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 Edge Of Seventeen (DVD Review) – Teen life gets a bit much for Haillee Steinfeld

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Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) is a teenage girl who feels likes an outcast. She only has one friend, Krista (Hayley Lu Richardson), and has difficulty with both her perfect brother Darian (Blake Jenner) and her neurotic mother (Kyra Sedgwick). Things seem to be getting even worse when she walks in on Krista and Darian in bed, leading to a complete breakdown in her relationship with both her best friend and her brother.

As her social awkwardness and desperation intensifies – including a difficult situation involving a hot guy and a sext – she may be overlooking something good with a boy who’s interested in her, but who she doesn’t really see in a romantic light. [Read more…]

Bromance (DVD Review) – Will gay secrets destroy the friendship between three men?

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Argentina once more proves it has a knack for gay-themed cinema with Bromance (originally titled Como una novia sin sexo, which translates as ‘Like a girlfriend without sex’). In the film, three young men, Santi, Adrian and Daniel, head off for a camping break in a forest near the sea. They have been friends for a long time and share an intimate camaraderie of playing jokes on one another, engaging in horseplay and having fun.

However, things begin to get a little more complex when Adrian makes a move and kisses Santi while they’re swimming in the sea. Santi isn’t ready for this though and leaves. Soon after they meet a woman, Julieta, who they invite back to their camp. Although it’s supposed to just be the three men, Julieta and Santi start sleeping with one another. While Adrian is less than impressed with this development, Daniel is dealing with his own problems as his grandfather is gravely ill. [Read more…]

Ouija: Origin Of Evil (Blu-ray Review) – The spirit board unlocks evil in the 1960s

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Set 50 years before 2014’s Ouija movie, this prequel takes us into the same house in the late 1960s. Alice Zander (Elisabeth Reaser) is running a fake séance business from the property, telling her clients what they want to hear about their deceased love ones. She decides a good gimmick would be to add a Ouija board to the ‘act’. However, as soon a she starts using it, her youngest daughter, Doris (Lulu Wilson), starts hearing voices that she believes are her dead father contacting her.

Alice initially thinks this is great, as Doris’ gift means that they can do the psychic thing for real and maybe even reconnect with the dead dad, but her other daughter, Lina (Annalise Basso), isn’t so sure. Turns out Lina’s uncertainty is well founded, as evil forces within the house start to possess Doris and make their malevolent presence known. [Read more…]

Moonlight (Cinema Review) – The gay-themed multi-Oscar nominee finally reaches the UK

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Oftentimes it’s not too far into the year when you can see which movies are likely to be lining up for the Oscar race. However, Moonlight seemingly came out of nowhere, became far more successful at the US box office than most expected (setting records along the way) and immediately had people suggesting it ought to be up for loads of awards. Even so, many wondered whether it would miss out, simply because it was a small film released by a US distributor that doesn’t have the money for the sort of massive Oscar campaign a studio can mount.

Thankfully it defied the odds, scoring eight Oscar nominations. It’s taken a while, but now the movie is arriving in the UK, and it’s been worth the wait. [Read more…]

The 9th Life Of Louis Drax (DVD Review) – Jamie Dornan gets mysterious and magical realist

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The biggest problem with The 9th Life Of Louis Drax is the constant sense that this is a movie that could have been absolutely brilliant, but it sadly isn’t. It’s not bad, and there’s plenty that’s interesting about it (although it could have been fascinating), but it never quite manages to work out what it’s doing.

The titular Louis Drax is an accident prone nine-year-old boy, whose parents have recently separated. After falling from a cliff on an outing with his mother and father, he is rushed to the hospital in a coma, where he comes under the care of Dr. Allan Pascal (Jamie Dornan). Louis also needs protection, as it’s believed his father, Peter (Aaron Paul), caused the accident and is now on the run. [Read more…]

Deep Water (DVD Review) – A killer is targeting the gay community in the Aussie thriller

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After airing on BBC4 last year, the powerful four-part Aussie thriller arrives on DVD in the UK. From the start it’s clear Deep Water has felt the influence of the likes of Broadchurch and Scandinavian crime shows, with a dark tone and moments of grisliness.

