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

Dunkirk (Blu-ray Review) – Christopher Nolan goes to war in impressive fashion

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Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors who can pretty much make any movie he wants. Thanks to the success of unconventional big budget movies such as Interstellar and Inception – and of course The Dark Knight trilogy – Warner Bros. trusts him to deliver. On the surface Dunkirk seems a more straightforward proposition as it’s a World War II movie, but as this is Nolan, he’s not going to make a war film quite like anyone else.

For a start there’s remarkably little dialogue and while there are main characters, we learn comparatively little about them. Likewise, while it’s about an incredibly famous event, it’s not interested in being an exposition-heavy historical overview, complete with officers pushing little boats around a war-room map to explain to us what’s going on. Instead it’s a film that wants to create a sense of realism about the events it’s talking about. It also has an almost puzzle-box nature – three intercut stories each taking place at a slightly different time – helping to create a sense of the chaos and uncertainty for those caught up in the events of late Spring 1940. [Read more…]

Dunkirk (Cinema Review) – One of the best war movies ever made?

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Christopher Nolan is a franchise. Much like the Spielberg summer releases of yesteryear or any film by Stanley Kubrick, there is a devoted audience who can’t wait to see the director’s next film. More often than not, Nolan’s movies are original (to a degree), stand alone and the studio has faith in the director’s abilities.

Nolan’s relationship with Warner Brothers seems to be going from strength to strength and I’ve read that he has a tendency to deliver his movies under budget and before the scheduled deadline.

I also like to believe that the pitch meetings go something like:
Nolan: “I have this idea for my next film.”
Warner’s: “Great, sounds excellent! Here, have some money and let us know once it’s done!” [Read more…]

Personal Shopper (Blu-ray Review) – Things get creepy and possibly paranormal for Kristen Stewart

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Personal Shopper got a strange reaction on its Cannes debut. It was booed at the critics screening, but then got a standing ovation at the official showing. It eventually won Best Director for Olivier Assayas. Even when it was released in cinemas, the reviews were incredibly polarised. Some said it was a ‘masterwork’, while others thought it was total mess. As so often with these things, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Maureen (Kristen Stewart) is working as a personal shopper/assistant for a rich, snooty celebrity in Paris. However, she also has some psychic ability, and is trying to connect to her twin brother Lewis, who died in France from a congenital condition that could also kill Maureen. [Read more…]

1:54 (BFI Flare Review) – Things get extremely dark for a bullied gay teen

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At BFI Flare, 1:54 was a rather polarising movie, with some praising the dark repercussions of teen homophobia it explores, whilst others felt it was all a little contrived – one person even called it exploitative.

Tim (Antoine Olivier Pilon) is a teenager who has spent years being bullied, which has grown increasingly homophobic in nature. His only friend is Francis (Robert Naylor), and while both feel an attraction to each other, they both ignore it, at least in Tim’s case because of the fear of what will happen if others – particularly the group led by the unpleasant Jeff – discover he really is a ‘fag’. [Read more…]

Girls Lost (Cinema Review)

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There have been quite a lot of films about people who have magically become a different gender to the one they were assigned at birth. However, most have failed because their ideas about gender were rather facile, and despite pretending otherwise they still treated the idea of a man becoming a woman or vice versa as a punchline. It’s great then to find a film that’s a bit smarter about a ‘gender swap’, which takes gender issues seriously and uses its magical setup to explore trans issues in an interesting and different way.

The movie follows teenagers Kim, Bella and Momo, who are the misfits of their school. They manage to grow a special flower, which when they drink its nectar, allows them to outwardly become boys. The nectar gives them a chance to experience life as young men, which includes both excitement and a feeling of power, but also confusion and the risk of violence. Bella and Momo enjoy their time as guys, but for them it’s a fun diversion. However, Kim increasingly begins to feel that being a man is right and who she should really be. [Read more…]

Sing Street (Blu-ray Review)

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John Carney had great success with the Oscar-winning Once, but his follow-up, Begin Again, wasn’t so well received. However, he’s back on top with Sing Street, a great, Irish coming-of-age flick, which like his earlier movies is infused throughout with music.

Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is surprised when he’s pulled out of his private school and sent to a local Catholic school, which he soon discovers is more like a containment zone for out of control kids than an educational establishment, not helped by the fact it’s run by an overgrown bully. After the culture shock settles, Conor decides to do what many before him have done to attempt to impress a girl he’s met – start a band. [Read more…]

Eddie The Eagle (Blu-ray Review)

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Anyone British who was around in the 80s will probably remember Michael ‘Eddie’ Edwards, the unlikely figure who became an international sensation at the 1988 Winter Olympics, not due to the fact he was so good, but because he defied what you would normally think an Olympian would be when he took to the semi-suicidal slopes of the ski jump. Eddie The Eagle gives us a fictionalised take on that story.

Eddie (Taron Egerton) has long wanted to be an Olympian, but coming from a humble background he doesn’t have some of the advantages of others, and nor does the British Olympic Committee thinks he’s Olympic material – or at least that he’s not posh enough. His father (Keith Allen) thinks he should just give up and become a plasterer like him, but then Eddie has an idea – to become a ski jumper. Britain hasn’t sent a ski jumper to the Olympics since the 1920s, and under the rules in the 1980s, that means he should get an automatic place if he signs up to compete. [Read more…]

Pixels (Blu-ray Review)

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Things have gone crazy with the world in Pixels. For a start we’re supposed to believe the American people have voted Kevin James to be their President, and also that if the POTUS is your bestie, you’re still going to have to work as a home entertainment installer. If that doesn’t suggest things are bad enough, the world is suddenly attacked by aliens whose army takes the form of 1980s 8-bit video game characters – from Centipede to Space Invaders – and starts destroying things by pixelating them.

The military can’t defeat them as they don’t know the rules of the games, so it’s down to Brenner (Adam Sandler), Ludlow (Josh Gad) and the arrogant and unstable Eddie (Peter Dinklage) – who were videogame champions when they were kids in the 80s – to take down the unusual invaders. [Read more…]

Futuro Beach (Cinema Review)

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Futuro Beach had a good run at film festivals following its debut in Berlin. That’s not really too surprising, as it’s the sort of movie that does well at fests, as it’s keen to show cinema as art and also present film more as a sensory and philosophical experience than simply as straightforward storytelling. As a result it’s not a film for everyone, but some will find it entrancing.

The movie is split into three chapters, the first introducing us to closeted Brazilian lifeguard Donato (Wagner Moura), who manages to save a German man called Konrad (Clemens Schick) from drowning, but is unable to rescue Konrad’s friend whose body is lost at sea. With both of them in need of solace and affirmation they sleep together. That leads to a relationship and the second chapter, where Donato follows Konrad back to Berlin. This gives Donato the chance to explore his sexuality and the possibilities of life away from the pressures of family and Brazilian society. However, not everything runs smooth for the couple. [Read more…]

Big Eyes (Blu-ray Review)

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Except for a few moments, Big Eyes is Tim Burton’s least Tim Burton-y movie for a long time. In fact it’s a relatively low key and straightforward affair which relies on the fact it’s got an interesting story to tell and knows that when you have actors like Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, it’s often best to just get out of their way and allow them to shine.

The film tells the true story of Margaret (Adams), who leaves her husband and heads for San Francisco with her young daughter where she hopes to make money from her art. That proves difficult, until she meets Walter Keane (Waltz), who also selling paintings and charms her with his stories of studying at a prestigious Parisian art school. [Read more…]