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

Boys On Film 16: Possession (DVD Review) – 10 more gay short films get a great showcase

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It’s always a good day when a new Boys On Film gay short film collection is released. The most successful short film series in the world is now up to an impressive 16th instalment. You’d think by this point they’d be running out of decent gay-themed shorts to include, but thankfully across the world there are a lot of filmmakers producing great work, which has ensured a steady supply of new films to put on disc.

There’s an interesting and eclectic mix this time around. So what’s included amongst the 10 gay shorts on the discs? Take a look at what we thought below. And you can see what we think of other Boys On Film releases here. [Read more…]

Live By Night (DVD Review) – Ben Affleck tries to make a gangster classic

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Live By Night has been Ben Affleck’s passion project for several years. He started working on the adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel since shortly after it was published in 2012. However, it kept getting pushed back as be strove to prove he was a director worth the film’s hefty budget, and also while he honed the script (yes, he wrote the screenplay too, as well as directing and starring).

After Argo won the Best Picture Oscar, Warner let him loose on Live By Night, but to be honest, it might have been worth delaying it a little longer and bringing someone in who could have tightened the script and made more of the themes that should have tied it together. [Read more…]

Black Mass (Blu-ray Review)

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At the beginning of Black Mass I was worried that the whole thing was going to be spoiled by Johnny Depp’s makeup, or more particularly the ridiculously blue contact lenses he wears as part of his efforts to make himself look like the real James ‘Whitey’ Bulger. Thankfully, relatively quickly you get used to it, helped by the fact this is the best performance Depp has given in years.

The movie tells the real-life tale of Bulger, who grew up on the tough streets of South Boston before becoming a gangster and the leader of the vicious Winter Hill Gang. His childhood friend, John Connolly (Joes Edgerton), is now an FBI agent, who comes up with a plan he thinks can help the feds take down the Mafia and other parts of Boston’s organised crime. He wants to get Bulger to turn informant, in return for the FBI turning a blind eye to his gang’s activities. [Read more…]

The Walk (DVD Review)

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It’s the 1970s and Frenchman Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a small-time street entertainer in Paris, dreaming of something big. He believes that he is a wire-walking artist and that he is bigger that drawing a chalk circle and balancing a few feet off the ground.

He decides that the ‘coup’ that he must achieve is to walk between the still uncompleted Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. It is a completely crazy idea – he doesn’t even know how far apart the buildings are – but after achieving a stunt to walk between the towers of Notre Dame, he begins to put his idea into action. [Read more…]

Boys On Film 13: Trick & Treat (DVD Review)

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The Boys On Film collection of gay-themed short films has proved far more successful than you would expect – after all, shorts on DVD have rarely found an audience. However, thanks to the quality of the films it’s now on its 13th instalment, but that doesn’t mean this one is unlucky. So what does it have in store amongst its 10 shorts? Take a look below to find out more.

And you can see what we think of other Boys On Film releases here.

Surprise – dir. Leslie Bumgarner (Canada) 9 mins 2015
Teenager Jack’s mother wants to talk to him about something. It soon becomes clear there’s something pressing she wants to get off her chest, but she isn’t sure whether Jack will understand the evolution she’s going through – especially as he’s got something rather different he needs to reveal. Surprise is a sweet and simple film that captures the dynamic between a mother and teenage child who love each other but exist on slightly different wavelengths. It also has a great ending which is likely to leave a smile on your face (as long as you’re not too shocked by naughty words). [Read more…]

Godzilla (Blu-ray Review)

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After the disaster that was Roland Emmerich’s dreadful 1998 take on Godzilla you might have thought Hollywood would never touch the property again. However the massive monster has returned in a movie that sticks closer to the original Japanese Toho ideas than Emmerich’s efforts, and yet is still very much a modern blockbuster.

While working at a Japanese Nuclear Reactor in the late 1990s, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) lost his wife (Juliette Binoche) during a meltdown. However he’s never believed it was caused by an earthquake and has become obsessed with the idea that something is being hidden in the supposed disaster area. After recruiting his estranged son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), they venture into the hot zone and discover that not only is there no radiation, but that an organisation called Monarch is hiding a pupating monster. [Read more…]

Only Lovers Left Alive (Blu-ray Review)

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Like many Jim Jarmusch movies, Only Lovers Left Alive is the sort of film where one chunk of the audience will be wondering what sort of tedium they’ve just had to sit through and another chunk will be hailing it as a masterpiece. He is as impressively idiosyncratic director and his films determinedly refuse to be boxed. Many have described him as a cinematic poet, and it’s a very good description. What he’s great at is creating mood, feeling and thought, where narrative isn’t the driving force, it’s merely the thread that pulls the fabric together.

Tom Hiddleston is Adam, who’s living in Detroit making music but keen that nobody bothers him. That’s partly because he’s a vampire and hundreds of years old. He’s also depressed and filled with weariness at the direction mankind has taken and how it treats the promise it has, to the point whether he’s wondering if there’s any point living on to see the future. [Read more…]

Godzilla (Cinema)

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16 years after the dodgy Roland Emmerich version of the 1954 Japanese cult classic comes a welcome Hollywood reboot of the mother (or father) of all monster movies – Godzilla.

Gareth Edwards, who shot to fame as the director of the hugely successful Monsters, is behind the camera this time and has managed to breath fire into this dormant franchise. [Read more…]

The Falls: Testament Of Love (US DVD)

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2012’s The Falls (read our review here) gained a lot of fans with its story of young Mormon missionaries RJ (Nick Ferrucci) and Chris (Benjamin Farmer), who fall in love with each other despite the fact they know being actively gay is strictly prohibited by their religion. While many had hoped that after the film’s credits it would be happily ever after for the couple, the sequel lets us know that wasn’t the case. [Read more…]

Chariots Of Fire – 30th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

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God bless the 1920s, when everyone ran in slow motion to the strains of a synthesiser, and the Olympics was like a giant version of a school sports day. It’s 30 years since Chariots Of Fire was released and stormed to Best Picture Oscar glory, and it’s no surprise the film is getting a Blu-ray release shortly before the 2012 Olympics get underway.

Since it came out, there’s been much debate over whether it’s really a good movie or not, with some classing it as one of the most overrated films ever. That’s partly because many don’t understand how it won Best Picture (and to be honest, I’d be willing to bet it was of a split vote on the other contenders – Reds, Atlantic City, On Golden Pond and Raiders Of The Lost Ark. However it’s not a bad movie, it’s just not a great one. [Read more…]