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

A Wrinkle in Time (Cinema Review) – Disney magic or misfire?

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Disney are having a huge amount of financial and critical success with live action remakes of their classic animated features, but not so much with original properties. For example, I was hyped at the prospect of Tomorrowland (2015), but was disappointed with the result and, unsurprisingly, it was a flop. This is a shame as big studios with big budgets need to take risks in order to bring fresh stories to the screen. There are successes such as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), but also some misfires along the way and unfortunately this movie is one of them.

A Wrinkle in Time is apparently a passion project for director Ava DuVernay who has been developing it for a number of years. It is based on a bestselling book series which I have never heard of. Maybe it’s that the book was huge in America or that I’ve never heard of it simply due to the fact it hasn’t already been translated to the big screen before. [Read more…]

Coco (Cinema Review) – Pixar takes us into the Mexican Day of the Dead

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Pixar have an amazing track record for producing excellent films that are both commercial successes and critically praised. As I write this I haven’t seen a film released by them that I would consider bad, and this sets them apart from all the other studios producing computer animated films.

One reason for Pixar’s strength is the fearlessness of creating unique worlds and telling self-contained stories without the desire to build franchises. Yes, I know that a few of their films have spawned sequels (and a prequel), but unlike a lot of studios in general they take their time with each project and spend it developing the story at its heart. As such one of my most anticipated films of 2018 is The Incredibles 2, and as long as Pixar continue not to rush their projects in order to reach release dates, then I welcome all of their future films with open arms. [Read more…]

The Limehouse Golem (DVD Review) – Bill Nighy investigates possibly LGBT Victorian murders

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A murderer is stalking the streets of Limehouse in Victorian London, killing viciously and spreading panic. The killer has become known as the Limehouse Golem; named after the medieval Jewish monster made of clay. Police Inspector John Kildare (Bill Nighy) is brought in to investigate, soon coming to wonder whether the killer is the recently deceased John Cree (Sam Reid).

This line of questioning introduces him to Cree’s wife, Lizzie (Olivia Cooke), as well as the world of the music hall theatre she used to work at, which is led by cross-dressing comedy star Dan Leno (Douglas Booth). The number of potential suspects continues to grow – at one point even leading Kildare to the door of Karl Marx – especially after the discovery of a book that may be the murderer’s diary. But who wrote it and why? [Read more…]

Girls On Film 2: Before Dawn (DVD Review) – The lesbian short film collection is back

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The gay-male focussed Boys On Film series is the most successful short film collection in the world, and recently celebrated its 16th instalment. A couple of years ago, it was joined by a sister release, Girls On Film, which presented a selection of lesbian-themed shorts.

Although there’s been a bit of a delay between releases, Girls On Film is back with Before Dawn, which features 11 short films from around the world. It’s an eclectic and interesting selection, so take a look at what we thought below. [Read more…]

Imperium (DVD Review)

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Movies like Imperium always have difficulty finding a wide audience, largely because people often tend to actively avoid uncomfortable truths. The fact is that is you make a movie about Muslim terrorists – people who for many western audiences are part of an undifferentiated ‘them’ – they’ll watch it, but those same people will shy away from a movie about the realities of things such as white supremacism, because they don’t want to be confronted with the fact that as big a danger might come from those who are supposedly part of ‘us’.

In the film, Daniel Radcliffe is FBI Agent Nate Foster, who’s been working on Islamic fundamentalist terrorism until he’s pulled aside by Angela Zamparo (Toni Collette), who wants him to go undercover into the white supremacist movement. The FBI knows that six canisters of radioactive material has gone missing, and their biggest clue is that a neo-Nazi radio host, Dallas Wolf (Tracy Letts), appears to know more than he ought to about it. [Read more…]

Departure (DVD Review)

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Beatrice (Juliet Stevenson) and her teenage son Elliot (Alex Lawther) head for their French summer home to pack everything up ahead of leaving it behind forever. Beatrice and her husband’s marriage is crumbling, leaving her feeling adrift but putting on a brave front for her son.

Elliot meanwhile is just finding his feet in the world and discovering his sexuality, something that gets accelerated when he meets young Frenchman Clement (Phénix Brossard). They strike up a friendship, which for Elliot is something far more, although he’s not sure how to find out if that’s true for Clement as well. [Read more…]

The Case Against 8 (DVD Review)

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For those of you who don’t keep up with the gay rights struggle in the US, in November 2008 a measure was put on the California ballot – Proposition 8 – that sought to add to the state’s constitution that marriage should be solely between one man and one woman. It was particularly contentious as for several months gay marriage had been legal in California, meaning that when the electorate voted for Prop 8, 1000s of same sex marriages were suddenly invalidated.

The Case Against 8 follows what happened after that, when it was decided that the best way forward to ensure marriage equality was legal in the most populous US State was to launch a court case that would seek to find Prop 8 as being against the overall US Constitution. [Read more…]

Sabotage (Blu-ray Review)

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There’s a tendency that even film reviewers fall into, which is to think that we always treat each individual film on its own merits. However sometimes it’s often not true. There can be a big problem when people go into a movie thinking it’s going to be one thing when actually it’s something else. As a result they judge it against their expectations not against the film itself.

I couldn’t help thinking about that while watching Sabotage, as many of the truly horrendous reviews the film have received are essentially bemoaning the fact they thought they were getting a ‘typical’ Arnie movie. However it’s not that, but the reviews still seem to view it through the lens of 80s Schwarzenegger. [Read more…]

52 Tuesdays (BFI Flare Review)

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The premise of 52 Tuesdays – Sophia Hyde’s directorial debut – is interesting. It’s a film showing every Tuesday during one year in the life of an increasingly estranged family (hence the title).

The family in question consists of James, a transgender man beginning his transition to live fully an a man; his daughter Billie who’s a rebellious and sexually curious teenager with a video camera; and a largely distant father who has a beard. Oh, and Charlie, a sexually ambiguous brother/uncle/party boy. [Read more…]

End Of Watch (Blu-ray)

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David Ayer has made a career writing and/or directing movies about gangs and the police, such as Training Day, S.W.A.T, Street Kings, Harsh Times and now End Of Watch. The movie is an attempt to bring a bit of mockumentary-style realism to the cop flick, although as viewers will soon realise, it’s actually a mix of mockumentary and extreme shaky cam (either that or Jake Gyllenhaal’s character doesn’t mind getting a friend to videotape him having sex with Anna Kendrick). [Read more…]