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 Last Straight Man (DVD Review)

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I have to say when I read the synopsis for The Last Straight Man I was a little concerned. It all seemed a tad gimmicky, with the kind of ambition that few low-budget, gay-themed movies can live up to. Thankfully though I was pleasantly surprised when I actually saw the movie.

There aren’t many gay films that open with a scene in which a female stripper is dancing for a bunch of guys – indeed you’d think it was anathema for this type of flick – but it’s Cooper’s (Scott Sell) bachelor party and so strippers are the order of the day. At the end of the evening Cooper is left with his best friend Lewis (Mark Cirillo), talking about their lives and loves – however Cooper doesn’t know Lewis is bisexual (on his way to accepting he’s gay), and when he admits that fact, Lewis is pleased that Cooper is surprised but not horrified. [Read more…]

Campaign Of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda (US DVD)

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In the last year Michael Lucas hasn’t just done a U-turn in his porn empire by allowing performers to go condom-free, he’s also struck out into the legit film arena as a documentarian. A few months ago he released Undressing Israel, which presented an incredibly rosy image of LGBT life in that country, and now comes Campaign Of Hate, which paints a pretty gloomy picture of life for gay people in Putin’s Russia. [Read more…]

Byzantium (DVD)

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Neil Jordan has always been interested in the supernatural, from the werewolves of The Company Of Wolves to the mermaids of Ondine. He also had great success with bloodsuckers in Interview With The Vampire. Now he returns to vamps for a very different movie, Byzantium.

Clara (Gemma Arterton) and her younger sister, Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan), are constantly moving around, and this time end up in a run-down English seaside town, where they are taken in by the gentle Noel (Daniel Mays). Clara is soon back to her old tricks of setting herself up as a brothel madam, while Eleanor attempts to once more settle into a new environment. [Read more…]

Bashment (DVD)

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JJ has dreams of making it big in the reggae dancehall scene, although that’s not going to be easy for a white boy from Bristol. After moving to London with his boyfriend, Orlando, JJ impresses with his skills at the Urban Slam Finals, showing up the current kings of the dancehall, The Ilford Maniacs, in the process.

Not long after JJ comes out on stage, the Maniacs launch a brutal attack on Orlando, leaving him severely injured and brain damaged. After the attackers are charged with the violent assault, the trial comes down to whether they were motivated by homophobia and anger that JJ had done so well at the competition, or whether they were provoked because they heard Orlando say the word ‘nigger’. [Read more…]

The Hunt (DVD)

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Winner of Best Actor and a couple of other prizes at Cannes, The Hunt comes to DVD with a great pedigree behind it. It would have probably got a Best Foreign Language Oscar nomination too, except that Denmark decided to submit A Royal Affair (also starring Mads Mikkelsen) instead, and each country is only allowed one film in the race.

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg (Festen), the film is about Lucas (Mikkelsen), who works at a local nursery school. He’s involved in a custody fight with his son, but things look up when it appears his kid will be coming to live with him. [Read more…]

A Perfect Ending (DVD)

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Rebecca (Barbara Niven) is a rather uptight, middle-aged, middle-class women who’s used to getting what she wants – from everyone except her prig of a husband (John Heard) – but there’s one thing she’s never had; an orgasm. When she confides her secret to some friends they suggest she hire an escort. After all, who will know how to pleasure a woman better than another woman? [Read more…]

Battleship Potemkin & Drifters (Blu-ray/DVD)

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While a lot of people will have heard of Battleship Potemkin (although relatively few have actually seen it), there are far fewer who know anything about Drifters. And even if you have heard of it, you might still be wondering what a Soviet propaganda movie about a 1905 mutiny and a documentary-style film about herring fishing are doing together on the same disc.

What this unexpected yet rather cleverly thought out DVD & Blu-ray dual-format release from the BFI does is recreate what’s been described as ‘the most celebrated double-bill in film history’, when these two movies screened at the Tivoli cinema on London’s Strand, on November 10th, 1929. [Read more…]

Suicide Room (DVD)

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The Polish film Suicide Room is a strange beast; a tale of teenage angst and depression set partly in the real world and partly in a CG online realm (the titular Suicide Room). Dominik (Jakub Gierzal) is a rather emo teen, who’s surrounded by friends and thinks life is his oyster. However, after he’s dared to snog a good looking guy by his friends, he finds his sense of acceptance spiralling downwards, which gets worse when he has an orgasm during a particularly frenetic judo bout with the boy he kissed. His former friends begin mercilessly making fun of him online as his private struggle with his sexuality takes a very public form. [Read more…]

Sinister (Cinema)

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Sinister should be rubbish. The plot is rather silly, numerous things happen that make little sense (and not just because of supernatural shenanigans), and it has a title so generic its feels like they simple couldn’t be assed. However thanks to some excellent make-you-jump moments, a mystery plot that holds enough interest to keep you watching and a creepy atmosphere, it’s a surprisingly effective chiller.

Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt, a writer of true-crime books who moves his family to a small town to investigate the murder of four members of a family, and the disappearance of a small girl, for which no perpetrator has ever been found. What he hasn’t told his wife and kids is that the house they’ve moved into is the one where the family were hung from a tree in the backyard. [Read more…]

360 (Cinema)

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Very loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1900 play La Ronde, Fernando Meirelles’ movie tells a series of interconnected tales, stretching across the globe, all of which are loosely ties by looking at sexual politics and the ties of human connections, no matter how brief.

Meirelles showed his skill with complex ensemble tales with City Of God, but 360 is a slower affair, more meditative than the driving energy of his Brazilian favela movie. Amongst the many stories are Jude Law and Rachel Weisz’s married couple, who both find themselves in adulterous situations. Anthony Hopkins is an older man looking for his lost daughter, who makes a random connection with a young Brazilian woman. Ben Foster is fresh out of prison after a six-year stretch for paedophilia, trying to withstand the temptations and distractions of the outside world. There’s also a prostitute sent to an appointment with a brutish Russian businessman, while her sister makes friends with a man outside, whose marriage is on the rocks. [Read more…]