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

Teenage Kicks (DVD Review) – Tragedy changes a young man’s life in the gay-themed Aussie film

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Back in 2009, director Craig Boreham made the acclaimed short film Drowning, starring Miles Szanto and Xavier Samuel (who went on to appear in the likes of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Fury). Teenage Kicks is the long-gestating feature-length version of that short, which despite the passage of eight years brings back Szanto in the central role. It continues Australia’s recent run of strong, sometimes raw, gay-themed films.

Mik (Szanto) is a young, second generation immigrant, who’s keen to get away from his family and head off somewhere new with his best friend Dan (Dan Webber). Things change however when Mik’s brother dies in an accident – a collision Mik witnessed but pretends that he didn’t. [Read more…]

Heartland (US DVD/VoD Review) – The possibility of a lesbian affair threatens an Oklahoman family

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I have to admit to being a tiny bit suspicious of Heartland before watching it. I was worried it was going to another entry in the subgenre of gay movies that (often inadvertently) suggest that the best way for someone in a straight relationship to sort out their problems is to have a same sex affair. After all, that’s not really cheating, is it?

Thankfully though, Heartland isn’t quite that (although it gets a little close at times).

Lauren (co-writer Velinda Godfrey) has just buried her long-term girlfriend after nursing her during a long illness. She’s a bit of a mess and so heads home to see her family in Oklahoma. That includes her mother, Crystal (gay film stalwart Beth Grant), who’s never quite embraced her daughter’s sexuality. There’s also her brother, Justin (Aaron Leddick), who’s trying to properly get his wine business going. That means he only has a little time for his girlfriend, Carrie (Bones and Big Bang Theory’s Laura Spencer), a woman who’s long been involved in wine– hailing from Napa Valley in California – whether she wants to or not. [Read more…]

I Am Michael (DVD Review) – James Franco goes ex-gay in a true-life story

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Michael Glatze (James Franco) is a gay man who really wants to help people. Initially working for XY Magazine before increasingly becoming an activist and launching YGA (Young Gay Americans), he becomes a prominent figure advancing the gay cause. However, Michael still feels something is missing. That’s despite having a loving boyfriend, Bennett (Zachary Quinto), and the sometime addition of a third into the relationship, Tyler (Charlie Carver).

After a health scare where he’s convinced he has the disease that caused his father to drop down dead, Michael increasingly turns to religion. What initially seems like an attempt to find meaning and reassurance that death is not the end, takes an unexpected turn when Michael leaves Bennett and publicly announces that he no longer identifies as gay. This causes a bit of a sensation, but Michael is determined he must live his own ‘truth’. That includes his new belief that homosexuality leads people away from being their ‘true selves’, which is the only way to find God. Eventually that takes him into a relationship with a woman. [Read more…]

Retake (US DVD Review) – The relationship between a middle-aged man & a rent boy gets complicated

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Lonely, middle-aged Jonathan (Tuc Watkins) hires a rent boy for what initially seems like a bit of role play – with the young man supposed to play the rough around the edges Brandon. However, for some reason, the prostitute doesn’t hit the spot.

Jonathan heads out to find another young man, settling on a guy who seems a better fit for what Jonathan wants Brandon to be. ‘Brandon’ agrees to head off with Jonathan on a road trip across the American West, being paid along the way. However, it slowly becomes clear that this is not a random trip with a young man along for companionship, and Jonathan is trying to recreate something from his past. [Read more…]

Bizarre (DVD Review)

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Despite being set in Brooklyn, Bizarre is as French as both its director and lead actor. That means it’s a little pretentious, a tad peculiar, not always easy to access, and has some full-frontal nudity thrown in for good measure. However, there’s enough there to hold the interested viewer’s attention.

