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

Mr. Turner (Blu-ray Review)

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Mr. Turner is one of those films that ought to be interminable. It doesn’t follow a traditional plot, just showing you things happening to the famed painter Joseph William Mallord Turner in the last quarter century of his life. However it possesses a surprising charming, which is even more impressive when you consider the 150 minute running time.

While it may not be plot heavy, that’s not to say it lacks incident, with Turner loved by some, loved by others and living a life that is part high society, part working class and part living by the rules of his own desires. He is profoundly affected by his father’s death, and for a mid 19th Century man possesses an attitude to women that ranges from extremely forward-thinking to the extremely base – working with a female natural scientist but simultaneously taking sexual advantage of his servant – before ending up secretly living with a woman he never marries. [Read more…]

We Are The Canvas In A New Mr. Turner Poster

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Mr-Turner-quadFollowing some amazing reviews at Cannes, Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner is heading towards its October 31st UK release.

To get us interested a new quad poster has been released, where Timothy Spall literally treats it like a canvas.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘‘MR. TURNER’ explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) [played by Timothy Spall]. Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.’

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Queer Filmmaker Xavier Dolan Picks Up Jury Prize At Cannes For Mommy

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xavier-dolan-cannesXavier Dolan may have missed out on the Queer Palm at Cannes for Mommy (that award went to the Brit flick Pride), but at the main awards ceremony he had more to smile about, as his movie tied for the Jury Prize with Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language.

And Godard is certainly not bad company to be in! Some have already commented on whether it’s Cannes almost passing the baton, as the precocious Dolan is often said to be one of the most interesting new voices, while Goodbye To Language may be the legendary Godard’s final film.

In Mommy, ‘A widowed single mom finds herself burdened with the full-time custody of her explosive 15-year-old ADHD son. As they try to make ends meet and struggle with their impetuous and unpredictable ménage, the new girl across the street, Kyla, benevolently offers needed support. Together, they find a new sense of balance, and hope is regained.’

25-year-old queer filmmaker Dolan previously picked up the Queer Palm a couple of years ago for Laurence Anyways, and two awards at Cannes for his directorial debut, I Killed My Mother.

He wasn’t the only 2014 winner though, as Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep picked up the big prize, the Palm d’Or. Bennett Miller added to the excellent reviews for Foxcatcher with a Best Director win, while Julianne Moore picked up Best Actress for David Cronenberg’s Map To The Stars. The wonderful Timothy Spall meanwhile, won Best Actor for Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner. [Read more…]

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Mr. Turner Trailer – Take a look at Mike Leigh’s Cannes fave

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Mike Leigh rarely makes a bad movie and that seems to be continuing with Mr. Turner, which is getting some very favourable notices at Cannes.

And now we can take a look with a new trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘‘MR. TURNER’ explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) [played by Timothy Spall]. Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty. [Read more…]

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The Rise Trailer – Luke Treadaway & Matthew Lewis get into Brit crime

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Although it did the festival rounds under the title The Wasteland, this new Brit crime flick is now going by the name The Rise. Empire has debuted the trailer for the movie, which hits UK cinemas on September 20th (and DVD on September 30th).

It’s got a pretty good cast, including Luke Treadaway (Attack The Block), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom in Harry Potter), Iwan Rheon (Misfits) and Timothy Spall.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Battered, bruised and under arrest, Harvey Miller (Luke Treadaway) sits in a police interview room facing interrogation. Clutching a stack of eyewitness statements, Detective Inspector West (Timothy Spall) has no doubt in Harvey’s part in a foiled robbery, and his subsequent attempted murder of local businessman Steven Roper. Denying everything, Harvey agrees to tell his version of events in full. We take in his release from prison a month earlier, and the malevolent, unjust act that put him in there. We see his emotional reunion with his sibling-like best friends, and the immovable loyalty they have for one another. We see the rekindling of a lost love, a second chance for two people meant for each other. We see the ingenious planning of the ill-fated robbery, the amazing twist, the shocking outcome and the real driving force behind it – retribution. What unfolds is an exhilarating, moving and hilarious story of loyalty, jealousy, friendship, revenge and the pursuit of happiness.’ [Read more…]

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Love Bite (DVD)

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Love Bite was probably hoping for big things by mixing Inbetweeners style teen comedy with a dash of Brit horror, but the results are underwhelming and sometimes rather nasty – and not because of the gore (of which there isn’t that much, to be honest).

Jamie (Ed Speleers) is a young guy living in the dead-end town of Rainmouth, a place where nothing happens and the only thing to do is hang around with his sex obsessed mates. Their only desire in life seems to be to get laid, while Jamie has bigger ideas and remains a virgin (no matter what he’s told his friends). [Read more…]

Blandings (DVD)

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While Britain loves to make period dramas, period comedies are a much rarer beast, but we’ve got one with Blandings, based on P.G. Wodehouse’s numerous book and short stories set at Blandings Castle. The series pulls together some great comic talent, such as Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders and Mark Williams for six 30-minute episodes of entertaining silliness.

Spall is Lord Clarence Emsworth, a rather bumbling fellow who’s more interested in his prize pig than being what’s expected of the landed gentry and master of a stately pile. His rather loose, haphazard style endlessly frustrates his sister, Lady Connie (Jennifer Saunders), who’s constantly trying to bring some order and gentility to the castle, and rarely succeeding. [Read more…]

Sam Worthington Up For The Riders

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While he waits for James Cameron to finally get ready to shoot the sequels to Avatar, Sam Worthington has been busy filming up his schedule. Now he’s attached to another movie, The Riders, according to Moviehole.

Based on a novel by Tim Winter, the film is about an ‘Australian expatriate Scully (Worthington) who prepares to start a new life with his wife Jennifer and young daughter Bille in Ireland. His life is blown apart when he goes to the airport to meet his family, but finds only Billie and no message from his missing wife. With Billie in tow, he travels to Korcula and Paris in search of Jennifer: beginning a journey of self discovery that will alter the course of his life in ways he could never have envisaged.’

Timothy Spall and Charles Dance are also set for the movie, which will shoot on the Dalmatian Coast and in Paris, with Robert Connolly directing. The plan is for the film to be ready for release by January 2014.

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Comes A Bright Day (DVD)

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Director Simon Aboud (who’s Paul McCartney’s son-in-law, no less) assembles a good, small cast for the Comes A Bright Day, including Submarine’s Craig Roberts, 28 Weeks Later’s Imogen Poots, Grey’s Anatomy’s Kevin McKidd and the always excellent Timothy Spall. Roberts plays a young Sam, who bigs himself up when he meets a pretty girl called Mary (Poots) who assumes he’s rich because of the watch he’s wearing. He heads to the upmarket jewellery store where she works to ask her out, just in time for a pair of armed robbers to turn up.

The store’s owner (Spall) trips the alarm, and soon he and the two young people are being held hostage by the sociopathic Cameron (McKidd) and his nervous young accomplice Clegg (Josef Atlin). As the robbers try to negotiate with the police and find a way out, the danger inside the shop increases, with Cameron always on the edge of going loco and killing somebody. As Mary begins to discover Sam has been lying to her about his job and wealth, his position becomes even more dangerous when she begins to think he may be in on the robbery. [Read more…]