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

You And The Night (DVD Review)

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You And The Night is one of those movies where viewers are likely to have extremely different reactions to it. I can easily imagine that some will absolutely adore it and it’ll become one of their favourite movies, other will find the whole thing too strange, pretentious and perhaps even boring, while some will appreciate it while also being slightly nonplussed. I fit into the latter camp.

A couple, Matthias (Niels Schneider) and Ali (Kate Moran), along with their transvestite maid Udo (Nicolas Maury), are getting ready for a night of debauchery. They have invited guests who go by unusual names such as The Slut, The Star, The Stud and The Teen. However it doesn’t turn out to be the orgy that was expected, as each person arrives with their own story, secrets and desires which they tell to the others and which we see in stylised flashback. [Read more…]

Boys On Film 12: Confession (DVD Review)

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The Boys On Film series is back with its 12th instalment, this time loosely themed around the idea of Confession.  Boys On Film is the most popular short film DVD anthology in the world, of any genre, and if you’ve watched them it’s clear why, as there’s a huge amount of incredibly good LGBT shorts out there, much of which would be hidden from the majority of people if it weren’t for discs like this.

This time the films range from one about a 17-year-old with a crush on the local priest to another focussing on a Hollywood hunk heading to his hometown with the hope of rekindling an old relationship. So what is the Boys On Film 12 short film selection like?

And you can see what we think of other Boys On Film releases here. [Read more…]

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine (DOC NYC Review)

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There are some people who become totemic. Their name and/or image are indelibly associated with something to the point that the person behind it often gets hidden or ignored. That’s certainly true of Matthew Shepard, who in October 1998 at 21-years-old was savagely beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead. By the time he passed away six days later he had become international news, with people around the world shocked at what was a truly cruel and barbaric crime motivated by homophobia.

No anti-gay crime before or since has had the kind of international impact Shepard’s death did, helping to give people a rallying point to demand change and to say that LGBT people would no longer put up with the kind of bigotry and potential violence from the homophobic society that surrounded them – especially as there were comparatively few legal protections afforded gay people. [Read more…]

Spirited Away (Blu-ray Review)

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As Spirited Away is the movie that helped Studio Ghibli become far better known in the West than it ever had before – particularly when it walked away with the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature – it’s a bit of a surprise that it’s never come out on Blu-ray in the UK before. However now it’s here, getting a release of its own before it becomes part of an 11 disc Studio Ghibli Blu-ray collection on December 8th.

It is undoubtedly a strange and often weird movie, but also a beautiful and incredibly involving one. There’s an odd sense of randomness to much of it, but then there also was to The Wizard Of Oz and Alice In Wonderland, which undoubtedly served as inspiration for the way the story is told. [Read more…]

Jack Whitehall Gets Around – Live From Wembley Arena (DVD Review)

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Jack Whitehall is a bit of a Marmite comedian, although you do get the impression that his detractors are more annoyed that he’s young, good-looking and funny than being bothered about the edge of smugness that some accuse him of. He’s certainly come a long way in a short time, with this DVD documenting his Wembley gig, which was part of a huge arena tour that attracted audiences in the 10s of thousands. And he’s still only 26.

As with many young comedians who become a big headline act, there is undoubtedly a sense that he’s still learning his trade and coming into his own. That’s particularly clear by his reliance on ‘mistakes’, which probably work well when you’re watching him live, but on DVD it’s clear that these are not mistakes at all, or at least perhaps they were at one point during the tour but have now been woven into the act and are now very deliberate. Comedians making deliberate mistakes is extremely common, but it shouldn’t look like that’s what they’re doing. [Read more…]

Nina Conti Live – Dolly Mixtures (DVD Review)

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The sort of variety acts that were a staple of British TV up until the 1980s have largely disappeared (while Britain’s Got Talent may have brought it back to primetime, it still exists pretty much in isolation). And with the death of variety, ventriloquism pretty much disappeared too.

However in the last few years Nina Conti has slowly but surely been rising up the comedy ranks and becoming more of a household name. To be honest she ought to be more famous than she is, as her CV includes appearances in Christopher Guest movies and slew of TV shows, but it seems that with ventriloquism looked down on in many circles she’s had more difficulty pushing through than she perhaps should have. [Read more…]

Russell Howard – Wonderbox Live (DVD Review)

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Thanks to Mock The Week and Good News, Russell Howard is now one of the UK’s biggest stand-up acts. While many comics have a shtick to help them stand out, Howard is a more traditional stand-up, telling funny stories and jokes, and finding the general silliness of life.

What help makes it work is that he comes across as such a friendly, slightly dorky but cool guy. He’s the sort of person where it feels like if you went out for a drink you’d have a good time and a lot of laughs, and what he manages to do with Wonderbox better than he has on previous DVDs, is fully pull the viewer into so that it truly feels you’re truly part of a fun night out. There’s none of the anger or snide-ness that so many comics trade in, as even when he’s making fun of something there’s a positive edge where he feels the need to point it out not specifically to tear it down but because he thinks there’s something better. [Read more…]

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Blu-ray Review)

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Most of DreamWorks Animation’s output has been okay but nothing particularly special. They hit on something good with Shrek (and I personally love Prince Of Egypt), but with How To Train Your Dragon it seemed like they’d suddenly stepped up a gear, with great storytelling, a massive scale and genuine heart. However after that nearly everything they’ve made – from Turbo to Mr. Peabody & Sherman – has gone back to being rather rubbish. However with How To Train Your Dragon 2 they’ve made what is probably their best film yet.

It’s several years on from the first film and Hiccup is now older and has led a major change on the Viking island of Berk, where rather than fighting dragons they now befriend and ride them. However not every Viking is as enlightened as they are, after finding an ice cave that’s home to hundreds of new, wild dragons, Hiccup and his friends discover they’re under threat from a man called Drago, who’s determined to rule the dragons by force and if he does that he believes he can control the people too. [Read more…]

The Day The Earth Caught Fire (Blu-ray Review)

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The BFI has been busy once more restoring a piece of cult cinema from Britain’s past, this time 1961’s slice of sci-fi, The Day The Earth Caught Fire, from Quatermass director Val Guest. Like the best of science fiction from that era, it’s a movie that’s not just about made-up nonsense, but takes on things such as the changes in sexual politics and most particularly fear of the nuclear bomb.

Like everyone else, Daily Express journalist Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) can’t help but notice that strange things are happening with the weather, such as an unexpected solar eclipse and weird, dense fog blanketing London. After getting off to a rocky start with civil servant Jeannie Craig (Janet Munro), they embark on a affair, and thanks to her Stenning gets a tip that the weather isn’t just an anomaly. The US and Russia simultaneously exploding nuclear bombs has knocked the planet off its axis and may also have sent it out of orbit and getting ever closer to the sun. [Read more…]

Earth To Echo (Blu-ray Review)

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The makers of Earth To Echo certainly seem to like 80s family films, as the movie mixes bits of the likes of ET, Stand By Me and The Goonies with the more modern found footage genre.

Alex, Tuck and Munch are best friends living in a community that’s being forced to move due to a new construction project. It’s their last week together, which takes an unexpected turn after they realise strange electromagnetic anomalies are happening. When they decide to investigate they come across a small, damaged, semi-robotic alien, who needs help to rebuild his spaceship so that he can get home [Read more…]