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

The Journey (DVD)

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Ligy J. Pullappally’s 2004 debut (sadly it’s still her only movie) gets a welcome re-release. The deceptively simple film is about two teenage Indian girls, Kiran and Delilah, and the growing desire one has for the other. As you can probably guess this causes a few issues, not least of which is that that Kiran is mortified by her feelings for Delilah. However it may not only be Kiran who is feeling this way.

They live in a world where arranged marriage is the only option, and a relationship between two women seems out of the question. [Read more…]

Keep the Lights On (DVD)

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Keep the Lights On tells the story of a Danish filmmaker, Erik (Thure Lindhardt), who’s working on a new documentary and living in New York City. He enters a loving yet complicated relationship with Paul (Zachary Booth), a struggling drug and sex addict. The film takes a rare and honest look at the complications that impact on most relationships and the negative effects addiction can cause for yourself and a partner, all put together in a way that makes you not think of this as a ‘gay film’. [Read more…]

Looper (Blu-ray)

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Time travel is a tough nut to crack. It’s an idea that’s full of possibilities but it also has major pitfalls, not least of which are the endless paradoxes and logic knots that time travel films can tie themselves up in. Although Looper doesn’t completely resolve these problems, its gets closer than any film since Twelve Monkeys and presents a reality that’s actually pretty close to how some quantum physicists think time travel could actually work.

Indeed as Twelve Monkeys and Looper both feature Bruce Willis, perhaps all prospective time travel movies need to be given the Brucey seal of approval before they go into production. [Read more…]

Stanley Kubrick’s Fear And Desire (Blu-ray)

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The early works of great filmmakers often get a home entertainment release purely because of the name attached to it rather than because they’re great movies. However it’s taken until 2013 to get Stanley Kubrick’s Fear & Desire a release, which is largely because the director himself spent a fair amount of time trying to supress it.

After he became a major name, Kubrick didn’t really want it seen, and indeed for a while it was thought that all prints had been lost. However an archive print kept by Kodak was held at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, which has since been supplemented by the original negative, which was discovered in Costa Rica and is now in the US Library Of Congress (it’s this print the new Blu-ray is taken from). [Read more…]

Walk A Mile In My Pradas (DVD)

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One of the themes that seems to be emerging in populist gay cinema at the moment is doing LGBT versions of stories that mainstream movies have played with numerous times before. For example a couple of months ago we had a gay Christmas Carol with Scrooge & Marley, and now the Freaky Friday body swap film that gets a homo spin – although this time it’s a sexuality swap.

Tony (Nathaniel Marston) is a macho construction worker who’s preparing to marry his girlfriend. His latest job puts him under the supervision of the openly gay Steve, which brings Tony’s homophobic tendencies bubbling to the surface, culminating in a row at a Christmas party. They accidentally cast a festive wish on one another in front a magical Christmas angel which results in Tony becoming gay and Steve turning straight. [Read more…]

The Blue Angel (Blu-ray/DVD)

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As a lover of old Hollywood films, especially those made during the film industry’s golden age – because in my opinion the films were just better as they had a type of mystical Hollywood gloss painted over them – I was excited at the prospect of reviewing a film from 1930. This was in part to see a film from this era that I’d not heard of. It was also because the film was made not long after the transition into the talkies and, of course, it features film legend Marlene Dietrich. [Read more…]

Holy Motors (Blu-ray)

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Now here’s a movie to divide audiences. As its 90% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes suggests, it’s had an awful lot of love from the critics (several critics groups have given it their Best Foreign Film prize), but when I was watching it I couldn’t help but think a lot of people will find it infuriating and obtuse. But then, it almost seems to be challenging the viewer to think that, constantly hinting at the threads that tie it together before flying off on another flight of fancy that seems designed to frustrate the audience’s expectation. [Read more…]

Piranha (1978) (Blu-ray)

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B-movie producer Roger Corman is legendary for giving some of the biggest names in the film their first break. He was among the first to hire Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, and 1978’s Piranha also had more than its fair share of people getting some of their first film experience.

Director Joe Dante went on to helm the likes of Gremlins and Innerspace, and it was the first screenplay of John Sayles, who later directed Passion Fish and Lone Star. Editor Mark Goldblatt won an Oscar for Terminator 2, Rob Bottin is now a legend in make-up special effects, and Phil Tippett has an Academy Award for his special effects work on Jurassic Park [Read more…]