Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Donnie Darko (2-Disc Blu-ray Review) – Donnie & Frank the rabbit get an upgrade

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Quite often, movies that were quirky, unusual flavours-of-the-month have been quietly forgotten after 15 years, and when you do come across them again, you wonder what all the fuss was about. Not so with Donnie Darko, which retains both its cult and mainstream appeal, with enough love that it recently got a small cinema re-release and now Arrow Video have come up with one hell of a Blu-ray package for it.

Not only do you get the film in both its Theatrical and Director’s Cut form, but they’re based on a brand new 4K restoration supervised by Richard Kelly (although by necessity it’s only 2K resolution on the Blu-ray), and it comes with an almost ridiculous amount of special features both old and new. [Read more…]

Nowhere (DVD)

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The third part of Gregg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy, following Totally F***ed Up and The Doom Generation, is just as nuts and in your face as the earlier movies. Like many of Araki’s films it’s a strange movie that’s difficult to quantify or fully understand. All of Araki’s early film have the sense of him trying to create a screenplay that’s like a net being wafted through the air attempting to capture the spirit of the time. Nowhere is perhaps the most successful of his films at doing that. [Read more…]

Alyce (DVD)

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Call me a traditionalist, but I think when you make a film you should just make one, not three different ones of completely different tone, all pretending to be a single movie. Alyce starts off as an indie drama, turns into a trippy psychological thriller before becoming almost absurdist horror by the end.

Alyce and her best friend Carroll are out for a night of fun, where they drink, take drugs and flirt outrageously. However, it all goes wrong when Alyce accidentally knocks her friend off the roof of her apartment building. If that weren’t enough, she then lies to the police, saying it had nothing to do with her. The fib get more complicated when it turns out Carroll isn’t dead and will be able to say what really happened when she recovers enough. [Read more…]

The Doom Generation (DVD)

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The second part of Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy – after Totally F***ed Up and before Nowhere – The Doom Generation holds a special place as one of the few films that truly helps define mid-90s indie cinema. It’s a movie that feeds off Generation X nihilism and the anger of post-punk youth to create a road trip film that feels both meaningful and pointless at the same time.

Amy (Rose McGowan) and her slightly dim boyfriend Jordan (James Duval) are out one night when their paths cross that of drifter Xavier (Johnathan Schaech). While Amy at first wants nothing to do with him, a strange bond develops after Xavier saves her life by literally shooting a gun-toting shop owner’s head off. [Read more…]