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

GAY INTEREST MOVIE REVIEWS

The latest gay interest film reviews from BGPS

Boy Meets Girl (2015) (DVD Review)

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Leo (Harry Hepple) is a young man in his mid-20s who isn’t exactly good at romance and dating. Then he meets Judy (Rebecca Root) and there’s an immediate spark, so he decides to invite her out on a date. Once they’re at a restaurant she lets him know that she is transgender, something Leo doesn’t seem too bothered about (although it does cause a few ripples later on).

They both know that while neither of them care, the same won’t necessarily be true of everyone, and they may also have a few other obstacles to overcome on the way to true love. However, the thing that most people want to comment on when they initially see Judy is the age gap between her and Leo, as she is nearing 40.

Across the course of six episodes Boy Meets Girl charts their relationship, as they negotiate the issues of transgender dating, from when to tell his family, to dealing with sex, as well as the viciousness of transphobic people. [Read more…]

Jess & James (DVD Review)

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South America has emerged as a bit of a powerhouse when it comes to LGBT cinema in the past couple of years, and that continues with the Argentinian Jess & James.

James is a young man fed up with living with his demanding mother. He meets the extremely hot Jess and they immediately have a sexual encounter. The next day James impulsively decides to go and find James and invite him on a roadtrip. Despite Jess being in bed with a woman, he agrees to go, and the duo head off into the countryside. [Read more…]

I Am The Queen (US DVD/VoD Review)

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Set in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighbourhood, I Am The Queen follows three transgender contestants taking part in an annual drag/trans beauty pageant held for those of Puerto Rican heritage. To be honest though, the Beauty Pageant is more of a framing device for a look into the lives of Jolizza, Julissa and Bianca, three young transgender women and the difficulties they face.

The documentary reveals a complex picture, ensuring that it goes beyond the women themselves to see how their transition has affected their parents and family. It certainly doesn’t make things look easy, especially for women of their age, as their gender identity comes on top of the typical teenage/young adult emotions and confusion, which unsurprisingly ensures they don’t always make the best choices. Likewise, it’s a time when they need the support of their family the most, but that is a challenge for all of them to a greater or lesser extent. [Read more…]

Dressed As A Girl (Cinema Review)

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There are plenty of different opinions out there about drag queens, from those that think it’s a valuable part of the LGBT heritage or a harmless bit of fun, to those who feel it is a mockery of women and trans people, and plays into harmful stereotypes.

Dressed As A Girl should challenge a lot of people’s ideas of the world of drag – whether they’re positive, negative or indifferent – taking us into the lives of several members of the London East End alternative drag scene. Although there is a sort-of narration and interviews with the participants, there’s generally a bit of a cinema verité feel, with the camera following the performers around (it was filmed across six years) and allowing the viewer to contemplate what’s going on.

It’s a veritable bunch of eccentrics, from veterans such as Jonny Woo and John Sizzle, to up and comers like Scottee. There’s also Holestar, a drag performer who isn’t just dressed as a girl, as she was born one, and Amber, who has gone from the drag scene to transitioning to live as a woman full time. [Read more…]

That’s Not Us (Raindance Festival Review)

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For about the first 10 minutes of That’s Not Us I have to admit I allowed my preconceptions to get to me. I think it was the seemingly arbitrary artifice of the set-up that got to me – sticking one gay couple, one straight couple and one lesbian couple in a house together.

However, I quickly had to admit I’d prejudged the movie, as this is a film that’s more interested in these people as human beings than in comparing and contrasting their sexualities. That’s not to say their sexuality doesn’t play into the movie, just that it informs their interactions rather than leading them.

