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

Burnt Trailer – Bradley Cooper is a chef in need of something new

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burnt-bradley-cooperOriginally titled Chef, Bradley Cooper’s new movie ended up changing its name to Adam Cooper to ensure no one confused it with Jon Favreau’s movie from last year, which had the same title. Now we’ve got a new trailer for the film, which is now called Burnt, to give us a taste of the movie.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Adam Jones (four-time Academy Award® nominee Bradley Cooper) was a Michelin starred chef riding high at the top of the Paris restaurant scene, until his dangerous lifestyle caught up with him and he lost it all. With most of his rivals thinking he’s dead, Adam heads to London with a plan to explode back onto the restaurant scene.

‘BURNT is written by Academy Award® nominee Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Locke, ‘Peaky Blinders’) and directed by six-time Primetime Emmy winner John Wells (August: Osage County, ‘ER’).’ [Read more…]

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Kingsman’s Matthew Vaughn Takes On I Am Pilgrim

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matthew-vaughnKick Ass & Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn is teeing up a new movie, as THR reports that he’s set to direct and produce an adaptation of Terry Hayes’ novel I Am Pilgrim.

MGM is backing the movie, with Hayes writing the script himself (he’s a former screenwriter himself, having penned two of the Mad Max movies, mong others), the novel ‘follows “Pilgrim,” code name for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for U.S. intelligence. Now in anonymous retirement, he is called upon to lend his expertise to an unusual investigation but ultimately becomes caught in a terrifying race against time to save America from a cunning terrorist’.

It seems MGM is hoping this can be the start of a major franchise (Hayes is already working on the second novel in the series), and believes Vaughn is the man to deliver it.

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Gay Short Film Showcase: Disc Of Love – A mix CD has a few surprises for a young man

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disc-of-love-slideRyan Davey’s sweet, funny and sometimes slightly provocative Disc Of Love has screened at several festivals, including the 2015 Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the 2015 Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and now the director has released it online for us all to enjoy.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘A gay themed short film which tells the story of Jake, who is leaving town to visit his parents for the weekend. His roommate Lucas is acting in a strange manner. He tries to find out why but all he receives is a mix CD. As he is driving to his parents he discovers what is on this mysterious disc.’

But then there’s a bit of a twist. Take a look at the film below.

If you know a short film we ought to be posting, tell us by getting in touch via our contact page. And check out more gay short films and web series here. [Read more…]

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Alan Cumming Is Planning A TV Series About A Gay New York Restaurateur

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alan-cummingFor the last few years Alan Cumming has been extremely good on The Good Wife. Indeed he’s been a little too good, as he’s so talented it’s felt a little silly that he’s been playing a seond fiddle character. Now though it looks like the bisexual Scottish actor might be getting a show of his own, as Deadline reports that US TV network Showtime has signed on to help him develop his passion project – a series about gay New York restaurateur, Florent Morelle.

Described as a half-hour dark comedy project, the show is currently titled Florent, and will be ‘Inspired by the true story of Morellet, who in the early ’80s opened a restaurant in NY’s wild and woolly Meatpacking District, Florent will explore the light and dark of that time, as well as the craziness of a place that become a destination for everyone from NY’s literati to the neighborhood hookers and hustlers, the NYPD, and the burgeoning LGBT community — all through the eyes of Florent, played by Cumming (with advice from the real restaurateur himself). Morellet ran his idiosyncratic French diner for 23 years, until his landlord drastically increased his rent.’

The series was previously set up at The Sundance Channel, but Showtime has now taken it over. Cumming is still playing Eli Gold in The Good Wife, and is currently contracted for the whole of upcoming season. However if Florent moves forward, he will segue over to that after his commitment to the legal show is over.

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Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall Movie Tanks At The US Box Office

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stonewall-pic9-slideI’m sure there are a few people out there feeling a bit of schadenfreude today, as after huge amounts of criticism, accusations of white-washing and erasing trans people’s importance to the 1969 Stonewall riots, Roland Emmerich’s movie about the events, simply titled Stonewall, has tanked at the US, scoring a measly $112,414 in its first weekend.

It means the film barely scraped into the top 30, and even though it was only released on 129 screens, it scored an extremely low per-screen average of $871.

To be honest it’s not too much of a shock it barely found an audience, as this sort of movie (although with a $17 million budget it cost significantly more than more indie movies) need good reviews and audience support to succeed.

Unfortunately for Stonewall, it has recieved some pretty awful reviews. Even those who didn’t take it to task for the way it treat people of color and trand characters generally felt the film was tone deaf and emotionally manipulative. Currently it’s scoring just 10% on RottenTomatoes, although to be fair the movie did get one pretty good major review, with the Los Angeles Times saying that ‘the film is a vital, evocative reminder of a turbulent time that paved the way for hard-fought freedoms. For that alone, it’s of value for younger audiences, gay or straight.’

However the overall sentiments are summarised by Vulture, which says of the movie, ‘It’s a self-financed passion project, from a man who might be the most financially successful out gay filmmaker ever. We should be celebrating this, but man, oh man, does he make it difficult.’

It is worth noting though that while many will be pleased Stonewall didn’t succeed at the box office, it’s not something that should be seen as a victory, because unfortunately in the warped logic of Hollywood, every gay-themed film that fails is taken as evidence that they are box office poison. Luckily there are several other LGBT-themed movies coming out in the next few month that may help to counteract that, such as Freeheld, Carol and The Danish Girl, but the failure of Stonewall certainly won’t help more mainstream gay-themed films get made (whether the fault is Roland Emmerich’s or not).

