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

Woman In A Dressing Gown (DVD)

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Although not as famous as the likes of The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner and Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, many credit Woman In A Dressing Gown as the place where the British Kitchen Sink Drama began. It was exceedingly unusual on its 1957 release for taking the small, personal crisis of a normal family living in a block of flats as its main subject, setting a precedent for a lot of the gritty, working class life movies of the 1960s.

Yvonne Mitchell plays Amy Preston, a housewife who seems happy (at least on the surface) in her life as mother of Brian (Andrew Ray) and wife of Jim (Anthony Quayle), even if the dinner is rarely on the table on time and the flat is normally a bit of a mess. Jim is less happy though, straining against his less-than-perfect domesticity and a wife he feels has changed since they married. He’s started seeing a young woman from his office, Georgie (Sylvia Syms), who is utterly devoted to him and wishes for him to leave Amy. Although Jim says he doesn’t want to hurt his wife, he eventually decides he must tell Amy he’s stepping out with another woman and wants a divorce. [Read more…]

Orlando (Blu-ray)

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If you like films to be literal and make logical sense, then Orlando is not the movie for you. However if you enjoy something idiosyncratic that stands alone as a unique bit of independent cinema, and which certainly make you think, Sally Potter’s 1992 movie is well worth a look.

Based on Virginia Woolf’s classic novel, the film follows young nobleman Orlando (Tilda Swinton), who is ordered by Queen Elizabeth I to stay young forever. Miraculously he does, with the film charting Orlando’s life over four centuries. Over time he courts a young Russian woman, becomes patron to a poet, and then heads for Constantinople to represent the Crown. Once there another miraculous things happens (well, miraculous to us, but seemingly not to Orlando), as he changes from a man to a woman. While she retains the same mind and personality, she finds the world is rather different for a lady, not least that she can’t own property as a woman. [Read more…]

Mirror Mirror (DVD)

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Hollywood is now investing a lot of time and money into fairytales of old, as with today’s CGI anything goes. You wait ages for a Snow White films and two turn up, the same can also be said of waiting for a Tarsem Singh film, as we hadn’t had anything since 2006’s The Fall, and now we’ve had Immortals and Mirror Mirror within a few months of one another. One does not normally associate a Tarsem Singh film with comedy, but this is what has he has delivered with Mirror Mirror, which is unusual considering his inability to connect with the audience with his previous films.

Tarsem Singh is a cinematic visionary who tends to focus more on imagery, costumes and style than with plots, and again has delivered something very similar with Mirror Mirror. Personally I enjoy watching Singh’s films and marvel at the beauty and striking canvas he envisages like a true artist (it is definitely style over substance), along with the creator of his incredible costumes, Eiko Ishioka, who unfortunately passed away this year. [Read more…]

Forever Marilyn Box Set (Blu-ray)

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Was Marilyn Monroe a good actress? In my opinion no (although she desperately wanted to be), as her range was extremely limited. But what she had in spades was star charisma; an inexplicable power to make you watch and empathise with her on screen. It’s this, as well as her iconic look, tragic story and untimely death that has ensured she has become a legend, with many believing she’s more famous now, 50 years after her death, than she was when she was alive. With that sad anniversary arriving on August 5th, Fox has released the Forever Marilyn Blu-ray box set, which includes four of her most famous films – Some Like It Hot, The Seven Year Itch, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How To Marry A Millionaire.

To be honest, it’s only Some Like It Hot that can be considered a true classic, as it’s likely the other three would be largely forgotten if it weren’t for the presence of Marilyn. Gentlemen and Millionaire in particular are the lightest of light comedies. Indeed it’s an odd fact that like many actresses of her era, she’s more famous than the films she starred in – after all, everyone knows Monroe’s face, but most have seen few, if any, of her films. [Read more…]

Chariots Of Fire – 30th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

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God bless the 1920s, when everyone ran in slow motion to the strains of a synthesiser, and the Olympics was like a giant version of a school sports day. It’s 30 years since Chariots Of Fire was released and stormed to Best Picture Oscar glory, and it’s no surprise the film is getting a Blu-ray release shortly before the 2012 Olympics get underway.