These three city couples come together for a getaway in a beachside house, where they hope to escape from their everyday issues, but almost inevitably it ends up bringing their problems to a head. James and Spencer are deeply in love and seem to be the perfect couple. However, Spencer has been accepted into university in Chicago, something neither are dealing with despite the fact it could separate them, putting it off by Spencer saying he doesn’t know whether he will go, and James simply saying how happy he is for his partner. [Read more…]

52 Tuesdays (DVD Review)

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Aussie movie 52 Tuesdays premiered at Sundance (where it won a Best Director prize) and has garnered as fair amount of interest and praised, both due to its subject and the way it was made. The film was shot one day a week over the space of a year, with the script and story evolving over that time. It’s not the first time it’s been done, and to be honest it’s a technique that has rarely created anything that feels like it was better than if they’d just stuck with a pre-determined script.

52 Tuesdays is about teenager Billie and her mother Jane. Billie’s life changes when Janes informs her daughter that she wants her to go and live with her father, to give Jane space while she starts transitioning to life as a man. Initially Billie isn’t sure how to react, especially as Jane – now James – seems uncertain whether she wants her daughter around, and the teen doesn’t know quite how to react to that. [Read more…]

Wasp (Raindance/DVD Review)

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When watching Wasp, I couldn’t help wonder what the film might be like if it was done again, but with different actors and director. That’s because it’s a relatively simple set-up that relies totally on how it’s played and how it’s filmed, and it’s due to this that the movie is perhaps not everything it might have been.

Olivier (Simon Haycock) and James (Hugo Bolton) are a gay couple who’ve left Britain for a romantic getaway in the South Of France. However, their romantic idyll is disrupted by the arrival of Caroline (Elly Condron), an old friend of James’ who’s just split up with her long-term boyfriend.

Initially it looks like the trio will be able to have a good time together, but then complications arise when Elly notices, or at least thinks she notices, Olivier staring at her. She begins to put the moves on Olivier, which he resists. However, she may not be completely off-base, as while Olivier says he is gay, he has previously been with women (but not for a long time), and there does seem to be some sort of attraction. [Read more…]

Fulboy (DVD Review)

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Fulboy is a sports documentary that I’d be willing to bet is unlike any other you’ve ever seen. For a start it’s about a group of professional soccer players but you never actually see them on the pitch, and there’s also the fact that nearly every write-up of the movie mentions the word ‘voyeurism’.

Director Martín Farina goes on the road with an Argentinian football team, getting access because his brother, Tomas, plays for them. Initially the players are suspicious of him and how he’s going to portray them – afraid that the film will play into the image of players being lazy, spending more time smoking and playing poker than honing their sport skills. [Read more…]

The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie) (DVD Review)

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Throughout his career French director Francois Ozon has shown a great interest in both sexuality and femininity. Those two things come together in The New Girlfriend, which is based on a story by Ruth Rendell, but is certainly not a murder-mystery.

Claire (a brilliant performance from Anaïs Demoustier) is devastated when her best friend since childhood, Laura, dies. She has promised she will look out for Laura’s husband, David (Romain Duris), and their young child, but due to her grief she puts off this duty. When she finally decides to visit she is shocked to discover David looking after his baby while dressed as a woman. [Read more…]

Everlasting Love (Amor Eterno) (DVD Review)

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A lonely, middle-aged teacher, Carlos, head to a local cruising ground looking for company. While there are both gay and straight people having sex there, he fails to find anyone, until he stumbles across one of his students, Toni. This starts an uneasy affair between the two, although after they have sex, Carlos realises things have gone too far and tries to break it off. However, Toni is continues to pursue Carlos, and the teacher doesn’t resist too much.

There are also strange, dark, potentially violent things going on in the woods amongst Toni friends, and it may be something that Carlos can’t escape either.

Everlasting Love is a movie that some viewers will find pointless and a little infuriating, while others will have the almost polar opposite reaction, being pulled in by its brooding atmosphere, deliberate strangeness and attempts to intrigue. It’s a movie that doesn’t have a huge amount of plot – even though it’s only 67 minutes long, the actual story probably takes up just half of that – but instead tries to build mood and atmosphere. [Read more…]