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

Akron (DVD Review) – Young gay love is challenged by a past death

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If you’re not American, you might be wondering whether ‘Akron’ is a foreign word, perhaps denoting passion, anger or desire. Well, it’s actually the name of the fifth-largest city in the US state of Ohio, which is where most of the film is set.

Benny (Matthew Frias) is a freshman at the University of Akron. He meets the sexy Christopher at a football game and the two start dating. Things go so well that they decide to spend Spring Break together in Florida, visiting Christopher’s mother, Carol. Once there, Benny discovers that his family and Christopher’s have a history, as many year’s before Carol ran over and killed Benny’s brother in a parking lot. [Read more…]

Arrival (Blu-ray Review) – Worthy of its eight Oscar nominations?

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It’s very rare for a sci-fi film to get Oscar nominations outside of the technical categories, so it’s truly exceptional that Arrival scored eight of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress. It may have won just one Academy Award – Best Achievement in Sound Editing – but it’s still highly unusual.

In the movie, the world is shocked when 12 mysterious ovoid spaceships arrive at various points around the planet, hanging in the sky. One of them is over American soil, so the government decides it needs to know what’s going on. Inside the ship are two aliens – which look like a cross between trees and octopuses – but there’s no way to communicate with them. [Read more…]

The Light Between Oceans (Blu-ray Review) – Michael Fassbender & Alicia Vikander go romantic baby-stealing

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After the end of the First World War, former soldier Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) takes a job as the keeper of an isolated lighthouse off the coast of Australia. While he’s hoping for some time alone, he’s surprised to find romance with the young Isabel (Alicia Vikander), who soon becomes his wife. Their happiness on the remote island is hampered by the fact she loses several children during pregnancy.

Fate then intervenes when a boat washes up on the shore with a dead man and a live baby in it. While Tom knows he must signal the mainland about this unexpected development, his wife realises that if they stay silent, no one is likely to question whether the child was theirs or not. After deciding to keep the baby girl, Tom accidentally discovers whose child it really is, and that there’s a grieving mother on the mainland. [Read more…]

Boys On Film Presents: Campfire (DVD Review) – The complete Bavo Defurne gay-themed short film collection

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Over the last few years Peccadillo Pictures has done a great job promoting gay short films with its Boys On Film DVD collection. Now though we’ve got something slightly different, a ‘Boys On Film Presents’ release, which rather than bringing together the works of multiple different directors, focuses on the work of one filmmaker, Belgium’s Bavo Defurne.

Defurne got lots of praise for his 2011 movie, North Sea Texas, a coming of age tale about a young gay man. However, before he made his feature debut with that movie, he’d gained an impressive reputation with his short films, which were lauded at film festivals and championed by the likes of the BFI. That is perhaps because of the way he manages to link the past of gay cinema with the present, such as the short Sailor (aka Matroos) being reminiscent of Fassbinder’s Querelle or the way Particularly Now, In Spring and Saint evoke the look and feel of Un Chant d’Amour (both of which are not coincidentally linked to Jean Genet). [Read more…]

Deepwater Horizon (Blu-ray Review) – Mark Wahlberg faces a real-life maritime disaster

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In 2010 the worst maritime oil spill ever took place in the Gulf Of Mexico, after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. At the time, the media was so fixated on the oil that it was easy to overlook the fact that the initial disaster on Deepwater Horizon was truly cataclysmic and resulted in the deaths of 11 people.

Peter Berg’s movie sets out to redress the balance somewhat, depicting what happened on the platform and the horrific events the survivors endured. [Read more…]

Cafe Society (DVD Review)

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We’ve long reached the point when a new Woody Allen movie isn’t something to get excited about anymore, but it’s also certainly not something to dread either. This year he returns with Café Society, another Allen movie we can add to his recent list of his films that are decent enough, but nothing particularly special.

The director is not on-screen this time (although he does narrate), with Jesse Eisenberg stepping in to be Café Society’s 1930s Woody surrogate, a young Jewish New Yorker called Bobby, who’s a bit lost in life and so decides to head to LA. His Uncle Phil (Steve Carell) is a high-powered movie agent who Bobby hopes can help him get his start. Phil hires Bobby to do odd jobs, which brings him into the sphere of Vonnie (Kristen Stewart). [Read more…]

Now You See Me 2 (Blu-ray Review)

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2013’s Now You See Me proved a far bigger hit than most people expected, which has ensured we’ve now got a follow-up. After their Robin Hood exploits in the first movie, illusionists The Horsemen have been in hiding, waiting for ‘The Eye’ to tell them what they should do next. They also have a new member, with Lizzy Caplan’s Lula joining Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Jack (Dave Franco) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson), along with their leader, FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo).

They get an assignment to take down someone who’s destroying personal privacy, but their comeback goes wrong when they’re hacked, kidnapped and taken to Macau, China. There they meet Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), who tells them that it was largely his money they stole in the first movie, and that they now have to do his bidding if they want to live. [Read more…]

Gods Of Egypt (Blu-ray Review)

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When it was first announced, Gods Of Egypt sounded like it could be a fun and interesting movie, with the Egyptian Gods living alongside man in a pretty fantasy sci-fi way. However, it was rather stillborn at the cinema, with terrible reviews and just $31 at the US Box Office, despite costing $140 million to make. It also got a lot of bad PR for being a film about Egypt, where nearly all the major characters are white, except for Chadwick Boseman’s Thoth.

The film kicks off with Osiris (Bryan Brown) being about to hand the job of ruling Egypt to his son, Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). However, Osiris’ aggrieved brother, Set (Gerard Butler), has other ideas, interrupting the ceremony, killing his sibling and stealing Horus’ eyes. The power-hungry Set takes over, plunging the country into chaos as a result. [Read more…]

The Ways Of Man (DVD Review)

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Do you like movies about one man following another man around in the woods? Well, if you do, this if your lucky day! Without any context, that’s pretty much all this slightly experimental movie is from beginning to end.

There is a little bit more to it than that though, as this is a modern reimagining of what happened to Judas Iscariot after he betrayed Jesus, and took thirty pieces of silver for doing it. Here we have a hoodie-wearing Judas, filled with angst and pain over what he’s done. [Read more…]

Warcraft: The Beginning (Blu-ray Review)

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In the last few years, Hollywood has become increasingly obsessed with the fast-growing Chinese market. Warcraft: The Beginning is ample evidence as to why that is. The movie was a massive flop in the US, grossing less than $50 million there on a $160 million budget. However, it made over $220 million in China, meaning that instead of being one of the biggest box office disasters ever, they’re now thinking of making a sequel.

The disparity between the US and China reception of this movie is a bit difficult to explain. While American audiences certainly had a lot of choice this summer, it’s a surprise a few more didn’t choose this film, as it’s quite fun. [Read more…]