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

The Casual Vacancy (DVD Review)

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Considering it’s based on a book by JK Rowling and was high profile enough for the BBC to make it in co-operation with HBO, The Casual Vacancy wasn’t given as massive a push when it aired on TV as you might expect. That’s probably because despite being based on a novel by the Harry Potter author, it’s far more low key and adult than her earlier work.

Indeed, the main complaint about both the book and three-part TV series is that not a huge amount happens, and what does happen often appears, on the surface at least, to be of only marginal consequence. There is a point to most of it, but it takes a bit of work to figure out what that is. [Read more…]

Fortitude – Season 1 (DVD Review)

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I enjoyed Fortitude but there is a slight sense with the 12-part series that a bunch of people sat in a room and came up with a list of TV shows they liked, and then tried to put together something that included a little bit of all of them. As a result there are echoes of Broadchurch, Lost, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, The Killing and various other things.

Indeed it gets to the point where it’s difficult not to feel the series ends up as something rather different from how it begins, to the point that those who were hoping for the initial murder-mystery might feel a little cheated when it goes a little sci-fi (even if it is very much at the softer, more realistic end of sci-fi). However, those who are open and stick with it are likely to find it rewarding. [Read more…]

Cheyenne Jackson Joins Alfred Molina In Ira Sach’s Love is Strange

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Cheyenne JacksonBack in January it was revealed that Keep The Lights On director Ira Sachs was busy putting together his next movie, and he’d signed Alfred Molina and Michael Gambon to star. Now another actor has signed up, with Deadline reporting that Cheyenne Jackson is onboard.

The film features Gambon and Molina as Ben and Jorge, a couple who’ve been together a long time and decide to get married in New York now that gay marriage is legal there. However following their nuptials Jorge gets fired, which forces them to temporarily live apart.

Ben moves in with his nephew and his wife (Tracy Letts and Kelly Reilly), while Jorge moves in with Ted (Jackson) and his partner Nahlin, both of whom are police officers.

Jackson is currently starring in Behind The Candelabra, as Liberace’s spurned lover, and recently shot a film adaptation of Richard Alfieri’s Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks, opposite Gena Rowlands.

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Quartet (Blu-ray)

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A couple of years ago, if you’d put a bet on Dustin Hoffman’s first movie as a director being about a bunch of musicians in a British old folks home, you would have been very rich when Quartet opened. It’s a surprising choice for the veteran actor, especially as it’s such a quintessentially British movie, but he has a steady hand behind the camera, and also ensured he had some pretty powerful acting talent in front of the camera. [Read more…]

Alfred Molina & Michael Gambon Getting Married For Keep The Lights On Director Ira Sachs

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michael-gambon-alfred-molina-ira-sachsFor many people, Ira Sachs’ Keep The Lights On was the gay movie of 2012, earning huge critical plaudits and several awards. Now the helmer is plotting his follow up and thanks to the success of Keep The Lights On, he’s getting some better known names to help him.

Deadline reports it’s emerged at Sundance that Michael Gambon and Alfred Molina are attached to play a married couple in Love Is Strange, which like Sachs’ earlier film, will look at the ups and downs of a gay relationship.

The film will see Gambon and Molina as a couple who’ve been together a long time and decide to get married in New York (where gay marriage is legal). However following their nuptials, they’re forced to live apart.

The plan is to shoot the movie this summer in NYC.

It’s fitting that news of the movie has been revealed at Sundance, as Keep The Lights On got its world premiere at the festival last year.

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British Legends Of Stage & Screen (DVD)

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At the end of British Legends Of Stage & Screen I got the distinct impression that you weren’t allowed to be an actor from the 1940s to the 1980s unless Sir Laurence Olivier said so. I’m sure it wasn’t quite as strict as that, but of the eights actors interviewed here, seven have Olivier based stories and six owe a large chunk of their early success to him. The only ones who don’t are Glenda Jackson and Christopher Lee, but even he claims to have snuck onto the set of Hamlet and hung around in the background. [Read more…]

Quartet Trailer – Take a fresh look at Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut

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It’s interesting that after a 50-year acting career, Dustin Hoffman would decide that his directorial debut should be about British retirees, but considering the success of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, perhaps he’s onto something. Quartet, based on Ronald Harwood’s play, screened at the London Film Festival a few days ago, and now a new trailer has arrive. The film is about Cecily (Pauline Collins), Reggie (Tom Courteney) and Wilfred (Billy Connolly), who are in a home for retired opera singers. Every year, on October 10the, there is a concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday and they take part. Jean (Maggie Smith), who used to be married to Reggie, arrives at the home and disrupts their equilibrium. She still acts like a diva, but she refuses to sing. Still, the show must go on… and it does. The film is currently due out in the UK on January 4th, 2013.

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