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Matt Damon Thinks People Shouldn’t Know Anything About An Actors’ Sexuality, Gay Or Straight

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matt-damonMatt Damon has gotten a bit of criticism for comments made to The Guardian about his thoughts about actors talking about their sexuality.

When asked whether it’s hard to be gay in Hollywood, Matt says, “I’m sure. When Ben and I first came on the scene there were rumours that we were gay because it was two guys who wrote a script together.”

He adds, “I know. It’s just like any piece of gossip… and it put us in a weird position of having to answer, you know what I mean? Which was then really deeply offensive. I don’t want to, like [imply] it’s some sort of disease – then it’s like I’m throwing my friends under the bus. But at the time, I remember thinking and saying, Rupert Everett was openly gay and this guy – more handsome than anybody, a classically trained actor – it’s tough to make the argument that he didn’t take a hit for being out.”

While he reckonsattitudes are changing, he still believes that, “I think it must be really hard for actors to be out publicly. But in terms of actors, I think you’re a better actor the less people know about you period. And sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether you’re straight or gay, people shouldn’t know anything about your sexuality because that’s one of the mysteries that you should be able to play.”

There is some logic to what Matt’s saying from his perspective, as while he’s married with kids, it’s not something he particularly taulks about or flaunts – indeed most people probably wouldn’t be able to tell you if he’s married or not. However what his comments miss is that there’s a difference between being private about your life, and feeling the need to actively hide or lie about who you’re dating/married to.

There are some complex issues here, partly due to the assumption of straightness and the salacious edge to gay rumours, but what Matt seems to miss is that him being private about his wife and kids is different from their existence actively being hidden. It also doesn’t help move us to a place where nobody cares which gender an actor dates, as despite that what he’s saying seems to treat gay and straight equally, it actually entrenches one as being superior to the other.

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Win The Football Documentary Fulboy On DVD!

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fulboy-dvd-coverThe documentary Fulboy is released on DVD in the UK from September 28thth, courtesy of TLA Releasing, and we’ve teamed up with them to give away three copies of the movie in this competition!

On the verge of achieving his dream career, Tomás allows his older brother Martín Farina an inside look at his life as a professional football player. Martín, never able to fulfill his own dream of playing football, steps into the world of Tomás and his teammates through the lens of his camera. However, the rest of the club has their own opinions – some viewing Martín as an intruder, as he exposes their most vulnerable moments, and their concerns for the future after the game has ended. Fulboy offers an uncensored, confessional look at how the athletes behind the most popular sport in the world behave during their time off the field. At the same time, Fulboy reflexively interrogates Farina’s aesthetic choices and point-of-view – as well as the viewer’s gaze at the male form.

To be in with a chance of winning one of the copies of Fulboy on DVD that we’ve got to give away, answer the question below and fill in your details, then press submit! The competition closes on October 12th, 2015, so get answering and good luck. [Read more…]

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That’s Not Us (Raindance Festival Review)

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For about the first 10 minutes of That’s Not Us I have to admit I allowed my preconceptions to get to me. I think it was the seemingly arbitrary artifice of the set-up that got to me – sticking one gay couple, one straight couple and one lesbian couple in a house together.

However, I quickly had to admit I’d prejudged the movie, as this is a film that’s more interested in these people as human beings than in comparing and contrasting their sexualities. That’s not to say their sexuality doesn’t play into the movie, just that it informs their interactions rather than leading them.

These three city couples come together for a getaway in a beachside house, where they hope to escape from their everyday issues, but almost inevitably it ends up bringing their problems to a head. James and Spencer are deeply in love and seem to be the perfect couple. However, Spencer has been accepted into university in Chicago, something neither are dealing with despite the fact it could separate them, putting it off by Spencer saying he doesn’t know whether he will go, and James simply saying how happy he is for his partner. [Read more…]

52 Tuesdays (DVD Review)

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Aussie movie 52 Tuesdays premiered at Sundance (where it won a Best Director prize) and has garnered as fair amount of interest and praised, both due to its subject and the way it was made. The film was shot one day a week over the space of a year, with the script and story evolving over that time. It’s not the first time it’s been done, and to be honest it’s a technique that has rarely created anything that feels like it was better than if they’d just stuck with a pre-determined script.

52 Tuesdays is about teenager Billie and her mother Jane. Billie’s life changes when Janes informs her daughter that she wants her to go and live with her father, to give Jane space while she starts transitioning to life as a man. Initially Billie isn’t sure how to react, especially as Jane – now James – seems uncertain whether she wants her daughter around, and the teen doesn’t know quite how to react to that. [Read more…]

Wasp (Raindance/DVD Review)

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When watching Wasp, I couldn’t help wonder what the film might be like if it was done again, but with different actors and director. That’s because it’s a relatively simple set-up that relies totally on how it’s played and how it’s filmed, and it’s due to this that the movie is perhaps not everything it might have been.

Olivier (Simon Haycock) and James (Hugo Bolton) are a gay couple who’ve left Britain for a romantic getaway in the South Of France. However, their romantic idyll is disrupted by the arrival of Caroline (Elly Condron), an old friend of James’ who’s just split up with her long-term boyfriend.

Initially it looks like the trio will be able to have a good time together, but then complications arise when Elly notices, or at least thinks she notices, Olivier staring at her. She begins to put the moves on Olivier, which he resists. However, she may not be completely off-base, as while Olivier says he is gay, he has previously been with women (but not for a long time), and there does seem to be some sort of attraction. [Read more…]