Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

This is a whole new lane for me as a viewer. A soft, human queer story built inside trucking culture just isn't something that comes around often, straight or gay, that world barely gets touched on screen at all. What the director's doing here is mixing gritty realism with these surreal flourishes, and the pacing is slow on purpose, letting us sit inside a piece of queer life that almost never gets shown. Strip it down and it's really a road movie, following a kid who hitchhikes and an older, rougher trucker as they move together through roadside stops and motels scattered across North Mexico. Watching these two slowly build something while their histories close in on them is what drives the film, and it ends up landing somewhere between raw and deeply sexual, a story about everything that can go sideways when your whole life happens on the highway. We meet Veneno first, twenty years old, working as a sex worker who also moves drugs for the truckers who pay him. He gets rip...

This is a genuinely interesting film. It kicks off feeling like a queer character study hitting every single beat you'd expect from a rom-com, and then it takes a hard turn into something a lot darker. At its core it's about a gay teenager who gets pulled into a crime by his own friend group. It's set in this world of Mexico's elite class, and while we've seen something similar with the wealthy setting in Spain's Elite, this is the first time I've really seen that kind of world explored through a Mexican lens. Our main guy is Alf, a student from serious money who's just come back to his Catholic all boys school in Mexico after spending a year away at a religious boarding school in the States. Coming back, he realizes his school and his old friend group aren't the same as when he left, they've traded in being precocious kids for chasing girls and getting drunk. Instead, Alf finds himself drawn to Oliver, a new student who plays ukulele and stands ...

This is exactly the kind of over the top 90s gay comedy you can't really take seriously, and honestly that's the whole appeal. Go in expecting a fun time, a few laughs, and just embracing how ridiculous it all gets, because outside of that, there's genuinely not much else going on here. The plot is razor thin and everyone's acting is cranked up way past normal, so the whole thing plays more like some kind of spoof, though I couldn't tell you exactly what it's spoofing. The film takes place in Mexico City during the nineties, where we meet Enrique, an up and coming telenovela star. He's on the verge of landing a huge contract with a production company, until they discover he's gay after finding photos of him with his boyfriend. His dad refuses to accept that his son is gay and barely speaks to him because of it. To keep the contract intact, the studio head suggests Enrique fake a romance with a fading pop star trying to relaunch her career, someone the st...

Muxes are recognized as a third gender among the Zapotec people down in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, and they're non-binary in how they live their identity. Mexican culture leans pretty machista overall, so muxes end up filling caregiver roles a lot, and they earn real respect both for that work and for who they are. This film feels less like a movie and more like a piece of visual art that pulls you straight into what it actually feels like to live as a muxe. I honestly can't think of another film that functions this much like a painting come to life. It's packed with life, with love, with real heartbreak too, and the whole thing comes across as this incredible burst of culture and creativity. You might not walk away loving it purely as a story, but there's no arguing with how gorgeous and vivid it looks. The film follows a community of muxes pushing back against the idea that gender only exists in two boxes, and we spend time with three of them, Delirio, Amaranta, and Mar...

This is a film from the early 90s and that context really does matter when you sit down to watch it. For its time, it was probably pretty talked about. It's a murder mystery erotic thriller that manages to be dramatic and completely ridiculous at the same time, and the absurdity of it genuinely made me laugh a few times before I had to remind myself that logic wasn't exactly a priority for filmmakers back then. The main character David is seriously messed up and genuinely mean, but you still end up feeling sorry for him because he's clearly a victim of sexual abuse who never dealt with any of it and just takes all that pain out on everyone around him in the worst ways imaginable. The film opens with a naked man being murdered in pretty brutal fashion. Then we meet David, a young guy who's just left boarding school following a teacher's death, which is almost certainly the killing we just watched. He shows up at his wealthy mother's gorgeous oceanfront house to s...

