Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

I really don’t understand what was the point behind making this film. It was like an extended promo for gay tourism in Frankfurt. Not just any gay tourism, but something that involves drugs and sex. The story can be summed in a very short time and this film if edited well could be like a promo for gay/sex/dug tourism in Frankfurt. Kris just lands in Frankfurt to work in an underwear shop. He meets Damiano who offers to show him around Frankfurt. the night ends in a gay club with G and sex. The next day he shows up with another friend David. The trio end up in a club, drink up G ad have hot passionate sex. The third day, the trio meets two of their other friends. This sis the only time they have some conversation where they all discuss their coming out stories. The night ends up in a gay club and surprise surprise, there is more G, following a full on orgy between the 5 guys. And thats pretty much it to the film. There is constant electronic music playing in the background which ...

What a shocking, disturbing yet poetic ending! And to know that this film is actually based on a true story makes it even more interesting but not in a happy sort of way. I guess this is a film that shows harsh realities of gay life in certain regions of the world (this one focusing on eastern Europe I suppose). Its sad that whichever first world country you are living in, you may still encounter intense homophobia and similar heartbreaking stories, the moment you step out in the interiors. Szabi is a good football player, playing for Germany but is into the game only because of his father. He doesn’t really enjoy the game. He is friends with Bernard and also possibly both of them are in love with each other but can’t say so. There is definite tension which one day leads to a major fight after a game between the two of them and Szabi decides to leave Germany. He goes back to interiors of a village where he has inherited his grandfather’s home. There he meets Aron, who he catches w...

Another one of the web series, focusing on life and musings of the gay characters, this one is very innovatively titles “Gays”. :) It is set in New York city an mostly follows four twenty something gay best friends navigating the tumultuous terrain of NYC. Actually if you include the girl as well, who is an integral part of the show, you can say that it is the story of 5 young twenty-somethings. Huxley, Jackson and Natasha are room mates. Huxley and Natasha work together in a very well known restaurant. Huxley is a wanna be photographer and somehow not confident about himself and wonders if anyone will overdate him. Jackson, often referred to as a ‘bad’ person, has recently been diagnosed with brain cancer and is struggling with how to deal with it. Natasha is in her own happy world and dreams of making t big with some famous movie star. Then we have Ben, an attractive introvert, who works for a non-profit organisation and is in a long-distance relationship with Andrew from Boston...

There used to be a time when I was all about chick flicks But as I have grown up over a period of time, I just find them so annoying. The cheap teenage girls histrionics makes me cringe and wanna slap someone. Anyway, coming back to the film, the main story is about 2 19-something BFF’s and how their life an chemistry withe at other changes over a period of time owing to certain men in their life. Naomi and Ely are next door neighbours in manhattan and they have been together ever since kids. They have list of men who they can’t kiss just so that it may ruin their friendship. Also , we are told that Naomi is not totally ok with Ely being gay but she never tells him. After a few really annoying sequences, we meet few other characters. Naomi has a boyfriend Bruce who is nice and cute but she also fancies their doorman Gabriel (really yummy). She also secretly might be in love with Ely. Even when she is with Bruce, she constantly talks about Ely. One day while waiting for Naomi, Bruc...

This was an interesting and a weird film at the same time. I haven’t seen any film from Cyprus before, so its hard for me to say how developed their film industry is. I am nostrum, if that’s something that should change my views about overall film in general but personally, it does change my perspective a bit. The story has 2 parallel tracks running, whose characters occasionally cross paths. In the first we have Aliki and Andreas, a couple in their thirties, who have lost their 4 year daughter in an accident. They are leading a very depressive and mundane life which is putting their married life at risk. I got the impression that sometimes they wanted another child but other times they didn’t. Parallel , we meet Marios, a teacher in his twenties living with his mother. He is gay and satisfies his sexual urges with random hook-ups, but things change when he meets a young choreographer in his swimming club, but he is too scared to fall for him, because he doesn’t know what future w...