Since it came out, there’s been much debate over whether it’s really a good movie or not, with some classing it as one of the most overrated films ever. That’s partly because many don’t understand how it won Best Picture (and to be honest, I’d be willing to bet it was of a split vote on the other contenders – Reds, Atlantic City, On Golden Pond and Raiders Of The Lost Ark. However it’s not a bad movie, it’s just not a great one. [Read more…]

The Shakespeare Collection (DVD)

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Once Upon A Time ITV didn’t just produce The Only Way Is Essex and The Only Way Is Downton Abbey, they also made adaptations of Shakespeare (or at least Thames Television did). This box set collects four of them together – King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night – all shot in the 70s and 80s. Some are actually filmed stagings of theatrical productions of the plays, so for example, Twelfth Night is Kenneth Branagh’s 1987 version from his Renaissance Theatre Company, while Macbeth is the 1979 RSC take starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench. [Read more…]

The Lost Weekend (Blu-ray)

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Back in 1945, vaguely realistic depictions of addiction on screen weren’t just a rarity, they were pretty much unheard of. However, coming off the success of Double Indemnity, writer-director Billy Wilder decided that the time was ripe to adapt Charles R. Jackson’s novel about alcoholism, The Lost Weekend, for the big screen. It certainly worked, as Wilder won Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for the movie.

Ray Milland plays Don Birnam, who’s supposed to be giving up the booze and heading off for the weekend with his straight-laced brother, Wick. However the lure of the liquor proves too much and Wick gives up on helping his brother, leaving Don’s girlfriend, Helen (Jane Wyman), to deal with him. This is the start of a four day binge, where Don’s desperation for alcohol becomes ever greater. He harbours ideas of being an author, but blames his alcoholism of writer’s block, and it’s gotten so bad he even hocks his typewriter to get more whiskey. [Read more…]

Double Indemnity (Blu-ray)

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The likes of The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The Night Of The Hunter and other films have claims to being the greatest film noir, but for me it’s Double Indemnity. It’s a true masterpiece of a film, which truly grasps all the things that made noir great (indeed it created many of them, as this was a very early entry to the ‘genre’), from fast-paced hard-boiled dialogue and femme fatales to chiaroscuro lighting, a duplicitous protagonist and wry narration.

Fred MacMurray (who other than this is largely synonymous with comedy) plays insurance salesman Walter Neff, who turns up on the doorstep of Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), hoping to sign up her husband for some protection. However Phyllis has other ideas. After an initial flirtation, she slowly reveals a plan to sign her hubby up for a massive life insurance policy that pays double if he dies on a train, and then kill him. Using her highly sexual feminine wiles, she hooks Walter in to help her with her scheme. It’s a complicated plan, but Walter believes they can pull it off and then he and Phyllis can be together, but things get ever more difficult. [Read more…]

My Babysitter’s A Vampire: The Movie (DVD)

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If Wizards Of Waverly Place was kids TV’s answer to Harry Potter, My Babysitter’s A Vampire’s is the same for Twilight (let’s ignore CBBC’s rather dismal Young Dracula). In fact it’s a rather self-knowingly comic attempt to capitalise in the interest in all thing vampiric, as it even includes a Twilight-esque movie-within-a-movie called Dusk.

My Babysitter’s A Vampire actually hails from Canada, but the TV series has found success on the Disney Channel in both the US and UK. This is the film that spawned the TV series and gives a bit of an origin tale for fans of the show. Ethan (Matthew Knight) is a geeky high school student who’s horrified when his parents demand they bring in a babysitter. It’s his own fault though, as Ethan’s attempt to look after his little sister ended up with her outside the house at night by herself. [Read more…]

Big Miracle (DVD)

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Everybody love whales, right? Indeed they’re so adored that the original name of this film was Everybody Loves Whales, before being changed to the more generic and slightly meaningless Big Miracle. Indeed it’s a change that seems indicative of the slightly ballsed-up marketing this movie’s had, as it deserved to get a big audience and is just the sort of film many families will love. Instead of selling it properly though, it was merely slipped out and made just $20 million at the US box office. Hopefully it’ll find a bit more of an audience on DVD.

John Krasinski plays Adam Carlson, a news reporter for a small TV station who’s been sent to Barrow, Alaska to talk about what it’s like to live in the Arctic circle, in one of the most northerly towns in the world. Just as he’s about to leave, he happens upon three Gray Whales trapped in a small breathing hole in the ice. It’s too far for them to swim to the open ocean without drowning and their outlook seems bleak. [Read more…]