December 5th Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

Brazil (Blu-ray)

December 7, 2011 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm
Director: Terry Gilliam
Running Time: 137 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: December 5th, 2011

A masterpiece to some, a source of utter befuddlement to others, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil has been dividing opinions now for over 25 years. Now it reaches Blu-ray, which is certainly a good way to show off the film’s extraordinary production design.

Set in a dystopian mix of the future and the past, Jonathan Pryce plays Sam Lowry, a man trying to live a quiet life as part of a vast bureaucracy, but who has extravagant dreams where he’s a flying, monster-slaying hero. During his waking life though, he’s mainly trying to be efficient and stop his plastic surgery obsessed mother from pushing him around. [Read more…]

We Were Here (DVD)

December 5, 2011 By Tim Isaac 1 Comment

Starring: Bobbi Campbell, Cleve Jones
Director: David Weissman
Running Time: 105 mins
Certificate: E
Release Date: December 5th, 2011

Although it’s a bit of a shame We Were Here didn’t hit DVD last week, just in time for AIDS Awareness Day on December 1^st, the powerful documentary about the impact of HIV and AIDS in San Francisco in the 1980s has now been released. It’s already received plenty of plaudits, including being shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar.

We Were Here consists of interviews with San Franciscans who lived through the early years of the emergence of AIDS, giving testimony about its effect on them and those around them. For a younger generation for whom HIV has largely seemed like a manageable condition (whether that’s the truth or not), it’s sobering stuff. [Read more…]

Buffering (DVD)

November 30, 2011 By Tim Isaac 1 Comment

Starring: Alex Anthony, Conner McKenzy, Jessica Matthews
Director: Darren Flaxstone, Christian Martin
Running Time: 80 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: December 5th, 2011

Bristol wouldn’t spring to most people’s minds as a hotspot of gay cinema, but it’s been getting that way in the last few years thanks to a bunch of dedicated guys who between them have brought us the likes of Shank, Release and now Buffering.

Seb (Alex Anthony) and Aaron (Conner McKenzy) are two young gay guys trying to live out a suburban idyll in their own house full of the domestic niceties. However the recession has hit and unbeknownst to Seb, Aaron has lost his job and they’re way behind on the mortgage. It’s gotten to the point where there’s only a short time to sort things out before the bank comes and takes their home. Things are compounded when Seb loses his job as well. [Read more…]

Uncle David (DVD)

November 29, 2011 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: David Hoyle, Ashley Greene
Director: David Hoyle, Mike Nicholls, Gary Reich
Running Time: 95 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: December 5th, 2011

It’s not often that a film can elicit two completely different reactions from me, but Uncle David managed it. If you asked for my knee-jerk feeling, I’d have to say I hated it. While watching it I found it slow, tedious, rather annoying and more than a little pretentious. Despite this, the movie has stuck in my head and kept me thinking about it for days afterwards.

The plot is relatively simple. David (David Hoyle) is a middle-aged man living with his young lover, Ashley (Ashley Greene), in a chalet in a remote, windy, British seaside town. While their life seems rather basic and deprived, David lives in a world of his own philosophical making, endlessly lecturing the receptive Ashley about his ideas on life, and how nearly everybody in the world is buying into what he believes is a corrupt and corrupting system. [Read more…]