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

La La Land (Blu-ray Review) – Should it have won the Best Picture Oscar for more than 90 seconds?

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It’s the film that won the Best Picture Oscar for a whole 90 seconds, before the Academy managed to says, ‘Whoops, sorry, it was actually Moonlight’. However, it did pick up six of film world’s most prestigious gongs, including Best Actress for Emma Stone, and Best Director for Damien Chazelle. It was also the favourite for the biggest prize going into the ceremony, having charmed audiences with its tale of two people trying to find both love and artistic success.

In LA, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz musician, working a dead-end job playing piano in a bar, but desperate to prove himself as a real force in a music form that many others have given up on. Mia (the brilliant Emma Stone) is a young woman who works as a waitress, but she also goes to a succession of auditions for movie and TV roles in the hope of finding success as an actress. [Read more…]

La La Land (Cinema Review) – Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone star in a Hollywood love letter

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If you’re going to be brave enough to make a two-hour homage to the golden days of the Hollywood musical you’d better make sure you get it right. So many films have fallen into the trap – Frankenweenie, The Man Who Wasn’t There and The Good German are just a few examples of films that have tried so hard so pay tribute to great movies, that they forgot to be a film in their own right. What Damien Chazelle (whiplash) has done here is produce a beautiful, witty, warm homage, but manage to take it in a completely unexpected direction without spoiling the film’s internal logic. It’s fun, yes, but there is a sting in the tail – a nasty sting.

From the opening sequence we know we’re in safe hands. Hundreds of cars are stuck on the freeway, so what else to do for the drivers but to burst into song and dance. It’s brilliantly choreographed and filmed, in what appears to be a single shot. It’s full of joy and sets the scene for the story to come. Somewhere in the traffic jam is Ryan Gosling’s Seb, and Emma Stone’s Mia, and their first meeting is not a romantic one. [Read more…]

Spotlight (Cinema Review)

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For many, All the President’s Men is the ultimate 70s paranoia movie, the film which inspired a generation of investigative journalists. Now, all these years later, comes a film which in every way is its equal. Spotlight is angry, unbearably tense, brilliantly written and performed, and of course based on a real life scandal, arguably one of the biggest scandals to hit America since the 1970s.

The newsroom in question is the Boston Globe, specifically its special investigations section called Spotlight. Its leader is Michael Keaton, who immediately comes under pressure to deliver a story by new editor Live Schreiber, a peculiar, possibly autistic man but one who is thorough in his job and sees potential in a story about a child abuse case. Keaton agrees to pursue the story with his crack team, including the driven Mark Ruffalo and the sensitive Rachel McAdams. They slowly reveal several cases of abuse of children in the 1970s by Catholic priests, and try to get the victims, now very fragile adults, to reveal their stories. [Read more…]

Fifty Shades Of Grey – Unseen Edition (Blu-ray Review)

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Anyone who knows me will be aware that there aren’t many occasions when I don’t know what to say, but as the credits rolled on Fifty Shades Of Grey, I really had no idea what to make of it.

It should come as no surprise by now to hear that Fifty Shades Of Grey is about young, naïve virgin Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), who is sent to interview the handsome billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) after her journalist roommate gets ill. Christian is drawn to Anastasia and begins to court her in his own singular style – where he is very adamant that he doesn’t do the girlfriend thing, or romance, or indeed typical human emotions. [Read more…]

Eastern Boys (Cinema Review)

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I’m not a big fan of French cinema. Although the country has produced some magnificent movies, I find most of it to be ponderous and far too impressed with itself. However after Stranger By The Lake and now Eastern Boys, I’m starting to think France may be becoming the premier place for gay-themed cinema.

Daniel (Olivier Rabourdin) solicits a young Eastern European man, Marek (Kirill Emelyanov), for sex at the Parisian train station, negotiating a price and arranging to meet at Daniel’s place later that week. However when the time comes it’s not Marek who turns up, but all his ‘friends’, led by their intimidating boss (Daniil Vorobyov), who proceed to party in the apartment and then completely clear it out, threatening that they will accuse Daniel of being a paedophile if he does anything. [Read more…]

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (DVD)

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Tom Cruise hasn’t had a great run recently. Mission: Impossible II in 2006 was his last bona fide hit, so it’s not surprising that he was keen to return to the franchise in the hope of keeping his star shining. What’s perhaps more surprising is that it works, as this well be the best Mission yet.

Ethan Hunt is called up for a new job – breaking into the heavily fortified Kremlin in order to retrieve some information. However after having failed to get what he went in there for, the building is destroyed in a devastating explosion. The agent quickly realises that he’s been set-up so that someone else could steal sensitive info from the Russians, destroy the building and then having everything blamed on Hunt and his team. The frame job has worked though, as the IMF is being shut down and Hunt and his crew disavowed. [Read more…]

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (Cinema)

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This sequel has a lot of expectations to live up to. The first Guy Ritchie directed Sherlock Holmes amassed over $524 million at the worldwide box office and remains in the Top 100 grossing films of all time.

As you’d hope, in Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows the original bromance is back with a vengeance! Guy Ritchie has delivered once again (after a few turkeys mind!), as the on-screen chemistry between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jnr. is superb – reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The supporting cast is also tremendous in their roles, although some of the parts are just too small. Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade is most notably missing screen time – blink and you’ll miss him – as is the excellent Geraldine James as the long-suffering Mrs Hudson (though I can’t help but think of her as one of the prostitutes from Band Of Gold!). [Read more…]

Brokeback Mountain (DVD)

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In the 1960s, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist get a job shepherding on Wyoming’s Brokeback Mountain. Slowly they fall in love, starting a 30-year relationship that endures through their marriages and attempts to stay apart. Jack wants to be with Ennis full time, but the taciturn cowboy is too scared of that, which only allows them brief ‘fishing’ holidays in the wilderness. Even so, they just can’t quit each other. [Read more…]