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Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Centre of my World - on DVD now

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Something Like Summer (Outfest Review) – Lovers become frenemies in the gay-themed, coming-of-age musical

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I’m still surprised there aren’t more gay-themed musicals, but we’ve got a new one with Something Like Summer. It’s not a typical musical, as rather than taking place in a hyper-real world, it tells a story of love and loss that occasionally jumps from the real world to a stage, where the main character breaks into song. It’s an unusual way of doing it, and the first couple of times it’s a little jarring, both because its slightly unexpected and because the musical sequences are quite spaced apart.

However, they’re catchy songs, sung well and after you get used to it, they add real charm to the movie.

Something Like Summer, based on Jay Bell’s popular novel, follows Ben (Grant Davis) over the course of 12 years. It starts when he’s an out gay high school student with a crush on popular jock Tim (Davi Santos). After they literally bump into one another, they start a fledgling relationship. However, Tim is still unsure of his sexuality and wants to stay in the closet, as he’s afraid of what will happen if anyone finds out. [Read more…]

The Founder (Blu-ray Review) – The rise of a fast food giant and the death of someone’s dream

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Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is feeling slightly over-the-hill in his job selling milkshake machine to drive-in restaurants. Then he suddenly gets an order for six mixers – far more than he thinks any restaurant could possibly need. However, the order is correct, so Ray decides to visit this place out in San Bernadino California, where he discovers the McDonald’s hamburger stand.

The McDonald brother, Dick and Mac (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch) have completely reinvented the concept of the diner-type restaurant. From getting people to come to the window to order and serving them food in waxed paper, to a carefully designed system to be able to complete an order in seconds, Ray has never seen anything like it. [Read more…]

Centre Of My World (BFI Flare Review) – First love & dark family secrets for a young gay man

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Based on Andreas Steinhöfel’s bestselling novel, Centre Of My World follows gay teenager Phil (Louis Hoffman), who returns from a summer camp to find that his unorthodox single mother, Glass (Sabine Timoteo) and twin sister Dianne (Ada Philine Stappenbeck), aren’t speaking to one another, but no one will tell him why.

When he returns to school, he meets new boy Nicholas (Jannik Schümann), who he immediately starts to fall for. Initially Phil just watches his new crush from afar, but then Nicholas decides to make a move, and the two begin both dating and having passionate sex. Phil’s best friend Kat (Svenja Jung) initially isn’t sure about this newcomer, but soon the three of them are fast friends. [Read more…]

Doctor Strange (Cinema Review)

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Here we are with the 14th film in the ever expanding and ultra-successful MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). This entry has been touted to be a turning point in the series, just as Thor (2011) introduced aliens and the nine realms; Doctor Strange introduces the Marvel multiverse – a key narrative trope of the comics which essentially means there are infinite versions of worlds and characters just ripe for the picking.

This long awaited entry tells the story of the brilliant but arrogant Doctor Stephen Strange (a well-cast Benedict Cumberbatch), who after a car accident suffers severe nerve damage in his hands. He goes on a journey to heal himself which leads to a temple in Nepal, where he meets The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), learns of the mystic arts and sorcery, and is put on a path to save the day from a being that threatens the entire planet. [Read more…]

Triple 9 (Blu-ray Review)

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As the cast came together for Triple 9, it couldn’t help but feel this was going to be one hell of a movie. With the director of The Road and Lawless behind the camera, and a cast including Casey Affleck, Aaron Paul Kate Winslet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Gal Gadot, Norman Reedus, Teresa Palmer, Clifton Collins Jr. and Woody Harrelson, it certainly has plenty of pedigree.

However, the result is a rather overstuffed movie, which, as with many of its forebears, confuses grimness with authenticity, and people being miserable and unpleasant to one another with reality. Indeed, there are moments when objectively it’s about as realistic as Lord Of The Rings, but has such a determined po-face that it might convince you otherwise. [Read more…]

The Gunman (Blu-ray Review)

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Until recently the prospect of Sean Penn starring in a movie meant that while the film was likely to be a little bit tedious, he would be extremely good in it and the movie would be worth a watch. However, with Gangster Squad, Walter Mitty and The Gunman, he seems to be trying his hand at more standard fare.

Unfortunately though, all the Gunman offers is more of what we’ve seen 1,000 times before. In fact, I almost wonder if in the pact actors make with Hollywood, it includes a clause that makes it compulsory for them to star in at least one movie about an assassin having an existential crisis. [Read more…]

Last Knights (DVD Review)

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I won’t waste your time too much with this review, as I can sum up my thoughts in two word – don’t bother. This is a Czech and South Korean co-production, loosely based on an old Japanese movie, and with a multi-national cast all speaking English in various random accents – it is therefore perhaps not surprising that it is a bit confused as to what the hell it’s all about.

Set somewhere that’s sort of a fusion of Medieval Europe and Asia, but also with fantasy undertones (it should come as no surprise that Last Knights feels a little like a misguided Game Of Throne fan film), Clive Owen is a knight who finds himself cast into the wilderness after the fall of his master (Morgan Freeman), and must band together with a group of other knights – 47 Ronin style – to regain their honour. [Read more…]

Horns (DVD Review)

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Horns is a certainly a bit of an odd film, not least because it can’t quite decide what it is – comedy, horror, fable, fantasy, thriller, murder mystery, drama – flitting between them all with little sense of consistency. It’s probably this difficulty in pigeonholing the movie that has limited its audience so far, but in many ways that’s a shame, as while very uneven it is oddly entertaining and just a little beguiling.

Daniel Radcliffe is Ig Perrish, whose girlfriend (Juno Temple) has been murdered and everyone in his small town has decided he’s the killer, despite there not being enough evidence to charge him with anything. Things get a little bizarre when he wakes up one morning to discover he’s grown horns out of his forehead, and that he now has the power to get people to admit to all the things they’d normally keep hidden away (he discovers a lot of these things involve what they’d really like to do to him, as they believe he’s gotten away with murder). [Read more…]

Escape Plan (Blu-ray)

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If this was 1987, Escape Plan would have been just about the most exciting prospect any popcorn flick fan had ever heard of, but Schwarzenegger and Stallone aren’t quite the box office titans they once were. So if they’re going to make a movie together they need something worthwhile around them and unfortunately Escape Plan doesn’t quite stack up.

Stallone is Ray Breslin a security expert whose job is to get inserted into maximum security prisons and then test their security by trying to break out. He’s asked to do the same for a secret facility where the government keeps the most dangerous people on the planet, who essentially need to be disappeared. However Ray won’t be allowed the back-up of his usual team. [Read more…]

Les Invisibles (Cinema)

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Les Invisibles is an award winning French documentary about 11 gay men and women living in France, whose common link is their homosexuality and advancing ages. Each of the subjects talks about their experiences of being gay in less hospitable times, when anything homosexual was normally met with disdain, mistrust and violence. The film is basically an insight into their life journeys, and how society’s attitudes and the political landscape have changed. [Read more…]

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