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

REVIEWS

Cinema, DVD and Blu-ray reviews

Red Tails (DVD)

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George Lucas first wanted to make a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen in 1988, but it’s taken until now to get it to the screen. That’s partly due to the fact that every studio turned him down, feeling a big, historical war movie with a largely African American cast wasn’t commercial enough. They were wrong, but unfortunately Red Tails isn’t the film to prove it.

After Lucas stumped up the budget himself the film was finally made with Anthony Hemingway directing, but it was plagued by delays and reshoots, and finally got released over two years after it was first shot. The result isn’t a bad film, but it’s one that’s so clichéd it never rises above the passable. [Read more…]

The Night Child (DVD)

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The Night Child was directed by Massimo Dallamano in 1975. Unfortunately he perished in a car accident the following year. This is quite tragic considering his pedigree and historical body of work as director, actor and cinematographer. His work also included being the cinematographer on Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars more. After watching this effective film, his death was a huge loss to fans of Italian horror. His name could still be universally recognised alongside the masters of Italian horror, such as Dario Argento (Suspiria and Tenebrae) and Lucio Fulci (The Beyond), to name but a couple. [Read more…]

Best of Iris Prize 2012 Short Films – Final Round-up

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Click here to read the best of Day 2

Ostia: La Finale Notte: Delving into the events leading up to the savage killing of activist and director Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ostia: La Finale Notte grips you from the very first scene. A young man, Pino, is on the telephone, scared and clearly desperate. We are unsure of his role, but sense ill intent. As he meets and leads Paolo on, what Pino has in store for the artist is slowly unveiled. [Read more…]

Storage 24 (Blu-ray)

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Sometimes simple set-ups are the best, and sometimes they don’t live up to the promise. Sadly the latter is true of Storage 24.

An ordinary afternoon turns extraordinary when a plane crashes in the centre of London. Charlie (Noel Clarke) and Mark (Colin O’Donoghue) are on their way to a storage centre, so Charlie can pick up some stuff following a bitter break-up with his girlfriend. When they arrive, the crash has caused issues with the centre’s security, which results in them being trapped inside until the technician can reopen the shutters. Charlie thinks things have gotten about as bad as they can be when he finds his ex and a couple of her friends are already in the storage container, but the plane crash has also left something inside the facility with them – and it’s big, bad, alien and incredibly vicious. [Read more…]

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same – Iris Prize Screening Review

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Quirky comedy and delightfully tacky special effects, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (hereafter ‘CLSASS’, to prevent early arthritis) follows three emotionless and clueless lesbian space aliens (go figure). They find themselves in New York, where they seek love and heartbreak in an effort to rescue their dying planet. Zylar plays it fast and loose, in every meaning of the word. Barr is the needy codependent who chases more than Zylar is willing to give. Finally Zoinx crash lands on Earth and finds love with human Jane, who’s never quite fit in. All this while the gang is followed by possibly the two most incompetent government agents the galaxy has seen. [Read more…]

Stitches (Cinema)

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Clowns have a had a lot of bad press as far as the cinema and TV is concerned. Coulrophobia (an irrational fear of clowns) has obviously been fuelled over the years by the likes of Pennywise from Stephen Kings It, John Wayne Gacy (notorious serial killer) and the clown from Poltergeist. And let’s not forget Ronald McDonald – that one puts a shiver down my spine! The image of a clown has been somewhat tarnished over the years and Stitches does nothing to help improve that image – Max Clifford anyone???

So back to Stitches. Comedy and horror is a hybrid genre that generally does not work for me. Yes, there have been a few classics over the years such as Braindead and Shaun of the Dead, but the bulk of these films fail miserably as they try and fuse two opposing senses – fear and fun – together in often disastrous ways. [Read more…]

The Seminarian (DVD)

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I slightly wonder if the title of this one will confuse a few people, who’ll think a Seminarian is some sort of sexual stud, when it’s actually a ‘student in a theological seminary’ (thank you Dictionary.com). That said, The Seminarian does follow one of my maxims about gay-themed movies, which is that a penis will appear in the first 10 minutes, preferably in an unnecessary context – but then if I looked as good nude as Mark Cirillo I’d be unnecessarily naked a lot too.

However this is not a movie about tricking people into thinking Semin is the same as Semen or simply titillating the audience with the sight of a willy, it’s actually a romantic drama about a young, closeted man called Ryan (Cirillo), who’s trying to write a thesis he hopes will get him onto a top PH.D  theology course. His subject is ‘The Divine Gift Of Love’, looking at whether love in its many forms is an aspect of us being made in God’s image (and therefore any love for another person is an expression of His goodness), or if the seemingly unneeded pain love brings is incompatible with a truly good God. [Read more…]

The Uninvited (1944) (DVD)

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The Uninvited makes a welcome appearance on DVD – not the remake of the excellent Tale Of Two Sisters, but the stunning but much forgotten classic 1944 ghost story starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey.

The Uninvited is a spooky tale set in Cornwall. Roderick Fitzgerald (Milland) and his sister Pamela (Hussey) stumble across a deserted mansion on a clifftop that they immediately fall in love with it, although they have an odd sense about one of the rooms. They hunt down the owners and buy it for £1200 (if only we could buy them at that price now!!). After this, things start to go bump in the night, gradually building up momentum as the daughter of a  woman who died at the house starts visiting the mansion. [Read more…]

Morgan (DVD) (US Release)

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Disability isn’t one of film’s favourite subjects (with the notable exception of the likes of Untouchable) and it’s even rarer in gay cinema, partly because until recently LGBT-themed movies were so concerned with the subject of gay identity they didn’t have much room for anything else. While Morgan does indeed deal with issues of identity, it’s more interested in how those issues impact someone dealing with being paralysed than in coming to terms with their sexuality.

Morgan (Leo Minaya) is not long released from rehabilitation after having an accident during a bicycle race that resulted in him being paralysed below the waist. He’s certainly not happy about his new status but finds hope when he meets Dean (Jack Kesy) at the park, and the two begin a tentative flirtation that soon buds into a full-blown relationship. Morgan isn’t sure how to deal with love as a paralysed man, partly because he’s still unsure of his own body and doesn’t even know if he’ll ever be able to get an erection. [Read more…]

Glengarry Glen Ross (Blu-ray/DVD)

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Glengarry Glen Ross is proof of what can happen when you put a great script in the hands of an ensemble of dynamite actors. In many ways Glengarry Glen Ross shouldn’t work. It’s largely about people sitting around talking, has minimal plot, and never fully escapes the stage that David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play was originally presented on.

However, what in many films would be seen as shortcomings are here the movie’s greatest strengths, as it allows the film to concentrate on the electric dynamism of Mamet’s dialogue in the hands of one of the best groups of actors ever assembled for a film (even Jack Lemmon said it was the best cast he’d ever been involved with, which is saying something). After all, it contains four Oscar-winners and two more Oscar nominees, which is certainly an impressive line-up, especially as likes of Kevin Spacey weren’t that well known when it was made. [Read more…]