To start with, the version of this movie I watched was just terrible. It looked so old that I felt like I was watching something from the 1950s. Since it came out in 1985, the movie doesn't shout about the main character being gay; instead, it gives you small, subtle hints. But even if the picture quality had been perfect, it wouldn't change the fact that this movie is really strange and just plain boring. The story takes place in the city of Querétaro in 1957. It shows the mean things, violence, and hate that gay people had to deal with in Mexico during that time, especially in small towns. The main character is Jardiel, a young guy who lives with a mother who controls everything, a sweet father, and several brothers and sisters. He is secretly in love with his friend Carlos, who he went to college with and now works with. When Jardiel finally gets the nerve to tell Carlos how he feels, Carlos says no. This rejection sends Jardiel into a deep sadness, which gets even worse bec...

The movie is set in Caracas, and I've got to say, it definitely isn't going to be for everyone. The way the story builds up is actually pretty strong, but for me, the point of it all felt a little fuzzy. It's a story packed with gay desire and a lot of violence, giving you a really interesting look at the city through its two main characters. However, what’s actually driving each of them stays in a bit of a gray area, which was a little bothering. The story follows a middle-aged gay man named Armando who spends his time cruising the streets and buses looking for young, working-class guys. He pays them to come back to his place, but he gets his kicks just by watching them pose half-naked without ever actually touching them. One of these meetings goes south fast when a street teenager named Elder brutally beats Armando up, steals his cash, and makes a run for it. A few days later, Armando tracks the boy down, and Elder steals from him again, but for some reason, Armando becom...

How I wish this film stayed being a gay love story, bit instead the love story angle is a small part while the film is based on the harsh living of two Mexican boys to noir-ish crime thriller to social-comment drama. For me, it would have been so much better had the film stayed central to the love aspect and created some drama around it. I am not saying that the story being told here is bad at all, it is just my wish here. Miguel is a pretty young skateboarder from a middle-class family in Mexico City who is having a torrid love affair with the son of his family’s maid, a fellow skater Johnny. Besides the barriers of class and social status between them, tensions are also heightened by the bisexual Johnny’s ongoing relationship with a young girl, Adri, a dysfunctional love triangle constantly shaken by angry accusations and jealous tantrums. While this theme hovers in the background, the central theme is around how Miguel and Johnny have been making money with a petty criminal scheme w...

I have mixed feelings about this film. At every point it talks about 'going with the flow', let your heart experience new things, make yourself open and explore new things, but the way it has been setup is quit contrived. It is definitely an interesting story to tell but besides a totally random ending, even the way two men come together wasn't completely established. The one good thing about the film is that they shot in the beautiful city of Taxco, Mexico; which is now added to my bucket list of cities I Want to visit in Mexico. Josh, a white American is visiting Taxco with his Mexican girlfriend of few years. They are very much in love and she can't wait for Josh to experience her childhood memories. On their first day, they see a guy proposing to his girlfriend, a very loving scene but in a stark contrast, they both having a huge fight in the evening leaving the couple apart. They both laugh it off and continue with their life. Next day when the girlfriend gets an u...

“I’ll never stop loving you”—can anyone keep this promise? A romantic love story of two young boys, when the two meet by chance, their instant chemistry ignites a passionate affair that challenges them both to confront their desires and aspirations. An interesting premise, but I felt a lot of context was missing in the film and let's talk about that a bit later. Orlando is a dance student working part time as a go-go dancer in a popular gay bar, and Marco is a nursing student working part time in a hotel. They meet by chance on the street one day and they both have this instant crackling chemistry that they can't keep their hands off each other. Orlando is also applying to a reality dance completion in hopes to make it bug. Marco in the meantime, wants to be a good nurse as has been his dream. They duo start a passionate love story and before you know they move in, loving each other and supporting each other's career. But somewhere along the path, they start growing apart. ...

