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

The Carmilla Movie (BFI Flare Review) – The popular lesbian vampire web series hits the big screen

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I have to admit Carmilla passed me by. There have been three seasons of the web series about a 330-year-old lesbian vampire woman who falls for a mortal and ends up fighting evil, but it wasn’t a show I’d ever heard of. However, the screening of The Carmilla Movie at BFI Flare showed me quite how remiss I’ve been, as the National Film Theatre was packed with ‘Cream Puffs’ (which is what fans of the show call themselves) who were rabidly excited for the movie, and went into true fangirling mode when Carmilla herself – aka actress Natasha Negovanlis – stepped onto the stage.

By the end of the film I was beginning to understand how Carmilla has managed to transcend its web series roots, build a loyal fanbase around the world and get turned into a movie. [Read more…]

Just Charlie (US DVD Review) – A football-loving teen transitions to living as a young woman

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Young Charlie seems to be living a British teen boy’s dreams when given an opportunity that’s setting them up to play football (soccer) professionally in the future. However, Charlie seems reticent, despite loving football and having a dad, Paul (Scot Williams), who’s extremely keen as his own sporting dreams were dashed when he was younger. Indeed, he’s the football equivalent of a stage mother.

It’s not just typical teen contrariness though, as Charlie is struggling with gender identity issues and reaching the point where she can’t hold it in anymore. As she slowly and steadily begins living more of her life openly as a girl, both she and her family face challenges they never expected. That ranges from the fact Charlie’s father struggles to accept the new reality and starts to blame his daughter for it, to her best friends rejecting her when she transitions at school. There’s also a school that isn’t sure how to handle things and the threat of violence from those who don’t understand. [Read more…]

Beach Rats (Cinema Review) – A teen struggles with masculinity & sexuality in the gay-themed movie

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With Call Me By Your Name, God’s Own Country and Beach Rats, 2017 may have been strongest year ever for gay-themed films at the Sundance Film Festival. The last of those, Beach Rats, took the Best Director (Dramatic) Award for director Eliza HIttman, and it’s also just been nominated for a couple of Independent Spirit Awards. The result is that it arrives in UK cinemas with quite a reputation. But does it deserve it?

The short answer is – yes.

It’s summer and Brooklyn teenager Frankie (Harris Dickinson) has nothing to do but hang out with his friends, heading down to the beach to flirt with girls, play ball and try to pass the time. However, away from his somewhat delinquent mates, he’s started going online and looking for guys. Initially he’s uncertain about what he’s doing or whether it means anything beyond being a way to pass the time, but he soon starts meeting men for sex. [Read more…]

My Beautiful Laundrette (Blu-ray/DVD Review) – The most important gay British movie ever made?

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You could make the argument My Beautiful Laundrette is the most important movie of the past 50 years. In the 1980s the UK film industry was in a fairly difficult place. While British behind-the-scenes talent was much in demand by Hollywood to make some of their biggest movies – everything from Star Wars to Superman to Aliens was filmed in the UK – we were having less success with our own movies, at least on a mainstream level. Even those films that did find success were largely made with money from major American studios.

Then along came My Beautiful Laundrette, a film originally made for TV but which they decided was good enough to give a theatrical release to. Its surprise success got director Stephen Frears noticed around the world, who went on to make Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity, The Queen and Philomena. However, more importantly it was the first theatrical feature for the production company Working Title and the first major critical/commercial cinema success for Channel Four/Film 4. [Read more…]

Swiss Army Man (Blu-ray Review) – Things get a little gay between a man & Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse

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It’s the call every actor dreams about, when someone asks them, ‘Will you play a farting corpse which has a direction-finding erection?’ The lucky man to get that role was Daniel Radcliffe, who stars as a dead guy dubbed Manny. He’s found washed up on a beach by Hank (Paul Dano), a man stranded on an island whose just about to kill himself. However, discovering Manny starts to change Hank’s perspective – not least because it allows Hank to ride the massively flatulent body back to the mainland.

