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

Batman Ninja (Blu-ray Review) – The title pretty much says it all!

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‘Batman Ninja’ is a title that sounds like the fever dream of a six-year-old, but it’s not inaccurate for this latest DC animated movie. The film takes the Caped Crusader to Japan and into full-on anime mode, as this was produced and animated in the Land Of The Rising Sun. As the Japanese production company behind the film says in the special features, they were allowed to make a movie where Batman was essentially a guest in their country and had to adapt to their way of doing things, rather than the other way around. As a result this is a Japanese film with Batman in it, rather a Batman film set in Japan.

In the film, after an incredibly quick setup Batman is mysteriously thrown back in time after something goes wrong with the villainous Gorilla Grodd’s time displacement machine. The Caped Crusader finds himself in medieval Japan, but one that’s got a few problems as the time machine also sent a Rogues Gallery of Gotham’s bad guys into the past. Those villains arrived two years before Batman, which has given the likes of Joker, Poison Ivy, Bane and Penguin time to start gaining control of Japan, using their futuristic knowledge and evil skulduggery to control the locals. [Read more…]

Pulse (BFI Flare Review) – A young, gay, disabled man is put in the body of a woman

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Teenager Olly (Daniel Monks) is disabled and has had various health issues to deal with throughout his life. His doctors tell him that it’s likely he’ll have to start using a wheelchair soon. He decides to take advantage of a brand new treatment that’s just arrived in Australia – a full body transplant. However, rather than staying a man, he elects to be put inside the body of a good-looking young woman.

Unsurprisingly his friends are surprised, as they didn’t even know he was attracted to men, let alone that he might be interested being in a woman’s body. Although the new body gives Olly a new lease on life, it also causes problems as he takes his freedom to the extreme and others react badly when they discover who he truly is. [Read more…]

The Revival (US DVD Review) – A preacher falls for a handsome gay drifter

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In Arkansas a married Southern Baptist preacher, Eli (David Rysdahl), is frustrated that he’s having difficulty getting people into the pews, as they want something fancier and simpler than his more nuanced take on God. It doesn’t help that the church was started by his father, and he’s constantly being compared to him.

He comes across young, homeless, drifter, Daniel (Zachary Booth), and decides the Christian thing to do is to help him out by finding him a place to stay. However, that leads to an affair between the two men, which challenges the preacher’s faith and could destroy both his church and his marriage. [Read more…]

Bwoy (US DVD/VoD Review) – Anthony Rapp starts an online relationship with a young Jamaican man

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Brad (Anthony Rapp) is a man approaching middle age, stuck in a dead-end job at a credit card company. He’s married, but there’s a profound sadness at the heart of his relationship, caused by a past tragedy. Brad decides to shake things up by setting up an online profile on a gay dating site.

He connects with a young Jamaican man called Yenny (Jimmy Brooks), spinning the Caribbean islander a story that he lives in New York City, works in finance and has a jet-setting lifestyle. Yenny meanwhile seems enamoured with his new ‘daddy’, asking Brad to call him his Jamaican ‘pussyboy’. [Read more…]

A Young Man’s Future (VoD Review)

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Jeremy is a young man at college who thinks his life is on track, until his live-in boyfriend announces they’re too young for anything too serious and ends up moving out. Thinks look up when Jeremy meets Scott, with their flirtation developing into a full blown love affair.

Their happiness takes an unexpected turn when Scott starts exhibiting unusual, paranoid behaviour and slacking off on his studies. Jeremy initially doesn’t know what’s going on, until Scott is hospitalised and diagnosed with schizophrenia. The love between them is strong, but with both Jeremy and Scott’s parents questioning whether they should continue their relationship, and Jeremy coming to understand the difficulties of dealing with certain mental illnesses and the choices that need to be made for those who cannot fully make them for themselves, it’s far from certain their connection can survive or that they will be able to regain some form of normality. [Read more…]

Gayby Baby (VoD Review)

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Gayby Baby is an Australian documentary that takes a look at four children who have same sex parents. Initially I was slightly wondering whether the film was going to render itself moot to gay audience by spending it’s entire running time suggesting there’s no difference between kids with gay parents and those without. That might be news to some, but for most LGBT people it isn’t exactly revelatory.

However, that was unfair of me, as while for the first 10 minutes it concentrates on the similarities, it then begins to subtly dissect the possible differences and pressures, asking both LGBT and straight viewers to question their presumptions about gay parents and their kids. It’s certainly not a film that sets out to undermine the idea of gay parenting, but it does want to look at whether things are as black and white as either the pro or con side might want to suggest. [Read more…]

Bloody Knuckles (US DVD/VoD Review)

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Travis (Adam Boys) is a comic book writer who’s made his name with his no holds barred creations, where no topic is off limits and he doesn’t kowtow to those who feel you shouldn’t cause offense. That includes his most popular character, a gay S&M superhero vigilante, called Homo Dynamous.

Local crime-lord/businessman Leonard Fong is one person who doesn’t like Travis’ comics, which have specifically targeted him, and decides the artist needs to be taught a lesson – having his right hand cut off. However, the hand isn’t going to take that lying down and comes back to life as a five-fingered avenging angel – something it has trouble getting the now depressed Travis to understand and help out with.

And when things get dangerous, a man who takes his Homo Dynamous cosplay extremely seriously may also be around to aid them. [Read more…]

Shaun The Sheep The Movie (Blu-ray Review)

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It’s amazing to think that Shaun The Sheep started off as a minor character in one of the Wallace & Gromit shorts, as since then he’s become a bit of a children’s entertainment powerhouse, with a TV series, loads of merchandise, a spin-off (in the form of Timmy Time), and now a movie.

In the film Shaun decides that once more he must try to outwit the farmer so that and the flock can take the day off. However a series of accidents results in the sheep ending up in the big city. They dress up as humans and set out to look for the farmer, who has been knocked over the head and has amnesia. During to his shearing skills, the farmer becomes a celebrated hairstylist, but can Shaun and co. get to him and help him recover his memories, before the evil animal control man can get them? [Read more…]

Locke (Blu-ray Review)

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Locke is the sort of film that was always in danger of seeming gimmicky. It is after all an entire movie where the only visuals are a single man, Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy), in a car driving along a motorway, with the ‘action’ playing out in real-time.

However thanks to a truly impressive performance from Hardy and the strong hold of writer/director Steven Knight it’s surprisingly gripping, smart and entertaining. [Read more…]

In Bloom (DVD Review)

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In Bloom has been compared to the Brit gay hit Weekend, and while the former isn’t quite as good as the latter, you can understand why those comparisons have been made.

The film charts the relationship between Kurt (Kyle Wigent) and Paul (Tanner Rittenhouse) over the course of one summer. Initially the couple are deeply in love, but quickly the cracks begin to show.  Kurt is happy living in Chicago but wants to be able to spend his life dealing pot, smoking joints and to have at least some sense of freedom. Paul meanwhile isn’t that interested in the drug scene or partying (and isn’t very good at it), but he does want to see more of the world than Chicago, even if he’d prefer to do it with him and Kurt as a tight-knit unit. [Read more…]