, it comes out that Gio started this work to pay for his mom’s cancer treatments. Ace's mom senses something is up, does some digging, and finds out about the sex work. Instead of talking to her son, sh...

Honestly, it’s such a relief that a Thai BL finally stuck to just eight episodes. I’m always venting about those shows that drag on for fourteen weeks, and even though some are cutting down to ten lately, seeing a tight eight-episode run with 45-minute chapters really made me happy. This series is a pretty bold, high-budget fantasy that stirs together Thai myths and supernatural abilities with a really heavy, tragic vibe. It basically looks at how being "chosen" by fate can be a total nightmare as much as a blessing, and it definitely takes you on a wild ride emotionally. The plot centers on Siwat, this wealthy model who’s hiding a scary secret: he’s got fire powers he can't control, and they're linked to his pulse. If his heart starts racing, everything around him starts catching fire, which has turned his life into a lonely, dangerous wreck. He’s desperate to find a fix, so he goes looking for the "Heart of Divine Magic," a mythic object hidden away in a l...

This movie is a pretty wild "what if" story about Abraham Lincoln being gay and having a secret thing with his legal assistant, Elmer Ellsworth. It’s all told through the eyes of Taffeta, who is a Black, plus-sized queer person working behind the scenes. Taffeta uses this old history story to try and make sense of their own life and all the crappy treatment they deal with in the modern gay scene. Honestly, the whole thing feels a lot like a stage play, and it just wasn't as interesting as I hoped it would be. The story follows Taffeta, a stage manager for a small theater putting on a show about Lincoln. Every day is a drag because the audience ignores them and the actors treat them like a maid. Things get really awkward when Taffeta walks in on one of the male leads hooking up with a guy Taffeta had just seen on a dating app. To make it worse, the actor playing Lincoln actually tries to sexually assault Taffeta later on. After fighting him off, Taffeta goes out onto the e...

This vertical gay drama claims to be a US production, but every character has a thick accent that makes me think the cast or the entire crew was actually from Eastern Europe. I tried to look up more details about where it was filmed, but I couldn't find anything. The official summary describes it as a story where a lonely dancer and a troubled cop find a connection through lies and danger, starting with a rescue that turns into a risky attraction. I’ve definitely seen the lead actors in something else before, though I can't put my finger on what it was. Let's get into the plot and what I actually thought about it. The story follows Tino, a young nightclub dancer who is stuck under the thumb of a brutal club owner. This guy uses debt and intimidation to keep Tino in line and was apparently a friend of Tino's late mother. Tino feels a massive weight on his shoulders because he’s desperate to help his sister, who is really sick, so he just stays quiet and tries to survive....

I'm guessing the whole point of this movie was to show a realistic "slice of life" look at gay men in Tokyo and how they connect with each other. The idea behind it is actually pretty interesting, but the film spends a good 35 to 40 minutes just setting up the characters. The problem is it feels so disjointed that you start wondering why they bothered giving these people backstories when those details are never mentioned again later on! The story kicks off by introducing us to Tomayo, a student in his early 20s who is hanging out with two close friends. He meets a gay bar owner who takes an interest in him right away, which basically starts Tomayo’s journey of figuring out his own sexuality. Then we meet an 18-year-old guy who is more on the effeminate side; he’s desperate to find love and be in a relationship, but he keeps getting rejected. He ends up sleeping with one of Tomayo's close friends. After that, we meet Akiko, a 33-year-old corporate worker whose coworker...

So,  Midnight Kiss  is part of that  Into the Dark  horror anthology on Hulu, where every episode basically feels like its own standalone movie. This one is about 90 minutes long and leans hard into the slasher genre. The whole setup is centered on a tight-knit group of gay friends who head out to a fancy house in the desert to ring in New Year’s Eve. They have this long-standing tradition of playing a game called "Midnight Kiss," but things take a super dark turn when a masked killer starts picking them off one by one. It’s one of those stories where the pressure of trying to survive ends up airing out everyone's dirty laundry and testing how strong their friendships actually are. The movie kicks off with a countdown from 2013, showing us snapshots of the group’s New Year's celebrations over the years until we hit 2019. Right at the start, we see a guy in Turks and Caicos get taken out by a masked murderer. Then we get to know the actual crew: there's Cam, who’s ...

This show brings together two people who couldn't be more different—a doctor who works in critical care and relies entirely on science, and a guy named In who reads tarot cards and occasionally catches glimpses of the future. It’s a really cool concept for a series, but unfortunately, the show ends up being mostly filler across its ten episodes, which run about 45 to 50 minutes each. I’m starting to notice a frustrating trend where these shows have a solid hook for the beginning and a clear finish, but everything in the middle just feels like fluff used to pad the runtime. Even with cute lead actors, the story just couldn't do enough to keep me truly interested. In is a college graduate who lost his parents in an accident when he was a kid and possesses a supernatural gift for visions. When he sees a premonition that his best friend’s brother, a doctor named Thap, is going to be murdered, he steps in to try and stop it. After several close calls where someone clearly tries to t...

Here’s another one of those vertical BL shows where you can basically check off every single cliché on your list as you go. Surprisingly, it’s not as over-the-top as some of the others, and the story is actually pretty straightforward—well, as straightforward as these things ever get, anyway. The plot kicks off with Avery getting married to a bride who happens to be incredibly tall. It’s hilariously obvious to us that the "bride" is actually a man, but for some reason, Avery and every other person in the show are totally oblivious. The marriage is just a contract set up by their parents to keep the family wealth safe. On their wedding night, they agree not to get physical and just keep up appearances for the public, which they do for a while. Things get messy when a random CEO starts hitting on the "wife," which makes Avery super jealous. After one drunken night, they finally sleep together, and the truth comes out the next morning: the bride is actually a guy named...

I remember really liking the sassiness of the first season, so I was actually pretty excited to dive into season two. But honestly, I’ve gotta say this latest round was a bit of a letdown compared to the original. The jokes just didn't land for me, the humor felt like it was trying too hard, and the whole thing just felt a little off. There are seven episodes in total, starting with a special that aired a few months ago for Pride. In that one, Cam and his drag family try to do a story hour, but the crowd isn't exactly feeling the vibe. To catch you up: Cam and Greg are this solid couple who previously tried a poly thing with a younger guy named Princeton, which totally crashed and burned. They’ve got lesbian neighbors, and one of them is tight with Princeton. Even though the poly thing failed, the couple is still determined to have threesomes, so each episode follows their search for a third. In one bit, Cam brings home a guy from the gym who looks exactly like Greg—they though...

I was honestly pretty disappointed with this one. It felt like the show had some decent potential on paper—you've got the classic enemies-to-lovers trope, some high school drama, and a revenge plot—but the execution just felt really timid. The biggest problem for me was that I couldn't connect with either of the main characters, and they didn't seem to have any chemistry together at all. The only real saving grace is that, like a lot of Japanese shows, the episodes are short—just eight of them at 25 minutes each. But even with that quick runtime, the whole thing just felt boring. The story goes back to high school where Hiro was this shy, loner kid who just wanted to hang out with his plants. Because he was so timid, he got bullied a lot, which left him with some pretty nasty memories. Fast forward to today, and he’s totally transformed himself into this stylish, pro hairstylist. Then there’s Natsuo, who went to the same school. Natsuo wasn't exactly a bully, but he was...