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

Four More Years (DVD)

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Political leader David Holst (Bjorn Kjellman) believes he’s on the verge of becoming Sweden’s Prime Minister, but when thing go slightly wrong at the polls and his coalition can’t quite get enough seats to make him the head of country, he’s thrown into a bit of a funk. The setback at the polls causes him to re-evaluate his life, his outlook and his political future.

He then meets Martin (Eric Ericson), a man actively involved on the other side of the political spectrum, but who he feels a connection to. After a night of drink and discussion about the best direction for Sweden, Martin kisses David, and while the latter doesn’t think he’s gay, he doesn’t resist either. As David comes to a new realisation about his sexuality, he only sees obstacles ahead, not least his marriage and the reaction of his political backers. Can Martin and David’s romance withstand this? [Read more…]

Leave It On The Floor (DVD)

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I’ve always thought it was odd there weren’t more explicitly gay musicals, but that’s probably because they’re surprisingly tough to put together and shoot. As a result it’s difficult to get one to the screen on with type of budget that most gay-themed entertainment has to play with. But Leave It On The Floor isn’t just a rare gay musical, it also deals with queer people of colour (or QPOC as it’s sometimes termed), and a whole spectrum of gender and self-expression that’s often avoided or side-lined in gay movies.

Brad (Ephraim Sykes) is a young man who gets thrown out by his mother after she discovers he’s gay. He finds a new home in the world of ball culture, an underground scene in which different ‘houses’, largely made up of gay and transgendered black people, compete on a catwalk/dancefloor to see who is the most vibrant, stylish, fierce and fabulous. Brad is befriended by Princess (Phillip Evelyn), who takes him to a house run by Queef Latina (Miss Barbie-Q), who isn’t initially impressed by this interloper into her domain. However as Brad begins to find acceptance and perhaps a love interest in the tricky Carter (Andre Myers), tragedy is around the corner. [Read more…]

Albert Nobbs (DVD)

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Glenn Close spent 30 years trying to get Albert Nobbs to the big screen, ever since she played the title role in the stage version off-Broadway in 1982. Finally she’s gotten her wish. She doesn’t just star in the movie, she’s also produced, co-adapted the script and even wrote the lyrics for the Sinead O’Connor song that plays over the end credits.

She is excellent as Albert, a waiter/butler in a late-19th Century Irish hotel who, despite being born a woman, has spent the last 30 years living as a man – a secret he has kept from absolutely everybody. He thinks the truth may get out after he’s forced to share his bed for the night with a painter called Hubert Page. [Read more…]

Maison Close – Series 1 (Blu-ray)

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What is it with the French and prostitution? Ever since the 19th Century (and perhaps before) Gallic art has had an odd preoccupation with ladies of the night, from Manet’s painting Olympia and Emile Zola’s novel Nana, through movies like Belle de Jour. And just in the last year there’s been the Juliette Binoche starrer Elles, as well as House Of Tolerance, which is set in a similar milieu as the TV series Maison Close.

The series charts the lives of the workers and owners in an upscale Parisian bordello called ‘Paradise’ in the 1870s. Over the eight episodes the lives, desires and tribulations of the women are uncovered. Some feel utterly trapped and degraded by the lives they’re pretty much forced to live (if they don’t please the men they risk being sold to a cheap flophouse), while others seem happier with the money and sense of empowerment they have in a male dominated society. [Read more…]

Nate & Margaret (DVD) (US Release)

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Nate (the slightly Bieber-esque Tyler Ross) is a young man studying film, who spends most of his time with his best friend, a 52-year-old woman called Margaret (Natalie West). It’s an unconventional friendship, but it works, with Margaret helping Nate with his films and Nate encouraging Margaret to further her interest in stand-up comedy. However when Nate gets his first boyfriend, a wedge starts to be driven between them.