One thing that helps set it apart is that one of the most unpleasant parts of it – groups of teens beating gay men and/or forcing them off cliffs, is based on real life. Or at least it’s based on real life according to many gay people who lived in New South Wales in the 1980s and 1990s, but for a long time the police refused to consider that the deaths of more than 80 people might be part of a pattern. Thankfully though, just a few days ago they announced that they would finally look into the allegations that various gangs may have been hunting gay people for sport back then. [Read more…]

Urban Hymn (DVD Review) – Can music bring hope to a discarded youth?

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Jamie (Letitia Wright) is a young woman who’s been brought up in children’s homes and is used to being treated as a problem to be ‘handled’. Together with her tough best friend Leanne (Isabella Laughland) she’s not averse to getting into a bit of trouble, including getting involved in the 2011 London riots.

When new children’s home worker Kate (Shirley Henderson) shows an interest in her music, Jamie assumes this is just another do-gooder with no clue how to actually help. However, after Kate invites Jamie to audition for the choir she’s a part of, Jamie starts to wonder whether there really is a new opportunity here and someone who really wants to help and support her. However, it’s not going to be an easy road, especially as Leanne is determined not to accept any help, and with her need to violently retaliating to maintain status and to demand people meet her on her dangerous terms, she could prevent Jamie from making the most of the opportunities her music could offer. [Read more…]

Blair Witch (Blu-ray Review) – Back into the supernatural Black Hills woods for more found footage

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When it was announced at Comic Con that Adam Wingard’s The Woods (which already had a bit of hype about it even though no one knew much about it) was actually a sequel to The Blair Witch Project, it seemed a bit of a masterstroke of marketing. Immediately a movie that might otherwise have elicited shrugs and accusations of cashing in on a dead franchise, instead jumped to the top of horror fanboys interest lists.

Now though it’s starting to seem like it might have worked a little too well, as it raised the hype level so high that unless the actual movie turned out to be a surprising and zeitgeist-capturing as the original 1999 film, it was bound to be seen as disappointing. And that’s just what happened when it was released in cinemas, with most people seeing it as more of remake than a sequel – and it was actually outgrossed by the almost universally derided earlier follow-up, Book Of Shadows. [Read more…]

The Infiltrator (Blu-ray Review) – Bryan Cranston goes undercover laundering drug money

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Bryan Cranston is US Customs Official Bob Mazur, who specialises in going undercover to take down the bad guys. Following a successful sting where he gets injured, he’s told he’s eligible to retire. Instead he takes on a new job, going back undercover as shady business Robert Musella.

While his partner, Emir (John Leguizamo), infiltrates the lower ranks of the drug world, Bob works his way into the trust of those higher up the narcotics chain, posing as a man capable of laundering millions of dollars for Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel. The further into this world he goes the more dangerous it gets, necessitating the need for a fake fiancée (Diane Kruger), and having to pretend his wife is his secretary to help ensure his real family is kept safe, all while knowing that if he’s found out he’ll get a bullet in the brain. [Read more…]

Donnie Darko (2-Disc Blu-ray Review) – Donnie & Frank the rabbit get an upgrade

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Quite often, movies that were quirky, unusual flavours-of-the-month have been quietly forgotten after 15 years, and when you do come across them again, you wonder what all the fuss was about. Not so with Donnie Darko, which retains both its cult and mainstream appeal, with enough love that it recently got a small cinema re-release and now Arrow Video have come up with one hell of a Blu-ray package for it.

Not only do you get the film in both its Theatrical and Director’s Cut form, but they’re based on a brand new 4K restoration supervised by Richard Kelly (although by necessity it’s only 2K resolution on the Blu-ray), and it comes with an almost ridiculous amount of special features both old and new. [Read more…]