This gay dance drama from Mexico has a very home-made feel to it, but completely lacks in ints execution of the ambition it probably has. Maybe it takes itself too seriously and in the process leaves audiences wondering what the hell and why there'll are things going on the ay they are. A decent attempt, but how I wish that the characters were more fleshed out so we could really get into the psyche behind the actions that eventually the characters end up taking. A love triangle involving professional jealousy could have been much better. Sebastian is befriended by fellow dancer Arsenio at ballet auditions. They initially laugh off their obvious mutual attraction, but soon become a fully loved-up couple, pushing each other as performers and even start living together.  When the new choreographer Mikael arrives, demanding obedience and perfection; he starts to push everyone's boundaries and starts to make changes. He also has a reputation for liking young boys. The attention he p...

Based on the title, I was hoping that the film would be half decent, but seriously, the makers took a paper thin plot and I am amazed how they managed to make a full fledged film out of it. This film could easily have been wrapped up in a very quick short film. The film explores themes of sexuality, relationships, and identity 32 year old busy banker Roberto has a decent life going with his girlfriend Elia. Roberto is very well dressed, doesn't like clutter, neat freak etc. Things change when he meets a young college going kid Cris through an app. Cris comes over to his house a few times and they talk about multiple things while having drinks (assuming it's a way of Roberto delaying the moment of sex) and Cris making him rethink of his sexuality because maybe he is gay. One weekend when Elia is away, Cris spends the night and Elia shows up unexpected the next day. She doesn't think much but clearly this makes Roberto very uncomfortable with the situation and meanwhile Cris ...

There we go again. Musicals!! Not my cuppa tea. But to be fair, this film just doesn't have enough material on hands to make it even a convincing story. A tribute to 1990s indie rockers Indigo Girls, it provides backdrop for summer love between a circus performer and a struggling musician. As their relationship deepens, however, realities and uncertainties about the future threaten to tear them apart. Glitter is a wannabe clown from a wealthy and privileged family who just wants to go to circus school in Paris. His mother just wants her son to do something reasonable with his life. And then we have Doom, a gloomy and a struggling songwriter, who believes every tune should be dark and/or sad. Is fathe his out of picture and mother is in prison. The two men meet purely by chance. Their eyes meet, and soon enough, they're at a night club where they dance and sing through the night, closing out the bar, moving on to a restaurant where they talk about the idea of making small talk, ...

This documentary shows the everyday experiences of the “muxes,” a group of homosexual, cross-dressing, and transsexual persons, who live their identities through a series of performative acts in the town of Juchitán. In doing so, they transgress the traditional roles and expectations that a patriarchal society has for both their men and women. Furthermore, their actions are presented in the film as everyday acts of defiance towards heteronormative patterns—that is, manners of interpreting the sexed body that have come to be considered acceptable by patriarchal societies. On the sun-baked Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico lies the town of Juchitan, whose population of indigenous Zapotecs have for centuries warded off numerous invasions to preserve their identity. Today, Juchitan has an additional, more notorious, identity, as a "queer paradise" famous for its Muxes, effeminate homosexual men whose socially defined role within the Zapotec culture pre-dates the advent of gay libe...

Kenya is a documentary that portrays the harrowing journey of Kenya, a trans woman sex worker in Mexico City, as she seeks justice and safety after witnessing the murder of her friend Paola by a client. The film begins shortly after this tragic event, capturing Kenya's immediate response and her interactions with Paola's family, who have trouble accepting Paola as she was in life: a vibrant and flamboyant trans woman. Walking on the streets of Mexico City in her shimmering high heels, Kenya is a tower of strength in a world that is devastatingly cruel to her community. A trans sex worker and an activist, she is spurred into action after witnessing the brutal murder of her friend Paola at the hands of a client. Despite ample evidence against him, the perpetrator is allowed to walk free, signifying how the judicial system turns a blind eye to the violence inflicted on trans women. The film captures the kind of care work needed in life as well as in death. When not leading protest...