Maurice is a young Frenchman who’s had something bad happen at home and ended up in New York. He’s taken in by two women, Kim and Betty, working in their alternative burlesque bar, Bizarre, and living in their flat above. He becomes almost the mascot of the club, and also catches the eye of fellow bar worker, Luka. After Maurice spends a night in the women’s bed, he and Luka ending up sharing a room, although things are more chaste than Luka might like. [Read more…]

Money Monster (Blu-ray Review)

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Lee Gates (George Clooney) presents the TV show Money Monster, a programme that tries to make stocks, shares and investments a bit more entertaining. His latest broadcast quickly takes an unexpected turn when a man (Jack O’Connell) bursts into the studio brandishing a gun and forces Lee to put on an explosive vest.

The man, who it’s revealed is called Kyle, is an average joe who’s been sent over the edge by the fact that a few weeks before Lee told people they should invest in a company called IBIS. However, while Lee said it was safer than a savings account, the share price has collapsed due to what the company said was a glitch in its trading algorithm, and Kyle has lost every penny he’s got. Kyle wants answers and thinks Lee should be the one who gets them for him. With the help of his producer, Patty (Julia Roberts), talking to him from the gallery, Lee attempts to keep Kyle calm while they figure out what’s going on. [Read more…]

A Hologram For The King (Blu-ray Review)

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Alan (Tom Hanks) is a middle-aged businessman whose life isn’t turning out how he planned. His boss doesn’t think he’s particularly good at his job, he’s divorced, and feels a bit of a failure towards his daughter as his debt means he can’t afford to pay her college tuition fees. However, he now has a new opportunity, heading off to Saudi Arabia to give a presentation about a holographic IT system to the King.

He expects to be a stranger in a strange land, but finds that in some ways things are more similar that he expected, while in others they’re more strange. He gets into a bit of a Waiting For Godot situation where he spends much of his time being palmed off and ignored as he waits for the arrival on the King, who may never turn up. He also discovers the massive city his company is hoping to get the IT contract for, is nothing but a welcome centre in the desert, waiting for other building to come along. [Read more…]

Jane Got A Gun (Blu-ray Review)

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Jane Got A Gun has had a few problems. That included a revolving door of actors getting involved and then backing out (including the likes of Jude Law, Michael Fassbender and Bradley Cooper), and director Lynn Ramsey leaving the production so late in the day that they didn’t know she was gone until she didn’t turn up for the first day of shooting. She was quickly replaced by Gavin O’Connor, who didn’t have a huge amount of time to prepare, which may explain why Jane Got A Gun isn’t all it might have been.

Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman) is a woman living on the rough, tough, wild west frontier of 19th Century America. Her husband (Roland Emmerich) returns home riddled with bullets after a confrontation with the violent Bishop Boys gang, led by the brutal John (Ewan McGregor). They know the Boys are going to want to track him down to finish off the job. Jane decides she needs help and so decides to enlist her ex-lover, Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton). [Read more…]

Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) (DVD Review)

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It’s summer in Biarritz and a group of teenagers are leaving their relatively innocent youth behind when they begin to delve into sex and drugs. George (Marilyn Lima) likes Alex (Finnegan Oldfield) and thinks they might be falling for one another after they sleep together a couple of times, but then the rather callous young man rejects her so he can sleep with her friend.

George reacts by inventing the Bang Gang, a game of extreme dare that develops into drug and orgy fuelled parties where everyone is sleeping with everyone else (well, as long as they’re of a different gender, heterosexual and fairly good-looking) and no one bats an eyelid if someone is filming it (these young people and their selfies, after all). However, after a clip of one of the girls having sex gets uploaded onto Youtube and other issues emerge from what they’ve been up to, they each have to deal with the fallout. [Read more…]

Stuff (Outfest Review)

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Deb and Trish are a married couple with two young daughters. They’ve been together for a long time, but there are major cracks in their relationship. Trish has never gotten over the death of her father five years before, and seems utterly unwilling to move beyond the stasis she’s living in, even if it involves her missing out on some of the most important moments in her family’s life.

Deb meanwhile doesn’t know what to do about her relationship, but is perhaps a little too cautious and worried, overthinking everything about her life. Then she meets Jamie, who’s new to town and seems to offer something different, bringing back a sense of excitement and possibility. However, Jamie has problems of her own, not least a domineering, violent ex. [Read more…]