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

Snowtown (DVD)

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Snowtown comes to DVD with a reputation for violence, intensity and people walking out of the cinema because they couldn’t stomach it. However if you’re expecting this to be gruesome, gory and basically the latest successor to Saw, you’ll be disappointed, as the strong reactions people have had to Snowtown are more to do with its psychological intensity and moral complexity than the on-screen violence – although it does have its moments.

Based on a true story and with a largely first-time cast and crew, Snowtown tells the story of teenager Jamie (Lucas Pittaway), living in a poor, deprived neighbourhood just outside Adelaide in Australia. It’s a place where abuse seems commonplace, with Jamie dealing with it not only from his mother’s boyfriend but also his own family. [Read more…]

The Stranger In Us (DVD)

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Small town guy Anthony (Raphael Barker) arrives in San Francisco to live with his new boyfriend Stephen (Scott Cox). However domestic bliss soon turns sour when Stephen turns out to be demanding, controlling, abusive, manipulative and volatile.

The film jumps between Anthony in the midst of the tempestuous relationship and afterwards, when he find himself alone and isolated in the big city, before striking up a friendship with a young, runaway hustler, Gavin (Ada Perez). In between one night stands, trying drugs and desperately attempting to put his life back on track, Anthony finds himself drawn to Gavin, and together they find a connection in the anonymous, impersonal world of the big city. [Read more…]

Sleeping Beauty (DVD)

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Sleeping Beauty is not an easy film, I’m not even sure it’s a good one, but it does suggest Julia Leigh is a filmmaker to look out for in the future, even if her debut effort is more a series of effective moments than a truly successful complete film.

Emily Browning stars as Lucy, a rather disconnected young woman doing everything she can to make ends meet while also trying to study. However she doesn’t seem that interested in her life or those around her. She answers an advert for a very well paid job, starting off as a sexy silver service waitress at events for old horny men. However the job turns into something else, with Lucy agreeing to be a Sleeping Beauty, where she is drugged, falls asleep and is then visited by men. When she wakes up, she can’t remember what has happened, although the woman who arranges it all promises her ‘vagina is sacred’ and will not be penetrated. [Read more…]

Repo Man (Blu-ray)

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Repo Man is one of the cultiest of cult movies and has been ever since the day it was made. As director Alex Cox explains in the newly filmed introduction, Universal was initially intent on burying the movie (partially because some seemed to think the film was pro-Communist), but after the soundtrack started selling well, it got a wider release, found its audience and gained enough fans to keep it alive nearly 30 years on.

The film tells the story of Otto (Emilio Estevez), who quits/gets fired from his supermarket job and almost inadvertently ends up working as a repo man after a run in with an experienced repossessor called Bud (Harry Dean Stanton). That leads him into an increasingly bizarre world involving a car that disintegrates anyone who looks into the trunk, people looking for the body of a dead alien, blond-haired men in black and Otto’s punk friends/thieves. [Read more…]

Rolling Thunder (Blu-ray)

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Controversial for its violence on its first release, 1977’s Rolling Thunder has since become a bit of a cult classic, partly because of Quentin Tarantino’s admiration for it, and partly because it’s been mysteriously absent from DVD. As a result its reputation has grown while it’s been pretty difficult to actually watch it.

Now it’s arrived in the UK in a new Blu-ray & DVD release, and we can finally get to see what the fuss is about. The movie is essentially a revenge thriller, but one that’s more grounded and morally complex than most entries in the genre. The film opens with Major Charles Rane (William Devane) arriving back in the US, after years being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison. While he has hopes of rebuilding his life, he discovers his wife has taken up with another man and his son doesn’t remember him. [Read more…]

Drive (DVD)

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The release date of Drive deliberately seems to have set in the hope the movie would pick up a few Oscar nominations. While it only managed one – for Sound Editing – the film might well have been helped by the outrage many have expressed about the Academy pretty much ignoring it.

Ryan Gosling plays a Hollywood stunt driver, mechanic and getaway driver who strikes up a friendship/chaste romance with a young mother called Irene (Carey Mulligan), whose husband is in prison. When the hubby is released from jail, the driver agrees to help him with a robbery, in the hope this will ensure Irene and her son remain safe. However when things go wrong, it sets off an increasingly violent chain of events, with the driver’s life and that of everyone around him at threat from gangland heavies, including the brutal Nino (Ron Perlman) and gangster turned movie producer Bernie (Albert Brooks) [Read more…]

Red State (Blu-ray)

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From the moment Kevin Smith first mentioned Red State several years ago, it was clear it wasn’t going to be like any of his other movies. Although his claims it would be an incendiary movie that’s “so bleak that it makes The Dark Knight look like Strawberry Shortcake” turned out to be slightly hyperbolic, it’s certainly a new side to the director. It’s rare that making a violent horror/thriller movie can be said to show a director maturing, but this really is Kevin Smith on a different level to where he’s been before.

The director’s earlier movies have been a relatively easy ride, with fairly simple stories, plenty of jokes and a rather point and shoot filming style (that’s not to denigrate how much fun they are). [Read more…]

The Guard (Blu-ray)

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Although I can’t imagine the Irish Garda being a massive fan of the film, The Guard is a very entertaining movie, with a strong script, tight direction and a couple of excellent performances from Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle.

Gleeson plays small town cop, Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a man who’s more interested in hookers than keeping law and order, but whose quiet life is disrupted by the arrival of FBI Agent Wendell Everett (Cheadle), who’s on the trail of an international drug smuggling ring. Boyle isn’t interested in this multi-million Euro operation, and with the two men initially having a very confrontational relationship (largely because of the Irishman’s decided non-PC approach), it would appear they’ll never be able to work together. [Read more…]

Shame (Cinema)

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Oh my God, Michael Fassbender has a penis! Whoever would have thought it? The fact the actor’s little man makes a more than fleeting appearance in the Shame has received so much attention, you’d have thought everyone has assumed he was a Ken-doll down there before he proved otherwise. It’s a pattern that’s repeated over and over, as if an actress gets naked  it’s either barely mentioned or letched over, while male actors gets epithets like ‘brave’ and ‘bold’ thrown around. That’s not Fassbender’s fault, as he’s just doing his job and doing it well (and I’m sure there are some who’ll more than welcome little Fassbender’s appearance in the movie), but it would be nice if we could treat male and female genitals equally! [Read more…]

Boardwalk Empire – Season 1 (Blu-ray)

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Mixing fact and fiction, the past with present sensibilities and a great cast, Boardwalk Empire hit TV with a bang. Much of the initial interest came from the fact Martin Scorsese directed the first episode, and his influence is felt throughout the 12 episodes of Season 1. With the little expense spared in the creation of 1920s Atlantic City, it’s an incredibly rich world full of well-written characters, plenty of intrigue, decadence and moments of shocking violence.

The series centres around Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), a fictionalised version of a real-life New Jersey prohibition figure, who’s the treasurer of Atlantic City and one of its most esteemed businessmen – largely because he’s got the entire city in his pocket and his criminal network is pretty much untouchable [Read more…]