Although Manny is definitely dead, things take an unexpected turn when he starts to talk, and also reveal other powers that help Hank survive in the wilderness. However, Manny has no memory of his previous existence, so Hank begins to teach him about life and love, and in the process begins to think that perhaps there are things worth living for. That includes a woman whose picture is on a phone, as well as in the growing relationship between Hank and Manny, which moves towards being a romance. Oh, and there’s Manny’s erection, which helps point them in the direction they need to go to. [Read more…]

Theo and Hugo (Cinema Review)

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Like all classic romances, this one starts in a sex club. Okay, Romeo & Juliet didn’t start in a sex club, but that’s where Theo & Hugo opens. The titular characters are there to get down and dirty with other guys. Theo (Geoffrey Couët) sees Hugo (François Nambot) across the neon-lit room, and is immediately drawn to him. Eventually the duo end up getting down and dirty, having rip-roaring, earth-shaking sex, while surrounded by other guys.

While that’s usually the end for two people following a sex club encounter, both Theo and Hugo feel a connection and decide to leave together. However, their flirtation seems to come to a swift end when Theo admits he didn’t use a condom. Unsurprisingly, the HIV+ Hugo is far from impressed. After Hugo arranges for Theo to go to the hospital to arrange tests and post-exposure prophylaxis, it seems like that will be it for them, but over the course of 12 hours they find themselves increasingly drawn to one another. [Read more…]

That’s Not Us (Raindance Festival Review)

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For about the first 10 minutes of That’s Not Us I have to admit I allowed my preconceptions to get to me. I think it was the seemingly arbitrary artifice of the set-up that got to me – sticking one gay couple, one straight couple and one lesbian couple in a house together.

However, I quickly had to admit I’d prejudged the movie, as this is a film that’s more interested in these people as human beings than in comparing and contrasting their sexualities. That’s not to say their sexuality doesn’t play into the movie, just that it informs their interactions rather than leading them.

These three city couples come together for a getaway in a beachside house, where they hope to escape from their everyday issues, but almost inevitably it ends up bringing their problems to a head. James and Spencer are deeply in love and seem to be the perfect couple. However, Spencer has been accepted into university in Chicago, something neither are dealing with despite the fact it could separate them, putting it off by Spencer saying he doesn’t know whether he will go, and James simply saying how happy he is for his partner. [Read more…]

John Wick (DVD Review)

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I’d imagine some stars would think twice before agreeing to appear in a movie directed by their stunt double/martial arts choreographer, but that’s what Keanu Reeves has done with John Wick, and it turned out to be a good idea. I’ve always thought Reeves is a really good actor – as long as he doesn’t speak. John Wick gives him a character that’s who isn’t big on words, but which allows him to showcase that physically he’s very good, especially when given some slick action to dispense.

Keanu is the title character, an ex-assassin who left his life of crime behind when he met the perfect woman. After his wife dies, he’s barely holding on and is sent over the edge when the spoiled, selfish son of a criminal kingpin steals his car and kills the dog John’s wife gave him. [Read more…]

A Royal Night Out (Blu-ray Review)

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A Royal Night Out takes a small part of a true story and then spins it off into a fiction. The known truth is that on VE Day in 1945, the young British princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, left Buckingham Palace to mingle with the crowds outside who were rejoicing after years of War.

We know that happened, but I think it’s fair to say the rest of the movie was made up. Having gotten permission to go out incognito, Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) and Margaret (Bel Powley) discover their mother (Emily Watson) isn’t going to allow them to have the night of dancing and being normal that they’d hoped. Despite their mother’s desire to keep things dull and stuffy, the princesses give their military chaperones the slip and end up getting separated. [Read more…]

Such Good People (US DVD Review)

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One of the ‘barriers’ to having gay people in films is that a lot of the time filmmakers and producers feel there has to be a reason for a character to be gay (and to be honest, a lot of audience members aren’t much better). Unless they’re a very minor character or we’re supposed to be laughing at their campery, an LGBT character’s sexuality has to be intrinsic to the plot or they don’t exist – something that’s not demanded of straight characters.

It’s always good then when a film comes along where with a few nips and tucks the two main characters could have been straight, but they’re not, and the movie doesn’t try to de-gay them by essentially treating them as friends who say they’re in a relationship but show no signs of it. [Read more…]