An interesting film. A very interesting film! Now hold-on. I didn’t say this was a good film or a bad film; I don’t know yet. Hopefully while I recollect my thoughts while writing this piece, I would have made up my mind. This Korean film would probably have found more acceptance with me, had the narrative style not been so all over the place Its takes a while to understand the whole picture and by then you are uber confused. Primarily a story of high school and adolescence, it focuses on 2 of the three friends. Yong-ju and Gi-taek are close friends. Soon we get a hint that Yong-ju is probably gay and has some very strong feelings for Gi-woong, who also happens to be the leader of the school gang. What does the gang really do besides buying, we don’t know. But they seem evil and Gi-taek is an object of their bullying on more than one ocassion. We also find outfit these 3 people used to hang out together as kids but something changed over the time and Gi-woong no longer hangs out w...

I am finding myself having seen a very similar subject recently. There have been a lot of “coming-out” stories and many film makers are trying to attempt something different with what can be easily termed as “coming-in” story. We have seen many straight man turning gay, so why not explore the reverse affect where a gay man can turn straight. I personally don’t believe in this but what the hell, I am all up for exploring the subject for a film, especially when it is dealt with a bit of humour. Jeremy finds himself waking up with a girl clearly remembering that they had sex. He is super confused because he has been living a very happy life with his boyfriend Antoine of 10 years. In fact they are even planning to get married. Jeremy’s family adores and loves Antoine. Not knowing anyone to turn to, he reaches out to his best friend Charles with whom he also runs his business abut consulting reports. Jeremy can’t get Adna, the swedish girl he slept with, out of his mind and this has af...

En El Mismo Equipo (Argentina) [On The Same Team] A young rugby player is trying to keep in the secret that he is gay, due to conformity mostly, but he struggles with it almost everyday. He longs to be free, but what exactly is freedom to the young man? He isn’t so sure himself. Good. Particularly Now, In Spring (Belgium) This is a film about the dreams you have when you are young. A seventeen year old boy reveals his life philosophy of idealism, unity and friendship amongst his mates in the sports club. Yawn ! Góðir Gestir (Iceland) [Family Reunion] New York artist Katrin struggles to come out to her relatives back in Iceland. She is struggling every minute at the family reunion about how her family is going to react. But when a very senior member whose birthday they have got together for reveals that he is gay and has decided to live with his partner together challenges all her assumptions. Things are going to be ok for her after all. Very good. Saint (Belgium) The sto...

Just finished watching 2 seasons this Australian TV Show and I absolutely loved it. Its quirky hour but that resonated with me. Th geeky, nerdy, awkward dialogues and situations is something right up my alley. An excellent take on a man’s quarter life crisis, its charming, real and extremely funny. Sure season 2 doesn’t live unto the enormous expectations that season 1 created but nonetheless it is still really good. Just in time for his 21st birthday, Josh gets dumped by his girlfriend, kisses a man for the first time, and learns that his mom, Rose, tried to commit suicide. He lives with his best friend Tom of many years who is dating this girl who totally uses him. Claire forms the trio of this friendship group and is the girl whom Josh dated. Geoffrey is the man whom Josh kisses and soon they start dating. Meanwhile since Josh’s mother’s attempted suicide, he has to start living with her to take care since she is divorced. But Josh’s father, who is now dating May, an asian girl...

What the fuck was this documentary. It was painful and embarrassing. I am all about “more power to indie film-makers”, but I think this one totally missed the boat unless I am the only odd man out who thinks this way. The story is about Jon and Daniel. Daniel’s father has just passed away and is in his hometown while Jon updates us about whats going in their lives. They are a bit of unhappy couple and are trying to deal with their issues. Jon is bipolar and Daniel is recovering alcoholic (perfect!). Daniel comes back after 2 weeks and then we hear his side of story , his past and where the couple is currently according to him. There is some more blabbering and by then I have completely lost interest in them. The film ends with the couple telling us thatchy have decided to go with long distance relationship since Daniel will move with his mom and Jon is not ready to move with him because he has a life. First of all, when these are such trying times in their life; one has lost his f...

