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

Dream House (DVD)

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If you read a lot of the reviews of Dream House on its cinema release, you might be expecting the film to be an absolute stinker. Pretty much disowned by its cast and director, and pilloried by the critics, the film’s not had a lot of luck. However, while it’s certainly not a great thriller, it’s a lot better than you might expect.

Daniel Craig plays Will Atenton, who moves into a seemingly idyllic small-town home with his wife (Rachel Weisz) and two daughters. However their apparently perfect new life begins to fracture when they discover their house was the site of a family massacre five years before. Teens hold séances in the basement and there are rumours that the killer may have returned. And then there’s the next door neighbour, Ann (Naomi Watts), who appears to know more than she’s letting on to. [Read more…]

Goblin (DVD)

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The Perkins family heads out to a small hamlet deep in the woods to spend Halloween and so the parent can discuss a possible big business opportunity. However Hollow Glen hides a secret – back in the dim and distant past a witch put a curse of the entire town in revenge for them burning her sickly child – an evil creature known as The Goblin will rise every Halloween and kill any infant in the vicinity, cutting a swath through anyone that has even the smallest whiff of little kid on them. And wouldn’t you know it, the Perkins don’t just have mom, dad and two teen daughters, but also a little baby that would make perfect goblin grub. [Read more…]

Perfect Sense (DVD)

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Perfect Sense has a problem, which isn’t really anything to do with the movie. It’s to do with the fact that we like to pigeonhole film and so that when something comes along that doesn’t fit into any boxes, it tends to fall by the wayside. In the case of Perfect Sense the issue is that the plot synopsis makes it sound like a sci-fi flick, but it’s actually far from that. In reality it’s a rather touching, slightly arty romance, shot through with existentialist musings, but it’s a difficult sell, simply because it doesn’t sound like what it is.

Here’s the plot: Susan (Evan Green) is an epidemiologist, who’s asked to investigate a mysterious illness where people are losing their sense of taste. As this spreads around the globe, Susan meets chef Michael (Ewan McGregor), and the two begin an affair. However losing your sense of taste is only the beginning, and the strange illness continues to its course, slowly stripping people of their senses one by one. [Read more…]

Red State (Blu-ray)

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From the moment Kevin Smith first mentioned Red State several years ago, it was clear it wasn’t going to be like any of his other movies. Although his claims it would be an incendiary movie that’s “so bleak that it makes The Dark Knight look like Strawberry Shortcake” turned out to be slightly hyperbolic, it’s certainly a new side to the director. It’s rare that making a violent horror/thriller movie can be said to show a director maturing, but this really is Kevin Smith on a different level to where he’s been before.

The director’s earlier movies have been a relatively easy ride, with fairly simple stories, plenty of jokes and a rather point and shoot filming style (that’s not to denigrate how much fun they are). [Read more…]

Close To Leo (DVD)

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Now nearly 10 years old (it was initially made for French TV in 2002), Close To Leo makes a welcome return to DVD. It’s one of the best movies ever made about HIV/AIDS, largely because it treats it as just one aspect of the characters’ lives, and is actually more interested in the issues the disease raises as people attempt to carry after the diagnosis, rather than being overly angsty about the infection itself – although with enough angst that it doesn’t feel flippant.

Told through the eyes of Marcel, who’s on the cusp or puberty, the film follows a family in Brittany after they discover the eldest son, Leo, is HIV+. Marcel isn’t supposed to know this, but he picks up enough to realise what’s going on, even if he can’t accept that he’s being left out of important family development. While Marcel initially reacts by rebelling, he eventually goes off on a trip to Paris with Leo, where the two attempt to bond. [Read more…]

Touch Of Pink (DVD)

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Gay, Canadian, Muslim Alim is living in London with his boyfriend, happy to be far away from the expectations of his Islami mother and family. When mum Nuru comes to visit, Alim tries to hide his relationship, but that proves tougher than he thought.

Gay movies are a strange breed, largely because they often try so hard to be resolutely ‘GAY’, that the end result is that nobody, gay or straight, can identify with what they’re seeing (it’s also true that a lot are made by people who shouldn’t have progressed beyond shooting holiday videos). [Read more…]