May 27th 2013 Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mum (DVD)

May 31, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Julia Stone, Macha Grenon, Gil Bellows, Rebecca Croll, Dolly Parton
Director: Tara Johns
Running Time: 95 mins
Certificate: PG
Release Date: May 27th 2013

With a title as awesome The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mum, this film has a lot to live up to, and thankfully it’s a pretty good and rather sweet movie. It’s also a fairly good example of what cinema is lacking because there are so few women directors, as when you get a movie like this, with a genuine female voice, you realise how rare it is and how lop-sided the movies generally are.

It’s 1976 and Elizabeth is on the verge of puberty. During a class assignment about how blood groups are hereditary, she realises that she cannot be her parents’ biological child. Understandably she’s a little upset and confused about this, and becomes gripped with the idea of find her ‘real’ mother. After thinking it over, she comes to the conclusion that perhaps Dolly Parton is her mum, due to the singer’s trailblazing ways and love of poetry. [Read more…]

The Visitor (Cibrâil) (DVD)

May 30, 2013 By Tim Isaac 1 Comment

Starring: Sinan Hancili, Martina Hesse, Peter Beck
Director: Tor Iben
Running Time: 70 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: May 27th 2013

A lot of gay-themed films are low budget efforts, so you have to make allowances for the fact they don’t have polished production values and the actors aren’t going to be hired by the Royal Shakespeare Company anytime soon. However sometimes it’s tough, and that’s certainly the case with The Visitor. The film is almost like something you’d make to show potential investors what the movie would be like if they were given the money to do it properly.

I really tried to look past the film’s low budget shortcomings, but things such as the fact everyone sounds like they’re speaking from the end of a long tunnel (and sometimes background noise threatens to drown out the speech), make it difficult. It also doesn’t help that first-time feature director Tor Iben makes quite a lot of amateurish moves. [Read more…]

The Numbers Station (VoD)

May 29, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham, Lucy Griffiths
Director: Kaspar Barfoed
Running Time: 88 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: May 27th 2013

The Numbers Station is available on VoD in the UK now, and will reach DVD & Blu-ray on July 1st

The success of ‘Nordic Noir’ such as The Killing and Headhunters has caused Hollywood to look towards Scandinavia for a new crops of directors to mine. Denmark’s Karspar Barfoed is one of those who’s heard the call of American film, making his English-language debut with The Numbers Station. However he certainly hasn’t jumped into the big budget realm, as it’s a relatively small-scale, claustrophobic thriller, with limited locations and much of it taking place between just two people. [Read more…]

Doctor Who: The Dalek Films (Blu-ray)

May 29, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Peter Cushing, Roberta Tovey, Roy Castle, Bernard Cribbins
Director: Gordon Flemyng
Running Time: 163 mins
Certificate: PG
Release Date: May 27th 2013

You could be forgiven for not knowing that in the 1960s there were two Doctor Who movies. The reason they’re slightly obscure is that they weren’t made by the BBC and aren’t considered part of the official canon – and for good reason. While they feature some familiar elements from the TV show, such as the Daleks and the police box TARDIS (in the movies it’s just TARDIS, not ‘the’ TARDIS), in other respects things are considerably changed. [Read more…]