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

Coffee House Chronicles: The Movie (DVD Review) – Gay gays meeting & hooking up gets the anthology treatment

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Coffee House Chronicles was originally an anthology Youtube web series, but here the episodes get pulled together and slightly recut to turn them into a movie. While that may sound like a slightly cheating way to monetise the show, it actually works surprisingly well. As individual episodes they were quite fun, but pulled together thye add up to more than the sum of their parts, allowing it to layer together a light look at the way modern gay men relate to one another.

The film consists of a series of first encounters (mostly) between gay men, most of which – as the title suggests – take place in coffee houses. These meetings range from a man realising his ‘date’ is much younger than he’s said he was, to someone in a long-term relationship trying to organise sex with a porn star for his boyfriend. There’s also a trans man on his first date with a woman after transitioning, and two zombie extras in a movie figuring out if they want to go on a date even though they don’t know what they really look like under the makeup. [Read more…]

Four Days (DVD Review) – Two young gay men inch towards a relationship

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Sometimes I watch a film and want to give everyone involved a pat on the back, while still thinking it’s not that great a movie. That’s the case with Four Days, which certainly has its heart in the right place, plenty of dedication and comes from a country which doesn’t have a huge track record of producing gay-themed movies, The Philippines. However, the results are a little underwhelming.

As the title suggests, the movie takes place over four days – four Valentine’s Days over four years. On the first day, Derek and Mark are both fairly new to being college roommates and are working out where they stand. Mark is particularly keen that Derek understands that if he’s put a sock on the door, it means he’s entertaining a woman and his roomie shouldn’t interrupt. [Read more…]

Joe Lycett: That’s The Way A-ha A-ha (DVD Review)

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Award-winning comedian Joe Lycett has popped up on TV in the likes of Live at the Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Sunday Night at the Palladium, and now he’s getting his first live stand-up DVD, That’s The Way A-ha A-ha… Joe Lycett (get it?). Filmed at the Duchess Theatre in London, the disc showcases Joe’s mix of whimsy, acerbic comedy, and ‘being weird’.

To be honest, he is a bit of a Marmite proposition, as while many will find him a riot, other probably won’t quite get his idiosyncratic style, which varies from a love of puns, to stories from his life, to recounting the messages he sent to try and get out of a parking fine. A lot of it is very funny, and even those who overall don’t find Joe’s comedy to be quite their cup of tea, should get a few decent laughs. [Read more…]

Shared Rooms (DVD/VoD Review)

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A few years ago director Rob Williams made Christmas a bit more queer with the rom-com Make The Yuletide Gay. Since then he’s brought us the gay-themed Role/Play, Out to Kill, and The Men Next Door, but now he’s returning to the festive season with the ensemble tale, Shared Rooms.

The movie follows three different stories, set over the Christmas and New Year period. Laslo and Cal are a couple getting increasingly fed up with the fact that all their friends are either adopting or having babies through surrogates. They have no intention of becoming parents until Cal’s 17-year-old nephew suddenly turns up on their doorstep. He’s been thrown out of home for being gay and needs somewhere to stay – although Laslo and Cal aren’t exactly set up to parent a teenager. [Read more…]

Ballet Boys (Cinema Review)

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Back in 2000, Billy Elliott showed us that despite preconceptions, there’s nothing wrong with being a boy who wants to do ballet. However what’s it actually like if you’re a teenage boy who’s devoted themselves to an artform that many consider to be just ‘for girls’?

The Norwegian documentary Ballet Boys tries to find out, following Lukas, Syvert and Torgeir, who are all in the same class together at a ballet school, where they’re the boys amongst a sea of girls. To be honest, while early on the documentary asks questions about why the boys want to do ballet, it quickly realises there’s no better reason than ‘why not?’ After all like anything else, once you realise you have a talent, it’s no surprise you’d want to pursue it. However there are undoubtedly reasons to stop, not least the time, passion and dedication needed, especially knowing that there are no guarantees of a successful dancing career at the end of it. [Read more…]

Tiger Orange (Outfest Review)

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The gay-themed drama Tiger Orange premiered a couple of days ago at LA’s Outfest, and luckily we got a preview of the movie.

Normally when you hear that a gay-themed film has a porn star as one of its actors, it seems like stunt casting that cares more about hinting at titillation than because that performer is the right person for the job. However Tiger Orange challenges that by having Frankie Valenti – aka gay porn star Johnny Hazzard – in one of the lead roles and giving him the space to give an extremely creditable performance. [Read more…]

West Hollywood Motel (US DVD)

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When Scenes From A Gay Marriage came out, some reviewers compared actor/writer/director Matt Riddlehoover to Woody Allen. It’s something Matt seems to like, as his latest, West Hollywood Motel, borrows liberally from the type of plots Allen used to like, from The Purple Rose Of Cairo to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex. It even uses a similar title font to the one that has been a trademark of Woody’s for decades. [Read more…]

Sir Billi (DVD)

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After having a hideous time on the set of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sean Connery said he’d never make a movie again. However he’s come out of retirement to lend his voice to Sir Billi, presumably attracted by the fact that this is Scotland’s first feature-length animated movie (Connery is, after all, determined to be the most Scottish person in the world, despite the fact he hasn’t lived there for decades). He might also have liked the fact it’s a film about an octogenarian. [Read more…]

The Jungle Book (Blu-ray)

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Since he was a baby, Mowgli has been raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. When the local animals hear that the fierce tiger, Shere Khan, is nearby, they decide Mowgli must be sent back to his own kind. However panther Bagheera has trouble getting him there, as Mowgli doesn’t want to go, which isn’t helped when he meets carefree bear, Baloo.

It wins nearly every poll of people’s favourite Disney film, so it’s a good job that for its first appearance on Blu-ray, the movie has been given a really great HD transfer, which is pin sharp and has virtually no noise. Indeed it’s impressive what can be done with these older animated movie, as while nearly every other film from before about 1980 has obvious signs of degradation, Disney has managed to ensure their films look as good as the day they were made. [Read more…]

The Comedian (DVD Review)

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Ed (Edward Hogg) is in his early 30s, a northerner who’s been living in London for a decade and is hoping to make it big as a comedian. However few people seem to laugh at his jokes, with a compere describing his act as ‘interesting’ rather than funny.

Outside comedy he’s stuck in a phone call centre job he hates and has a slightly dysfunctional relationship with his flatmate, who’s in love with him even though he’s gay. After striking up a conversation with a man (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) on a bus, they start a relationship, which begins to highlight the ennui and sadness at the heart of Ed’s life. [Read more…]