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

Straight Outta Compton – Director’s Cut (Blu-ray Review)

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Oftentimes having the subject of a biopic involved in the production ends up watering it down to the point it’s completely neutered. However, we should have probably guessed that wouldn’t have been too much of a problem for the members of NWA, who made their name by being honest about their lives and the world that they came from.

Even so, it’s taken a long time to get the project off the ground, and even just before it arrived, some wondered whether the subject matter would have genuinely wide appeal. However, with a great critical reaction and a gross of $160 million just in the US, it certainly defied expectations. It undoubtedly helped as well that the film arrived just at the right moment too, as the Black Lives Matter movement was rising and distrust of US law enforcement made the message of songs like ‘Fuck tha Police’ seem as timely as when they were first written. [Read more…]

Holiday (Feriado) (DVD Review)

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Set around the turn on the millennium in Ecuador, in Holiday the country is on the precipice of turmoil as corruption threatens to cause a chain reaction that will implode the banking system. Rich teenager Juampi (Juan Arregui) heads off for a holiday with his extended family, but soon finds the problems engulfing the country aren’t that far away.

When he sees a group of people taking the law into their own hands and beating a small-time criminal, he ends up escaping with the young man called Juano, who comes from a poor Andean family. Juampi is introduced to a world he’s never properly seen before, where small-time criminality is virtually the only way to eke out something more than mere existence, but amidst the poverty is real life. As their friendship develops, Juampi begins to have feelings for Juano, but there may be limits beyond which one of them won’t take this stab at first love. [Read more…]

A Girl At My Door (DVD Review)

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South Korean actress Doona Bae has had a fair amount of success in the West, thanks to home-grown movies such as The Host and Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance and becoming one of the Wachowskis’s favoured actors in the likes of Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending and Sense8. With A Girl At My Door she returns to the Korean peninsula to play Young-Nam, who after a minor scandal is sent to a small, rural town to be their police chief.

Told to keep her head down, she immediately begins to ruffle feathers when she discovers a man called Yong-ha beating his daughter Do-hee. He is not impressed about being told what to do, as he feels he runs the town – and most agree, as most people’s livelihoods rely on the crooked and corrupt economy he has set up. [Read more…]

45 Years (Blu-ray Review)

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Following the indie success of Weekend and helping to produce/direct HBO’s Looking, Andrew Haigh shows he isn’t simply be a ‘gay director’ with the tender 45 Years. The film introduces us to Kate and Geoff Mercer (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay), who are soon to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary.

Geoff gets unexpected news when he receives a letter informing him that the frozen body of his old girlfriend, who died in an accident decades before, has been discovered in the Swiss Alps. Initially Kate thinks this is surprising and upsetting news for her husband, but not something that will greatly affect either of them. However, as Geoff talks more about this woman he knew before he met Kate, she starts to feel that perhaps their marriage has been haunted by her, and Geoff’s feelings about an entirely different life that he might have led if fate hadn’t intervened. [Read more…]

We Are Your Friends (Blu-ray Review)

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Cole (Zac Efron) is a young man living in LA’s San Fernando Valley with his friends, who has dreams of making it big as a DJ. In the meantime, he and his mates are scraping by promoting at clubs and Cole DJ-ing for free. Then he meets producer James (Wes Bentley), who takes Cole under his wing and may be able to show him the way to the big time. However, things are complicated by Cole’s feelings for James’ assistant/girlfriend Emily (Emily Ratajkowski), the difficulties Cole and his friends find themselves in – including getting a job that may be more ethically murky that the low grade drug dealing they are also involved in – and the darker side of the electronic music scene. [Read more…]