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

Boy Meets Girl (Best Feature Film, Iris Prize Festival 2014)

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This is a beautiful movie.

Set somewhere in the Deep South of America, we meet Rikki, a transgender girl who laments that her small home town contains no boys she could fall in love with, so jokingly says she’ll try to find a girl instead. She almost immediately bumps into beautiful stranger Francesca, and the two hit it off as friends.

While Francesca is initially very naive about Rikki’s transgender issues, she doesn’t let that get in the way of their friendship. Slowly their relationship deepens and both girls begin to explore different aspects of their own sexuality, despite Francesca’s fiancée, a US Marine currently away on a tour of duty, expressing his disgust at everything Rikki represents. [Read more…]

Helicopter Mom (Iris Prize 2014 Review)

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Maggie, a single mother in the US, is terrified of losing her only son Lloyd when he graduates and moves away to college, and so does her best to control his life as much as possible before he goes. Lloyd, played to nonplussed and eventually exasperated perfection by Jason Dolley, pushes back as she hangs on tighter, and when she realises the only way her beloved son can afford to attend college is with a minority scholarship, she outs him as gay to the whole school in order to apply. The only problem being that Lloyd doesn’t really know whether he’s gay or not, and of course his mother won’t listen.

The term ‘Helicopter Mom’ comes from the behaviour of certain parents who are always hovering over their children, never letting them find their own way without being told what to do. Cue a dozen cringe moments along the lines of the hit American pie series, without the gross-out factor. (The closest this movie gets to gross-out are the overly-tight outfits and youthful hair on Nia Vardalos as she gives a delightfully manic performance as Maggie.) [Read more…]

The Samurai (Iris Prize Festival 2014 Review)

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The Samurai comes from director Till Kleinert, a previous winner of the Iris Prize for his brilliant short film Cowboy, and with this film he stays in unnerving territory.

The title character in this film is a homicidal maniac wielding a katana and wearing a pretty white dress (played to mind-searingly chilling heights by Pit Bukowski). He’s slowly destroying the community and sanity of policeman Jakob (Michel Dierks), whose dogged attempts to capture and subdue him slowly become an obsession. [Read more…]