Nate & Margaret could have been a very generic affair, and while it doesn’t exact break new narrative ground, it’s nice that it doesn’t go to the places you’d immediately think it would. Normally a film about a young man and a middle-aged woman would concern itself with asking why such a friendship would develop in the first place, but the film treats it as perfectly natural. Admittedly both are slightly socially awkward, particularly Margaret, whose lack of a husband and/or kids is at least partially the result of a history of abuse. [Read more…]

Mary Marie (DVD)

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After the death of their mother, two sisters decide to spend a final summer in the house where they grew up. The sisters, Mary and Marie, are very close – almost too close – living a pretty much co-dependent life. Into their life comes Peter, a handyman who’s meant to be working on their house. Despite seeing the two women in bed together, he continues to flirt, and while Marie shows an interest in him, he decides he prefers Mary. But can the women’s bond survive this man’s intrusion into their life?

This first film from co-writer/director/actress Alexandra Roxo looks absolutely gorgeous, and is proof that the rise of digital filmmaking is allowing no-budget films to have a look that 10 years ago would have been impossible. The visuals are languorous and romantic, with lots of shots of nature and dust floating on the wind. [Read more…]

Circumstance (Cinema)

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had better now watch Circumstance, as he’s apparently convinced there are no gay people in Iran (although the fact his regime has arrested and even executed quite a few would rather undermine that position). Although if he does watch the film, he can probably unfairly claim it’s all down to Western influence and young people wanting that pesky thing called freedom.

Atafeh and Shireen are two teenage Iranian girls whose friendship extends into a romance and sexual relationship. They secretly frequent underground parties, flirt, drink and dream about being able to go somewhere they can do all these things openly and without censure. The first half of the film delves into this side of Iranian culture and young people straining against the confines of a system that wants to supress them, particularly if you’re a woman and/or gay. [Read more…]

Orlando (Blu-ray)

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If you like films to be literal and make logical sense, then Orlando is not the movie for you. However if you enjoy something idiosyncratic that stands alone as a unique bit of independent cinema, and which certainly make you think, Sally Potter’s 1992 movie is well worth a look.

Based on Virginia Woolf’s classic novel, the film follows young nobleman Orlando (Tilda Swinton), who is ordered by Queen Elizabeth I to stay young forever. Miraculously he does, with the film charting Orlando’s life over four centuries. Over time he courts a young Russian woman, becomes patron to a poet, and then heads for Constantinople to represent the Crown. Once there another miraculous things happens (well, miraculous to us, but seemingly not to Orlando), as he changes from a man to a woman. While she retains the same mind and personality, she finds the world is rather different for a lady, not least that she can’t own property as a woman. [Read more…]

Three Veils (DVD)

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Three Veils features three interlinked tales about young Arab-American women in Los Angeles, dealing with being products of both modern US culture and the mores and traditions of the countries their parents come from.

The first story follows Leila, who is preparing for her arranged marriage, putting aside her wilder impulses and respecting the traditions of the culture she comes from. However her father begins to suspect she isn’t really happy about what’s happening, and her prospective husband reveals himself to be increasingly controlling. Next up is Leila’s study partner Amira, who’s had lesbian feelings since a young age, but after her mother realised this she got Amira to dedicate herself to The Koran and is determined her daughter will put her same-sex feeling aside. However the arrival of Nikki in Amira’s life stirs things up, and makes her realise that maybe she cannot be happy in the life her mother is pushing her towards. [Read more…]

I Melt With You (DVD)

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How much you enjoy I Melt With You is completely dependent on how you react to the complete left-turn the movie takes halfway through, and also that you don’t expect, as some of the marketing (particularly what came out of the US) has suggested, that this is kind of like a mid-life crisis The Hangover. It most certainly isn’t.

Every year four men meet for a week of drug fuelled debauchery away from their staid normal lives and family. For those few days they can retreat to their youth and its carefree pursuit of fun and the fact everything back in those days was felt far more keenly, before being numbed by the real world. Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe) and Tim (Christian McKay) certainly go all out for drink, drugs, sex and general mania, but on day 4, things go horribly wrong when one of them kills themselves. This sets off an ever descending journey for the remaining mates, all based around a note they wrote 25 years before, during their final year of college. [Read more…]