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

The Iron Lady (DVD)

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If you read a variety of the reviews of The Iron Lady when it came out at cinemas, it really is like they were talking about completely different films. Everyone agrees Meryl Streep is ace, but to some it’s an apologia for a tyrant, to others a left wing fantasy, there are those who feel its concentration on her old age is schadenfreude taking pleasure in her mental problems, while a few believe it is a suitably reverential, right wing look at a great woman and will make people with a liberal philosophy take stock.

The problem with making a movie about Margaret Thatcher is that she’s such a divisive figure that people come to anything about her incapable of viewing it through anything but the prism of their own prejudices. The film is actually quite agnostic on whether she was a hero or villain, which makes it even easier to paint your own thoughts onto the movie. [Read more…]

The Future (DVD)

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It’s rare that I’ve been so intrigued by a film and wanted to punch the screen so much at the same. Writer/director/star Miranda July has a dedication to quirkiness that will be adored by some and infuriate others, but in The Future it’s the rather unlikable lead characters who prove most divisive.

Personally I loved the voiceovers by cats, random time stoppages, conversations with the moon, crawling t-shirts, and children digging foxholes, which have completely ruined the film for some – it was everything I thought was potentially problematic. The basic plot sees a pair of hipsters in their mid-30s, Sophie & Jason (July and Hamish Linklater), deciding to adopt a cat – although they have to wait a month until Paw-Paw can be released from the animal hospital. This sets off a bit of an early midlife crisis for the pair. The cat is their first actual commitment, and it suddenly makes them think about The Future. [Read more…]

Faces (Blu-ray/DVD)

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If Steve Buscemi says Faces is his favourite movie, do you need any more reason to watch it? It is a great film that’s undoubtedly the best of John Cassavetes’ directorial outings and one of the most piercing movies about mid-life crises ever made.

Richard (John Marley) is an aging man who feels trapped by his safe but dull marriage. While he can still have fun with his wife, everything else seems more fun and interesting than his domestic existence and so he leaves her, asking for a divorce. He wants to start a relationship with a younger woman called Jeannie (Gena Rowlands), although it’s not clear how interested she is. Richard’s wife, Maria, gets seduced by playboy Chet and embarks on a new relationship of her own. [Read more…]

Shadows (Blu-ray/DVD)

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Shadows is not the sort of movie that you watch for fun, and indeed if you come to it cold without knowing anything about it, the film is likely to strike you as a tad stilted and unfocussed. However in context it’s a vitally important part of American cinema history, and the film that’s often credited as the place where modern US indie cinema began.

Director John Cassavetes was having some success in TV and film as an actor in the late 50s, but his heart had always been in underground New York theatre. He raised a minuscule budget and over three years put together Shadows, which was unlike virtually anything that had gone before it. [Read more…]

The Execution Of Private Slovik (DVD)

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Made in 1974, The Execution Of Private Slovik is, as the title suggests, about the execution of a soldier, in this case the only person put to death by the US military for desertion since the Civil War. Martin Sheen plays Eddie Slovik, who is initially ineligible for the draft due to his criminal past, but as the war drags on and the need for soldiers gets more desperate, gets called up.

While his wife tries to get him out of the army, he’s forced into a rifle unit, which may not be the best place for him as he doesn’t like gun. Once in Europe he quickly decides the front line isn’t the place for him, as he’s too terrified and becomes paralysed while under enemy fire. After a short time AWOL, which the army overlooks, he’s told he’ll be sent back to the frontline. Slovik refuses to go, saying he can only take an assignment back from the front line as he’s a bad frontline soldier and will just be a liability to his unit. His decision to make a stand leads to a court martial and the ultimate sentence. [Read more…]

Freud (DVD)

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It’s very peculiar that despite Montgomery Clift and Susannah York starring in the film and the legendary John Huston behind the camera, Freud has never been legally available on either VHS or DVD in the UK. That’s now being addressed with this release, which gives a fresh outing for the unusual biopic.

Rather than covering the whole of Sigmund Freud’s life, the film concentrates on the years from 1885 to 1890 when he was developing his most famous theories. Against the backdrop of a medical establishment who believed mental problems either had a physiological cause or were just people pretending, Freud began to explore the idea of the unconscious and his ‘talking cure’, which sought to uncover memories the patient had suppressed and by unlocking them, cure the problems they faced (or at least that’s the overly simplified way it works in the film). [Read more…]

The Lady (Blu-ray)

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Unless you’re a member of Burma’s former military junta, pretty much everyone can agree that Aung San Suu Kyi is a great person who’s had to endure a lot. However she’s also a human being, something The Lady seems to forget. Instead here she’s a saint taking on demons, which results in a film that’s informative but earnest and rather dull.

Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh) is the daughter of the man who negotiated Britain’s independence from Britain but who was assassinated the same year by his political rivals. However, when the film opens she is living as an Oxford housewife with her academic husband, Michael (David Thewlis), and her two children. She then returns to Burma to look after her ailing mother but once there sees the brutality of the military dictatorship, which is suppressing any and all dissent with deadly force. [Read more…]

The Last Summer Of La Boyita (DVD)

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Why do people in rural Argentina, a country that speaks Spanish, look like they just fell out of 19th Century France? The continental cultural melting pot always adds an extra layer of interest to South American movies, where various European cultures from all sorts of different eras butt up against indigenous cultures and the modern world. That’s in the background of The Last Summer Of La Boyita, a charming and somewhat brave film that takes a look at the ambiguity of gender, as seen through the eyes of children [Read more…]

Private Romeo (DVD)

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Romeo & Juliet but gone gay in a military academy. That’s what Private Romeo is and it’s just as intriguing yet problematic as that sounds. A group of lads at a military school are studying Shakespeare’s great romantic tragedy. However they don’t leave the Bard’s words behind when the bell rings, with Romeo & Juliet taking over their lives as two of the boys develop a forbidden love. However as rivalries grow this newfound love could develop into full blown tragedy.

It’s certainly an interesting idea, especially as the film keeps Shakespeare’s verse, but there are some major problems. Writer/director Alan Brown has chopped Shakespeare’s text down, added some modern music and social media touches and turned Juliet into a boy, but it never quite feels as if he makes the whole concept work. [Read more…]

The Ledge (Blu-ray)

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There’s a lot of talent involved in The Ledge and you can understand what attracted the cast to this philosophical, high concept thriller, but unfortunately a script that’s muddier than it ought to be results in a film that feels as if it’s not living up to its potential.

Detective Hollis (Terrence Howard) is having a bad day, as he’s just discovered he’s infertile and that his kids are therefore somebody else’s. He’s then called to a dramatic situation where a man called Gavin (Charlie Hunnam) is standing on a ledge threatening to jump. While Hollis tries to talk him down, Gavin tells his story, which involves meeting the ultra-religious Joe and Shana Harris (Patrick Wilson and Liv Tyler). As Gavin is an atheist, their initial interactions are rather prickly, especially when Joe is openly homophobic to Gavin’s gay roommate, Chris (Christopher Gorham). [Read more…]