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

Fastest (Blu-ray)

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This is one for motorbike fans if ever there was one, although it also attempts to sell the excitement of MotoGP to those who may not have thought about watching people on two-wheeled machines whizzing around a track. Director Mark Neale got exclusive access to both the races and drivers in 2010 and 2011, getting incredible footage both on the track and off.

While I have to admit I not really a petrol-head, Neale’s documentary is pretty absorbing and does a great job of showing what an exciting and potentially dangerous sport MotoGP can be. The drivers seem to spend half their time sliding across the tarmac and gravel when their bike falls for one reason or another, and it’s a miracle there are so few injuries. [Read more…]

Because Of A Boy (You’ll Get Over It) (DVD)

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Vincent (Julien Baumgartner) is a French teenager who’s fairly popular in his school and a member of the swim team. However he’s also secretly coming to terms with being gay, despite the fact he has a girlfriend. When new boy Benjamin (Jeremie Elkaim) turns up, who has a bit of a reputation as a bad boy, Vincent is soon attracted to him. After Vincent’s attempt to kiss Benjamin turns sour, the new boy inadvertently lets Vincent’s secret out.

The teen turns up to school to find graffiti calling him a ‘fag’ scrawled next to his locker and plenty of people ready to laugh and try to intimidate in. As his outing spreads from school to his family, Vincent must face a lot of prejudice, but also begins to realise that maybe not everything about being open about your sexuality is a bad thing. [Read more…]

C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)

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C.R.A.Z.Y. follows the first 20 years of young French Canadian Zac’s life, who was Born on Christmas Day 1960. Always striving to please his father, Gervais, this becomes more difficult when his sexuality comes into question. As Zac struggles through his teenage years, will he and his family ever come to understand each other?

What’s the point of Quebec? After all, this is the place that gave us Celine Dion, so it’s got a lot to answer for. However, while not traditionally thought of for its film industry, it came to international attention in 2003 when Les Invasions Babares won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, and now C.R.A.Z.Y. also got a fair amount of attention when it was released in 2005. [Read more…]

Big Miracle (DVD)

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Everybody love whales, right? Indeed they’re so adored that the original name of this film was Everybody Loves Whales, before being changed to the more generic and slightly meaningless Big Miracle. Indeed it’s a change that seems indicative of the slightly ballsed-up marketing this movie’s had, as it deserved to get a big audience and is just the sort of film many families will love. Instead of selling it properly though, it was merely slipped out and made just $20 million at the US box office. Hopefully it’ll find a bit more of an audience on DVD.

John Krasinski plays Adam Carlson, a news reporter for a small TV station who’s been sent to Barrow, Alaska to talk about what it’s like to live in the Arctic circle, in one of the most northerly towns in the world. Just as he’s about to leave, he happens upon three Gray Whales trapped in a small breathing hole in the ice. It’s too far for them to swim to the open ocean without drowning and their outlook seems bleak. [Read more…]

Prometheus (Cinema)

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After one of the biggest and most hyperbolic marketing campaigns ever, which did all but suggest that Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi is a bigger deal than if Jesus returned, Prometheus is here. Ever since it was announced, there’s been a lot of talk about exactly how it’s related to Alien. Scott himself has distanced the film from his earlier effort, saying only that strands of ‘Alien DNA’ would be apparent and that it only becomes a prequel in the last few minutes.

Well, the truth is that this doesn’t just have ‘Alien DNA’, it’s a full-blown prequel. The reason for Scott distancing it is the same as it often is with marketing nowadays – the assumption the audience is stupid (which, to be honest, is often quite a fair assessment for a lot of cinemagoers). There aren’t any xenomorphs (well, pretty much), and so it appears Scott wants to make sure audiences aren’t expecting the iconic facehuggers and aliens and are then disappointed by their absence. [Read more…]

Redwoods (2009)

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If you like melodrama, then Redwoods is the film for you, which lays it on so thick you could almost choke on it, although thankfully has its heart in the right place. Everett (Brendan Bradley) and Miles (Tad Coughenour) are a gay couple who’ve lost the spark in their relationship but are held together by raising their autistic son.

When Miles and the kid head off for a week to visit his grandma, Everett is left alone to work and reflect. He soon bumps into Chase (Matthew Montgomery), who’s visiting Redwood country as he travels around writing a book.  The two men’s relationship soon blossoms into an affair, with Everett suddenly regaining the passion that’s long been missing from his life. However he knows at the end of the week his boyfriend and son will return, but the temptation is to leave them. Will he stay, go and will he even have the choice? [Read more…]

Mysterious Skin (2004)

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Gregg Araki made a name for himself with gay-themed, rather anarchic generation-X flicks like The Doom Generation and Nowhere, but 2005’s Mysterious Skin sees him in a more controlled mood. It’s definitely a good thing and it’s probably no coincidence this film is his only novel adaptation, something that helps keep his more random ideas in check.

As a boy, Neil was abused by his little league coach, leaving him rather confused about boundaries and what’s suitable behaviour. Now in his late teens (and grown into the form of Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Neil is defiantly gay and working as a hustler in the small Kansas town he grew up in. However he has dreams of making it in the big city, which will hopefully also allow him to forget what happened to him as a child. [Read more…]

Walk On Water (2004)

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Etyan Fox’s follow-up to his LGBT Israeli hit Yossi & Jagger follows Mossad agent Eyal, who is assigned to pose as a tour guide when young German Axel comes to Israel to visit his sister, who’s working on a kibbutz. Axel’s grandfather was a Nazi war criminal and Mossad wants Eyal to gather info on whether the old man is still alive.

A friendship begins to develop between the two men, although cultural differences soon raise their head, especially when Eyal discovers Axel is gay, something he’s not comfortable with. When the German makes friends with an Arab, Eyal reaches the end of his tether. However eventually he decides to visit Axel in Germany, which may also give him a chance to lay to rest his guilt over the death of his wife. [Read more…]

The Skin I Live In (2011)

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Pedro Almodovar rarely makes a bad movie and The Skin I Live In is no exception. Antonio Banderas plays a doctor called Robert Legrand, who’s known for his advances in artificial skin and sex change operations. However he hides a secret, because locked away at home is a woman (Elena Anaya) he’s been doing surgical experiments on. She wants to get out, but Robert has a sophisticated security system and a dedicated mother (Marisa Parades) to keep her in. But is he keeping her in because what he’s been doing is illegal, or is there more going on?

The Skin I Live In is the sort of film where I don’t want to say too much about the plot or it’ll spoil the film’s slow reveal, but suffice to say things are not as they appears, and it all has to do with former tragedies in the doctor’s life and the destruction of his family. And it’s no coincidence the woman looks like Robert’s deceased wife. [Read more…]

Like Crazy (DVD)

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Ah, young love. Like Crazy is the sort of film that will either have you reach for the sick bucket, or get you blubbing in the first 10 minutes due to the aching love on display. Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones are Jacob and Anna, who meet at an LA university while the British Anna is in the US on a student visa.

Falling deeply in love, Anna overstays the limit of her Visa and discovers that after she pops back to the UK for a short visit, she’s now banned from going back to the States. Their passion still burns, but with both of them building lives for themselves in different parts of the world and Jacob unable or unwilling to move to Britain, keeping their relationship going becomes increasingly difficult. They eventually try to take decisive action to get her into the US, but will it work? [Read more…]