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

Take This Waltz (Cinema)

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I still can’t quite believe the little girl from 1980s Canadian TV import Ramona is now all grown up and an accomplished actor, director and writer. Take This Waltz is Sarah Polley’s third movie as a director, following All I Want For Christmas and the excellent Away From Her. In some respects it’s a rather standard story – someone is tempted to cheat on their spouse when something seemingly more exciting than the dullness of everyday marriage comes along – but what make it slightly unusual is that in this one it’s the woman who’s thinking of playing away.

Michelle Williams – who’s fast become one of the most fascinating and accomplished actresses of her generation, and also oddly interested with starring in movie about the breakdown of relationships – plays Margot, who meets the dashing and rather good-looking Daniel (Luke Kirby) while on a research trip to a living-history colonial fort. [Read more…]

360 (Cinema)

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Very loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1900 play La Ronde, Fernando Meirelles’ movie tells a series of interconnected tales, stretching across the globe, all of which are loosely ties by looking at sexual politics and the ties of human connections, no matter how brief.

Meirelles showed his skill with complex ensemble tales with City Of God, but 360 is a slower affair, more meditative than the driving energy of his Brazilian favela movie. Amongst the many stories are Jude Law and Rachel Weisz’s married couple, who both find themselves in adulterous situations. Anthony Hopkins is an older man looking for his lost daughter, who makes a random connection with a young Brazilian woman. Ben Foster is fresh out of prison after a six-year stretch for paedophilia, trying to withstand the temptations and distractions of the outside world. There’s also a prostitute sent to an appointment with a brutish Russian businessman, while her sister makes friends with a man outside, whose marriage is on the rocks. [Read more…]

I Against I (Cinema)

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Let’s just ignore the fact that I Against I is a truly horrible (and vaguely nonsensical) title, as plenty of decent films have been burdened by rubbish names. Sadly though in this case, the title isn’t any better than the film.

Ian Drake (Kenny Doughty) finds himself massively in over his head when he’s accused by hardnut Joseph Carmichael (Mark Womack) of killing his criminal underworld kingpin father, Tommy. Joseph offers Ian a possible way out, giving him 12 hours to kill a man called Issac (Sigurosson). Unbeknownst to Ian, Issac could also be the murderer, and he’s out to kill Ian. As the two men try to track each other and get their respective jobs done, the situation becomes ever more complex and they begin to suspect they may have been double-crossed, but why? [Read more…]

The Assault (Blu-ray)

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Personally I blame Paul Greengrass. Ever since his Bourne movies, action filmmakers have been falling over themselves to have the movie that looks most like the cameraman is having a seizure. And I know it may make me sound like a cretin, but shaky-cam is particularly problematic for foreign language films. When watching The Assault, trying to read the subtitles while the picture in the background is wobbling all over the place, really does make your eyes go funny.

The film is based on the true story of the 1994 hijacking of an Air France plane in Algeria by hardcore, anti-French Islamists, involved in the country’s civil war. Before the plane takes off, four men take control of the vehicle, leading to a tense stand-off on the tarmac.  The hijackers demand to be allowed to take off for Paris, killing passengers in an attempt to get their ultimatums granted. [Read more…]

Comes A Bright Day (DVD)

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Director Simon Aboud (who’s Paul McCartney’s son-in-law, no less) assembles a good, small cast for the Comes A Bright Day, including Submarine’s Craig Roberts, 28 Weeks Later’s Imogen Poots, Grey’s Anatomy’s Kevin McKidd and the always excellent Timothy Spall. Roberts plays a young Sam, who bigs himself up when he meets a pretty girl called Mary (Poots) who assumes he’s rich because of the watch he’s wearing. He heads to the upmarket jewellery store where she works to ask her out, just in time for a pair of armed robbers to turn up.

The store’s owner (Spall) trips the alarm, and soon he and the two young people are being held hostage by the sociopathic Cameron (McKidd) and his nervous young accomplice Clegg (Josef Atlin). As the robbers try to negotiate with the police and find a way out, the danger inside the shop increases, with Cameron always on the edge of going loco and killing somebody. As Mary begins to discover Sam has been lying to her about his job and wealth, his position becomes even more dangerous when she begins to think he may be in on the robbery. [Read more…]

Three Veils (DVD)

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Three Veils features three interlinked tales about young Arab-American women in Los Angeles, dealing with being products of both modern US culture and the mores and traditions of the countries their parents come from.