Boulevard is a movie about choosing truth, regardless of how many years may have been lost to a lie. Watching Robin Williams film attempt a very serious role was one of the reasons that got me attracted to watch this film. Most coming-out films talk about youth but this one is different because certain events in his life trigger the changes that lead to our main protagonists accepting the truth about himself. Nolan, in his sixties, is a married man with a very routine & monotonous life. His days are spent in bank and at home his relationship with his wife is more of companions. They sleep in different rooms. He has a best friend Winston whom he occasionally spends time with. His father is in a care house and is dying. One night while driving home after visiting his father he accidentally runs into a gay hooker and befriend him. He starts confronting his closeted homosexuality. The young guy is Leo, who doesn’t mind spending just time with Nolan, listening to what he has to tal...

I am not sure what category does this film fall into. The film came out in 1999 and focuses on the central character of a gay middle aged professor. A mix of psychological drama, sexual bramble. It also has a few parallel stories going on and how the lives of some of these people intertwine with each other. By the way, the poster of the film is quite misleading. This film is definitely not a sleaze fest. Jaume is a middle aged professor who is dying (we don’t know of what). His best friend os fellow university friend Pere, who Jaume loved all his life but is now his best friend. Here has a lovely wife and a 19 year old daughter, who has just found out that she is pregnant. The child is of David, a rebel-without-a-cause kind of college student. Pere hates David while Jaume thinks that he is one of the most brilliant students, albeit a rebel and Jaume finds himself falling in love with David. He is shocked when he finds out that David actually hustles as a male prostitute to make mo...

This was a weird film to understand. I tried hard and wanted to understand and was hoping that something logical will come out of it but unfortunately it didn’t. It doesn’t mean that film was bad or story was odd. The problem according to me is the way the treatment was done of the film. Constant flashbacks and pretty much no explanation of anything that happened in the past just adds to more confusion. Having to write the synopsis now itself is a task because that will completely depend on what my understanding of the film was. By the way, also it is not really a gay film. It might be gay interest because of Clemen's character but thats it. Leo is Sugar, Clemens is Orange. Together, they are two ten-year-old boys who are inseparable, really close friends. Cut to current day, when Leo is all grown up, running a club and has jus stated a romantic relationship with Lena who turns his feelings upside down and awakens his inner child, the one still searching for unconditional frie...

This Taiwanese film is more about political movement than a gay film, per say.  Set in 1980s Taiwanese sociopolitical reformation movement, it just happens to have a gay character who is also very central to the plot. Interestingly according to the director, he wanted to focus on freedom and in fact both politics and homosexuality represent that theme. I may not necessarily agree with him. But at least that gives an insight into his idea behind making this film. Starting in 1985, we are introduced to three Taiwan high-schoolers Mabel, Liam and Aaron. All of them are activists rebelling against the martial law during the turbulent period of 1980s Taiwan. On the personal side, Mabel loves Liam a lot, but Liam doesn't really have a feeling for her. So she ends up falling in love with Aaron instead, who constantly pursues her once Liam tells him that she is not his girlfriend. Liam, in the meantime, is actually a closeted homosexual who's been longing for Aaron. Another few ye...

This was a very interestingly done documentary-drama that depicts the social scene that revolved around Der Kreis (The Circle), a gay publication in Zurich, in the 1940s and 1950s. The magazine was published from 1932 to 1967 and distributed internationally and was also used as a scapegoat for the murders of several gay men in the city. The docudrama primarily focusses on relationship of Ernst Ostertag and Röbi Rapp, which is told through documentary interviews with this sweet elderly couple and a conscientious dramatization of their courtship in the 1950s. The Circle, is not a magazine but is also a gay community within itself. This is during the time when things in Zurich were a bit more lenient compared to anywhere else in the world. This is where Ernst and Robi meet. Ernst is a girls high school teacher while Robi is the main drag act performer for the club’s ball parties. We see how the two lovers meet and their story goes forward. Things are done in secrecy but it is still i...