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

Even Lovers Get The Blues (DVD Review) – Friends try to figure what sex and life mean in the LGBT-themed movie

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The Belgian film Even Lovers Gets The Blues follows a group of friends in the aftermath of the death of one of their number. After a night of fun and passion for all of them, Hugo keels over and dies while his girlfriend, Ana, is taking a post-sex shower.

This potent reminder of mortality has a profound effect on all of them. Ana is left reeling from the death of her lover, and tries to fill the gap in her life and deal with her grief by sleeping with a variety of men. Louis seems to wants his girlfriend, Leo, to have a baby, but she seems unsure and both have difficulty communicating about it. Dahlia and Graciano meanwhile have issues with their sex life, as Graciano is finding it difficult to stay aroused and his attempts to bring intimacy back to their relationship fail. Things change one drunken and drugged up night when he sleeps with their promiscuous gay friend, Arthur. [Read more…]

The Ornithologist (DVD Review) – Things get strange and a little gay in the wilderness

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João Pedro Rodrigues’s The Ornithologist got a fair amount of attention at film festivals, mesmerising many (and winning awards in the process), while rather perplexing others. However, a film inspired by the wanderings of St. Anthony of Padua and from a director not well known for making particularly accessible movies, isn’t likely to be straightforward.

The Ornithologist of the title is Fernando, who is out on his own in the wilds looking for black storks. After his kayak is caught in the rapids and destroyed, he is rescued by two young, Chinese women who are on a pilgrimage. However, his rescuers soon reveal a darker side, with Fernando ending up in his underwear tied to a tree. [Read more…]

Teenage Kicks (DVD Review) – Tragedy changes a young man’s life in the gay-themed Aussie film

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Back in 2009, director Craig Boreham made the acclaimed short film Drowning, starring Miles Szanto and Xavier Samuel (who went on to appear in the likes of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Fury). Teenage Kicks is the long-gestating feature-length version of that short, which despite the passage of eight years brings back Szanto in the central role. It continues Australia’s recent run of strong, sometimes raw, gay-themed films.

Mik (Szanto) is a young, second generation immigrant, who’s keen to get away from his family and head off somewhere new with his best friend Dan (Dan Webber). Things change however when Mik’s brother dies in an accident – a collision Mik witnessed but pretends that he didn’t. [Read more…]

Palace Of Fun (DVD Review) – Things get psychosexual & a little gay in Brighton

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Lily and Jamie are enjoying the fact that while it’s summer, they have their parents posh Sussex house to themselves. This idyll is disrupted when Lily brings her brand new boyfriend, Finn, into the house for the weekend.

Jamie seems uncertain about this interloper, who is gettin in the way of his time with his sister. However, when he discovers a secret about Finn, it sets off a series of events where blackmail develops into Jamie finding ways to satisfy his sexual desires and need for power. [Read more…]

Raw (DVD Review) – A young, naive woman gets cannibalistic desires (& a gay roommate)

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Just occasionally I watch a movie and genuinely can’t decide whether it’s a case of the Emperor having no clothes. Raw is one of those films.

On its festival debut the Belgian movie was met with a lot off buzz, as well as talk of people walking out and fainting because of its intensity and levels of gore. It now has a 90% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is pretty remarkable for a ‘horror’ movie, but I’m not completely sure whether it deserves it or not. [Read more…]

American Gods – Season 1 (DVD Review) – Strange, surreal & TV’s most explicit gay sex ever?

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Quite a lot of people have tried to get Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel to the screen, but it’s never happened until now. Despite being beloved by a lot of people, you can see why the money men were nervous about ponying up the cash for a film or TV version, as the book is often strange, surreal and quite graphic, with various tangents and peculiar moments that could be unintentionally funny in the wrong hands.