The first story follows Leila, who is preparing for her arranged marriage, putting aside her wilder impulses and respecting the traditions of the culture she comes from. However her father begins to suspect she isn’t really happy about what’s happening, and her prospective husband reveals himself to be increasingly controlling. Next up is Leila’s study partner Amira, who’s had lesbian feelings since a young age, but after her mother realised this she got Amira to dedicate herself to The Koran and is determined her daughter will put her same-sex feeling aside. However the arrival of Nikki in Amira’s life stirs things up, and makes her realise that maybe she cannot be happy in the life her mother is pushing her towards. [Read more…]

Hijacked (Blu-ray)

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Making any film is an achievement. It’s something that nearly always happens against the odds, with people having to make a gargantuan effort just to get something in the can. However there are undoubtedly movies where you can’t help but feel it would have been better if they’d just invested the budget in the stock market rather than using it to make a film, and saved everyone a whole lot of trouble. Sadly Hijacked is one of those movies.

Paul Ross (Randy Couture) is a burly guy who’s determined to take down a mysterious criminal/terrorist organisation called The Tribe, which funds itself through drugs and illegal arms dealings. He becomes even more single-minded in destroying them after a set-up leaves many of his colleagues dead.  Ross learns that The Tribe’s next target may be one of the world’s richest men, Bruce Lieb (Craig Fairbrass), which leads him the magnate’s private jumbo jet. The plane is hijacked by the terrorists mid-flight, with Ross determined to get revenge, protect his ex-girlfriend (who conveniently is also on the flight), and find out who’s really behind The Tribe. But exactly who can he trust? [Read more…]

The Mission (DVD)

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Set in the Mission District of San Francisco, Che (Benjamin Bratt) is the hard-assed, ex-con father of Jessie (Jeremy Ray Valdez). The teen hasn’t had the easiest of lives, but has found some measure of happiness with his boyfriend, Jordan (Max Rosenak). Jessie keeps the relationship a secret, but when Che finds some Polaroids snapped at a gay bar, the truth is out. Che is less than happy having a ‘faggot’ for a son, and is utterly unwilling to try and understand it. The best they can do is come to an uneasy silence over the subject.

As Jessie nears graduation and the Mission’s homophobia builds to potentially lethal levels, Che remains unable to accept his son. Although it seems the wedge between them is immovable, can father and son ever come back together? And can Che fins his own redemption in a relationship with Smoke, who almost acts as his conscience? [Read more…]

Bel Ami (Blu-ray)

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Robert Pattinson in a drama that’s all about sex and power should be enough to have teenage girls  (and many a gay man) wetting their knickers, although this certainly isn’t a film for twi-hards. Pattinson plays George Duroy, who in 19th Century France leaves the army and heads to Paris to make his fortune. He soon realises that he needs contacts, and that even if he can get one or two of those, no one is simply going to hand him the treasures he wants.

The fact he has few skills would seem an impediment, but what he’s well aware of that he has one thing in his favour, he’s irresistible to women. This starts to become his way into Parisian high society, picking the ladies who can offer him his next step up the ladder. His conquests include the forthright and astute Clothilde (Christina Ricci), the devoted and normally faithful Virginie (Kristin Scott Thomas), and Madeleine (Uma Thurman), a woman who in the modern day would be smashing through the glass ceiling, but in 19th Century France has to settle with being a professional wife whose light must shine through the men she’s with. [Read more…]

Wild Bill (Blu-ray)

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The word on upon its cinema release Wild Bill was very positive, and reviews were certainly of fairly enthusiastic nature. So Dexter Fletcher’s directorial debut is a welcome release on DVD and Blu Ray.

Fletcher has had a very long career in both film and TV, starting off in Bugsy Malone in 1978, and so he’s brought this wealth of experience to his first feature, both as writer and director. The movie is set in the London Borough of Newham, against the backdrop of the Olympic site. Whilst magnificent structures loom in the background, we concentrate on the characters involved in the shady goings on on an estate. [Read more…]