A sensual story about sexuality, isolation, loneliness, survival and unexpected connections; these are the broad themes that the film maker is trying to tackle in this film set during pandemic times. The summary of the film sounded interesting and the two actors look good too, but this one and a half hour film is more artsy than I would have liked it to be . There are a lot of moments of nothingness and I feel this could have been a much more impactful film as a short story. The film starts with us seeing Ramon, an actor in B-grade movies. We also meet Also, an extra on the set who finds Ramon attractive. He is new to the city and unsure of he wants to stay. A few months pass, were we see how Also meets a few guys here and there, has hook ups with them and slowly get used to the gay world of Mexico City. Then Covid traps them all alone in their flats; Roman can't work and Aldo loses his job. A year later, with the Mexican military still patrolling the streets, Roman is bored alone ...

Why.. Why!! Film makers try and just stretch a simple story behind what's needed and test the patience of the audience. This is a story we have seen many many times, albeit in different settings. In this specific case, this could easily have been a 20 min short film, with just proper editing. Instead, it is stretched to almost n hour long film, which really adds nothing at all. 2024 is not starting on a good note for me. Hector is a happily married man with a wife and a daughter living in s ams all town in Mexico. At work, his partner is leaving the company and a new guy Andre joins instead whom hector has to train. It is public knowledge that Andre is gay. Soon you see Andre starts to making moves on Hector, who mistaken by surprise and lets his displeasure known to Andre. But one day after work, Andre just kisses hector (Hell0! worktime sexual harassment anyone?).  Now, Hector can't get the kiss out of his mind and lies to his wife that he needs to go to a business trip for t...

I suspected this while watching the film, but it was not until the film ended that I was sure the film was based on the true story of Saúl Armendáriz, who became known as the “Liberace of Lucha Libre”, this is a giddily entertaining and celebratory drama that hints at the emotional bruises under the sparkly lurex leotard and false lashes. For the uninitiated This is Mexican wrestling 'Lucia libre' and 'Exóticos' are male wrestlers dressed in drag portraying gay caricatures. But n this case Saul was gay. In the hierarchy of the luchaverse, they were treated like something between a gimmick and a target. And they never, ever won, battings were about to change. We meet Saúl Armendáriz, as aspiring luchador who lives in El Paso, Texas, he’s been wrestling on the semi-pro circuit for a while. Saúl’s sexuality is an open secret among his peers, who mock him on and offstage and despite him playing the macho wrestler he still gets abuses hurled at because he is gay. He lives wi...

This actual series focuses on the life of a stripper turned firefighter trying to figure out who killed his brother. But god bless the person, who was kind enough to make a gay edit of the whole series and just focus on the storyline of Fabio and Gerardo. Even after the edit, the version is almost 2 hours 45 minutes long but is still quite engaging. The biggest advantage is that this story line felt pretty isolated and meant knowing anything at all about the main story, did not stop me from appreciating the focused gay sub-storyline of this show. I really wish more and more users, could possibly make gay edit versions of series which normally wouldn't qualify as LGBT show but have a substantial gay sub plot. Fabio is a young 20 year guy and son of Glorita, the proprietor of the local boarding house that is next to the fire station. And then we meet Gerardo, on whom Fabio has a huge crush and who is friendly with everyone. Except that Gerardo has a girlfriend who happens to be Fabio...

Don't be fooled by the poster thinking that it's a teen comedy. In contrast, it's actual a dram about a teenage boy discovering himself, his sexuality, his family, friends and most importantly who he really is. Surprisingly, I ended up enjoying this film more than I thought I would, especially after the clunky beginning. It kept getting better and thanks to a very very charming and cute leading actor, things only got better. I won't really call it just a queer film, since it is so much more than that. Chava is a 17 year old regular teenager. One day he starts getting messages from a "secret admirer" and he gets under the impression that maybe he has scored a girlfriend. What comes as a shock is that this admirer happens to be his half-sister. His father has been living a secret dual life, and bitterns out the mother knew about it and kept quiet. At the same time, Chava is dealing with his own feelings and sexuality. His swim team friend Carlos and he are hangi...