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

Julieta (Blu-ray Review) – Pedro Almodovar returns with a new Spanish tale

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The latest from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar follows Julieta (Emma Suarez), a middle-aged woman contemplating leaving Madrid and going to live in Portugal with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Darío Grandinetti). A chance encounter with a childhood friend of her daughter who informs her that her estranged child is now living in Switzerland and has three children, causes Julieta to rethink her plan to leave Madrid, in case her child ever wants to contact her again.

The film then takes us back to a young Julieta (Adriana Ugarte), a woman just starting out in life, who meets Galician fisherman Xoan (Daniel Grao) on a train, where their passionate encounter results in both a pregnancy and the start of a love affair. Once their child, Antia, is born, Julieta tries to juggle her job, motherhood and Xoan, attempting to create an idyll for their child. However, a terrible accident changes everything and eventually leads to a separation. [Read more…]

Hell Or High Water (Blu-ray Review) – Chris Pine & Ben Foster rob banks in a dying world

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In rural Texas, Toby Howard (Chris Pine) and his brother Tanner (Ben Foster) are on a bank robbing spree. Inevitably the law is after them, with days-from-retirement Texas Ranger Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and his Cherokee partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham) on their trail.

The quiet Toby and livewire Tanner are trying to steal enough to prevent the reverse mortgage on their dead mother’s ranch from foreclosing on the property, with $43,000 needed to secure the future of Toby’s son and ex-wife. However, their crime spree inevitably turns deadly, which may leave them with few ways out. [Read more…]

Sausage Party (Blu-ray Review) – Seth Rogen leads some rude, crude, animated food

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Ever since it was first announced, Sausage Party sounded like a completely insane movie, and now it’s here, that judgement has been proven correct. It may also one of the most in-your-face Hollywood releases ever on gay/bisexual front – even if that LGB content does involve animated food.

Frank (Seth Rogen) is a sausage, who’s spent his life in his package in a supermarket, waiting to be picked by the ‘gods’ (aka humans), and taken to The Great Beyond. Every day all the food in the market sing about the joys of The Great Beyond, and how nothing bad could possibly happen to them there. The sausages are also excited because getting picked will finally get them out of their wrappers and sliding into the sexy buns they’ve long flirted with but barely been able to touch. [Read more…]

War Dogs (Blu-ray Review)

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Life isn’t going as well as young David Packouz (Miles Teller) hoped. He’s stuck offering massages to middle-aged businessmen and wishing for something better. Then his old, rather wild, friend Efraim (Jonah Hill) returns to Miami from LA and offers David an opportunity.

Efraim is using a new government initiative to hopefully get rich. After a few scandals, President George W. Bush has opened up all government contracts to bids from private companies of any size, and that includes defence contracts. Efraim wants David to help him get the smaller arms contracts that the big companies are ignoring. That usually involved helping outfit the Iraqi or Afghani armies rather than the US military itself. [Read more…]

The Pass (Cinema Review)

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The Pass is one of those movies that really shouldn’t work. While it was acclaimed on stage, you would initially think that would be the only place it would succeed. It’s setup doesn’t immediately seem to lend itself to being opened up for cinema, as it by necessity it retains a very stark three-act structure, only has four speaking roles, and just three locations. However, despite that, it’s a really good film.

The movie opens in a Romanian hotel room, where two young footballers, Jason (Russell Tovey – who also originated the role on stage) and Ade (Arinzé Kene) are preparing for what could be a career-making game the next day. While they chat, bond, and perhaps subconsciously compete for status – both just in their underwear – they also slowly flirt towards something more intimate. There may be a lot of ‘lad’s talk’ about banging chicks and hot women, but that increasingly covers their true feelings. [Read more…]

Suicide Squad – Extended Cut (Blu-ray Review)

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Suicide Squad may have been this year’s most anticipated movie. After the underwhelming Man Of Steel and the ho-hum Batman vs. Superman, the trailers made it look like this was the fun, mischievous shot-in-the-arm that the DC Universe needed to really get it up and running, as well as being a counterpoint to the Marvel movies but which wouldn’t be as dour as the previous DC films. However, when the reviews came in, it was generally agreed by the critics the movie was a messy misfire (although it did okay at the box office).

Now it’s coming to Blu-ray and VoD in Extended Cut form, which adds in 10-minutes of extra footage. As with the Ultimate Edition of Batman vs. Superman, the extra scenes do help, but they’re unlikely to change anyone’s overall opinion of the movie. [Read more…]

Gypsy: The Musical (DVD Review)

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The late 1950s was one hell of a time for American musicals, with the likes of West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound Of Music and Gypsy all debuting on Broadway. While all of them have been held up by different people as the greatest musical ever, most agree that the best female mainstream musical role ever written is Rose in Gypsy – indeed, it’s sometimes referred to as the King Lear of musical theatre. Over the years Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters, and Patti LuPone have all played the role on Broadway, while Rosalind Russell appeared in the 1962 film version, and Bette Midler took the part in a 1993 TV movie.

In 2015 it was the turn of Imelda Staunton, fresh from her fabulous, Olivier Award-winning turn in a West End version of Sweeney Todd (before that, few people thought of her as a musical actress, but she’s actually got a long history in the genre, from Into The Woods (for which she won another Olivier back in 1991) to Guys & Dolls. Staunton got rave reviews and another Olivier Award for Gypsy’s limited run at London’s Savoy Theatre, and as this recording of the production proves, it’s easy to see why. [Read more…]

The Shallows (DVD Review)

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Nancy (Blake Lively) is feeling a bit lost in life and is considering dropping out of medical school. She heads off on her own to a secret Mexican beach that had special significance to her dead mother. After spending some time surfing, she discovers the bay is hiding the enormous body of a dead whale.

That’s not all that’s lurking either, as she is attacked by a great white shark, but manages to escape onto a rocky outcrop. She’s only a few hundred metres offshore, but with a gash in her leg that will attract the shark back, it doesn’t seem there will be any way to get back to the beach. It also becomes increasingly apparent that the cartilaginous fish isn’t going to give up. [Read more…]

Tickled (DVD Review)

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Often the best documentaries are the ones that end up taking a different direction than originally planned. With Tickled, that left-turn occurred slightly before they decided to make a film, when New Zealand journalist David Farrier stumbled upon the little-known ‘sport’ of competitive tickling.

Known for reporting on unusual, quirky subjects, he fired off an email to the company behind the ‘tournaments’, Jane O’Brien Media, only to be met with threats of lawsuits, and an immediate obsession with the fact Farrier is gay. The woman writing back to him was adamant there was nothing gay about competitive tickling, despite the fact only young, often shirtless men were involved and the whole thing seemed, well, pretty gay. The messages from Jane O’Brien Media got more extreme, anti-Semitic and homophobic, and it was only at that point a decision was taken to make a documentary. [Read more…]

Joe Lycett: That’s The Way A-ha A-ha (DVD Review)

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Award-winning comedian Joe Lycett has popped up on TV in the likes of Live at the Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Sunday Night at the Palladium, and now he’s getting his first live stand-up DVD, That’s The Way A-ha A-ha… Joe Lycett (get it?). Filmed at the Duchess Theatre in London, the disc showcases Joe’s mix of whimsy, acerbic comedy, and ‘being weird’.

To be honest, he is a bit of a Marmite proposition, as while many will find him a riot, other probably won’t quite get his idiosyncratic style, which varies from a love of puns, to stories from his life, to recounting the messages he sent to try and get out of a parking fine. A lot of it is very funny, and even those who overall don’t find Joe’s comedy to be quite their cup of tea, should get a few decent laughs. [Read more…]