However, executive producer Bryan Fuller was the right man to hire, as with the likes of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies he’s shown an affinity with unusual, multi-layered tale that often verge towards the surreal. He certainly brings that to American Gods, which is often perplexing and weird, and will annoy some due to the fact it obstinately refuses to fully explain what going on. [Read more…]

Fifty Shades Darker – Unmasked Edition (Blu-ray Review) – Just how boring is it possible for kinky sex to be?

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Oh, dear God. How do you manage to make a film that’s supposedly about kinky sex be this boring?

At the end of Fifty Shades Of Grey, the timid Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and her S&M-obsessed billionaire paramour, Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), had parted company. However, it doesn’t take long until they’re back together, with Christian promising he loves Ana enough that he wants to be her partner rather than her master. She isn’t sure, but they start dating again, and are soon negotiating a different kind of contract than the last movie. It’s a more unspoken one where they attempt to create a more equal relationship, despite Christian’s issues and ‘boundaries’ (which handily you can literally paint on him in lipstick).

It’s not going to be all smooth sailing though, as there are various figures out to cause them trouble, including the previously unseen ‘Mrs. Robinson’ character, Elena (Kim Basinger), who inducted Christian into kinkiness and isn’t quite ready to let him go. There’s also Leila (Bella Heathcote), one of Christian’s earlier submissives, and Anastasia’s boss, Jack Hyde, who may be looking to make a different sort of sexual powerplay. [Read more…]

Taekwondo (BFI Flare Review) – A young gay man becomes a spy in the world of sexy straight boys

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Marco Berger has made his name with gay-themed fare such as Plan B, Absent and Hawaii, all of which have been interested in growing sexual tension between men. Martin Farina meanwhile brought us the documentary Fulboy, about a group of straight footballers, where the gayness came through the voyeuristic eye of the camera. Here the two Argentinian directors come together for Taekwondo, which is both voyeuristic and about sexual tension at the same time.

It’s summer, and Fer (Lucas Papa) has invited his new friend German (Gabriel Epstein), to come for a vacation at his house, where there’s a pool, sauna and a bit of luxury. There’s also a group of other young men, all of whom have known each other for years, and who have an easy camaraderie. Casual nudity is common, as is talk about sex. When together, they are partway between grown men and boys. [Read more…]

Multiple Maniacs (Criterion Blu-ray Review) – John Waters’ insane early queer movie is back & as bizarre as ever

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Even 47 years on, it’s sometimes difficult to know what to write about John Water’s early work. While he later tempered some of his more depraved urges and found a wider audience with the likes of Hairspray, Serial Mom and Pecker – although all still with the unique Waters stamp – when he first started out he was blazing a trail unlike anyone else.

Multiple Maniacs was Waters’ first feature-length sound movie, made in Baltimore at the tail end of 1969 with a cast and crew composed largely of his friends. It opens with Mr. David (David Lochary) trying to entice people into a tent to see Lady Divine’s Cavalcade Of Perversions. The straight-laced punters aren’t impressed by the ‘real-life queers’, drug addicts, armpit lickers and naked pyramids they find in the tent, and are even less pleased when they discover it’s all been a ruse to kidnap, rob and possibly kill them. [Read more…]

The Crying Game: 25th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray Review) – Neil Jordan’s classic returns

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Is 25 years long enough for something not to be considered a spoiler? Well, just in case, don’t read this review if you don’t want to know the ‘twist’ of The Crying Game. That said, I highly suspect that due to cultural changes in the last quarter of a century, it won’t be quite as much of a surprise as it was for most audience members in 1992.

The Crying Game opens with British soldier Jody (Forest Whitaker) getting kidnapped by the IRA in Northern Ireland. They demand that the UK government release one of their top men who’s recently been detained, in exchange for the soldier’s life.

However, one of the kidnappers, Fergus (Stephen Rea), unexpectedly starts to bond with his captive, even though he knows they may have to kill him. Jody tells Fergus about his lover, the beautiful Dil (Jaye Davidson), and asks him to check she’s alright if the worst comes to the worst. [Read more…]