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

Dressed To Kill (Blu-ray)

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For years Brian De Palma has carried around the moniker of being a Hitchcock imitator, and it is perhaps Dressed To Kill more than any of his other movies that’s the cause of that. While it is its own beast, it’s hard to escape the fact that the movie borrows liberally from Hitchcock, particularly Vertigo and Psycho – from killing off the main character partway through to a fascination with sex and perversion.

However it’s slightly like Hitchcock on acid, as it’s far more overblown than the master, which has led to accusations of sexism and transphobia. Various people have tried to explain away these claims over the years, but it does sometimes seem like Dressed To Kill is punishing its characters for not conforming to sex and gender norms. [Read more…]

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (DVD)

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Alex Gibney has made his name with often angry, slightly polemical documentaries such as Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room (about the corruption behind the then biggest bankruptcy in US history), Taxi To The Dark Side (about torture practices at Guantanamo) and the upcoming We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (which you won’t be surprised to hear is about Julian Assange and his website).

With Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God he sets his sights on the Catholic Church and their response to decades of allegations concerning priests molesting children. It does this by focussing on the St. John School for the Deaf in the Milwaukee and Father Laurence Murphy, who taught there from 1950 to 1974. Eventually it was determined that he molested at least 200 boys in that time. [Read more…]

The Sex Of Angels (DVD)

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For about the first 20 minutes of Sex Of Angels, I felt primed to dislike it. I was trying to be open-minded, but as the plot unfolded it looked like it was going to hit on some of my biggest bugbears about LGBT-themed movies. However as it continued it turned out to be a lot smarter and more involving than it first seemed.

My issue with it initially was that it appeared to be yet another movie about a ‘straight’ guy in a relationship with a woman, who cheats on her, yet we’re supposed to think it’s okay because he cheats of her with a guy – which in the lexicon of gay movies often doesn’t get treated as ‘real’ infidelity. The guy in question is Bruno (Llorenc Gonzalez), who’s been with Carla (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) since he was young. [Read more…]

Accident (DVD)

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1967’s Accident is the second of three collaborations between director Joseph Losey and playwright Harold Pinter, although less seen than either The Servant or The Go-Between. Among the cognoscenti, many consider it to be the best of their films together, but is that because it really is great, or just because these people like being contrary and sounding like they have rarefied tastes? Well, probably more of the former than the latter, although it’s not without interest. [Read more…]

Magic Mike (DVD)

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While there was a lot of interest in Magic Mike before it was released in cinemas, I don’t think many people suspected that this $7 million budgeted movie would pull in over $100 million at the US box office, or get quite so many people so excited. There’s little doubt much of the interest in the film is that while women are routinely sexualised in cinemas, its rarer for a film to come along that offers the girls and gay guys something to get hot under the collar about, with male characters unabashedly served up for their sexual delectation. [Read more…]

Margin Call (DVD)

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While the financial crisis has been one of the biggest global events since the Second World War, the film industry has had difficulty dealing with it. Part of the reason for that is the fear that if you just have a bunch of people sitting around talking about numbers, the audience’s eyes will glaze over and they’ll start heading for the exit. However writer/director J.C. Chandor trusts that not everyone completely zones out if things aren’t simple, and also realises that if you get a great bunch of actors together, you can take on subjects that might initially seem dull, but can still actually make a really good film. [Read more…]

Sex Of Angels – Iris Prize Best Feature Winner Review

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Dancer Bruno is happily in love with his girlfriend, Carla…or so he thinks. Then martial artist and fellow dancer Rai steals his heart. Now the sensitive Carla must overcome her jealousy and accept her boyfriend’s tryst with Rai, but can she keep from falling for him herself? This simple narrative explores the complex issues that arise when three people share feelings but cannot choose which person is the one for them.

Some films are so unassuming in their simplicity you casually approach them with no expectations of nuanced complexity, rich narrative substance and convincing portrayal of subtly accentuated characters. Then they simply blow you away. [Read more…]

The Landlord (DVD)

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A lot of directors get labelled as being ‘one of a kind’, but in the case of Hal Ashby it really was true. With his hippie spirit and amazing eye for human connections, he made wonderful films like Harold And Maude, Shampoo, Coming Home, Bound For Glory and Being There. However it all started with his debut movie, 1970’s The Landlord.

A young Beau Bridges stars as Elgar Enders, a 29-year-old from a very well-to-do family who’s been feeling increasingly stifled living at home with his overbearing mother. He buys a house on a run down, inner city street, with the plan of getting the tenants out, doing it up and helping with the gentrification of the area. However he soon finds the tenants aren’t interested in leaving, and Elgar begins to find a new life there far from the one he grew up in. He even starts to date a mixed-race woman, something his mother is less than impressed by. [Read more…]

Leave It On The Floor (DVD)

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I’ve always thought it was odd there weren’t more explicitly gay musicals, but that’s probably because they’re surprisingly tough to put together and shoot. As a result it’s difficult to get one to the screen on with type of budget that most gay-themed entertainment has to play with. But Leave It On The Floor isn’t just a rare gay musical, it also deals with queer people of colour (or QPOC as it’s sometimes termed), and a whole spectrum of gender and self-expression that’s often avoided or side-lined in gay movies.

Brad (Ephraim Sykes) is a young man who gets thrown out by his mother after she discovers he’s gay. He finds a new home in the world of ball culture, an underground scene in which different ‘houses’, largely made up of gay and transgendered black people, compete on a catwalk/dancefloor to see who is the most vibrant, stylish, fierce and fabulous. Brad is befriended by Princess (Phillip Evelyn), who takes him to a house run by Queef Latina (Miss Barbie-Q), who isn’t initially impressed by this interloper into her domain. However as Brad begins to find acceptance and perhaps a love interest in the tricky Carter (Andre Myers), tragedy is around the corner. [Read more…]

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Cinema)

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It turns out Abraham Lincoln wasn’t just a lawyer who became the President of the United States and led the winning side in the Civil War – he actually did it all to battle the undead. Well, at least that’s what happens in this version of history.

As a child, Abe watches as a vampire sucks the life from his mother, an event which shapes his entire life, so that once he’s grown (into the form of Benjamin Walker), he wants nothing more than to kill the man responsible. After an attempt to shoot the vamp goes wrong – he’s not using the sort of ammunition that can kill bloodsuckers – he’s saved by Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper). Turns out Sturgess makes it his mission to destroy bad vampires, and trains Lincoln up to take on the undead. [Read more…]