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

First Look At Russell Tovey As Gay Superhero The Ray

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Back in September we reported that after voicing the character of gay superhero The Ray in a CW Seed animated series, Russell Tovey was set to bring the character into the live-action Arrow-verse in a crossover event. Now we’ve got out first look at Tovey in character as holocaust survivor Ray Terrill, in a story that mixes the likes of The Arrow and Supergirl with the Nazis.

The two-night event is titled Crisis On Earth X, in which ‘Barry and Iris’s wedding brings the gang together, but things go awry when villains from Earth-X attack the ceremony. All of the superheroes band together with help from their super friends like Citizen Cold (guest star Wentworth Miller), The Ray (guest star Russell Tovey, Quantico), Felicity Smoak, Iris West and Alex Danvers to take on their most formidable villains yet. Earth’s mightiest heroes – Green Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash and White Canary – lead their teams into battle to save the world.’

If you’re wondering what Earth-X is, it’s an alternate reality where the animated show Freedom Fighters: The Ray takes place. In it, Germany won World War II and Green Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl are evil.

The Ray himself is a reporter who discovered a group of government scientists working on a secret project to turn light into a weapon of mass destruction. Before he could report on his findings, the project head exposed Ray to a ‘genetic light bomb’. The bomb failed to kill him and instead gifted Ray with light-based powers. With these abilities, Ray realised he could go beyond reporting on injustice – he could take action to help stop it.

The pics of Tovey also confirm that he will be gay in the show, as in one he wears the pink triangle the Nazis forced gay people to don in the concentration camps. Take a look below.

Crisis On Earth X starts on the CW in the US on November 27th, and will air in the UK in early December. [Read more…]

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First Official Look At Joe Manganiello As DC’s Deathstroke

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For quite a long time there’s been talk about Deathstroke showing up in one of the DC film universe movies, with Joe Manganiello lined up to play the supervillain/antihero. [Minor Spoilers ahead] We got out first look at the Magic Mike star as Deathstroke in one of the post-credits scenes in Justice League.

The scene hinted towards a possible League Of Doom movie (partly as it also involved Lex Luthor), and there’s also a solo Deathstroke movie in development, which Gareth Evans (The Raid) is currently attached to direct. However, for those who didn’t catch the post-credits scene, Manganiello has released the first official of him in character via Instagram.

He’s certainly got the right look for the character. However, while Deathstroke is traditionally a villain, it sounds as if Warner/DC is planning a more complex antihero arc for the character. Indeed, it’ll be interesting to see if he features in the planned Suicide Squad 2. Take a look at the pics below. [Read more…]

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Beach Rats (Cinema Review) – A teen struggles with masculinity & sexuality in the gay-themed movie

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With Call Me By Your Name, God’s Own Country and Beach Rats, 2017 may have been strongest year ever for gay-themed films at the Sundance Film Festival. The last of those, Beach Rats, took the Best Director (Dramatic) Award for director Eliza HIttman, and it’s also just been nominated for a couple of Independent Spirit Awards. The result is that it arrives in UK cinemas with quite a reputation. But does it deserve it?

The short answer is – yes.

It’s summer and Brooklyn teenager Frankie (Harris Dickinson) has nothing to do but hang out with his friends, heading down to the beach to flirt with girls, play ball and try to pass the time. However, away from his somewhat delinquent mates, he’s started going online and looking for guys. Initially he’s uncertain about what he’s doing or whether it means anything beyond being a way to pass the time, but he soon starts meeting men for sex. [Read more…]

Call Me By Your Name Leads Independent Spirit Nominations, With Gay Films BPM & Beach Rats Also Recognised

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It’s been a great year for gay-themed movies at the Independent Spirit Awards – the gongs giving out shortly before the Oscars, which acnowledge and celebrate those film made by and released outside the Hollywood studio system. Leading the pack is the acclaimed Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino’s movie about two young men falling in love in italy in the early 1980s.

It scored six nominations, including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Male Lead (Timothee Chalamet) and Best Supporting Male (Armie Hammer).

The Independent Spirit Awards used to largely be a way to celebrate movies that were ignored by the Oscars, for the past few years the winners have been the same (five of the last six Indie Spirit Best Feature winners have also picked up the Best Picture Oscar). That suggest Call Me By Your Name has just taken a big step closer to Academy Award success.

It wasn’t the only gay-themed movie picking up nominations, as Beach Rats was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Male Lead for the excellent Harris Dickinson. The much loved and praised French movie BPM (Beats Per Minute), about the rise of the activist organisation ACT UP in the early days of the AIDS crisis, is nominated for Best International Feature.

Away from the gay front, other films being giving love include Jordan Peele’s hit Get Out, and Good Time, starring Robert Pattinson, which both scored five nominations. Lady Bird and The Rider meanwhile got four apiece.

Take a look at all the nominations below. [Read more…]

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It’s Chris Pratt & A Baby Dino In The First Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Footage

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It’s very short, but the first footage from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has arrived online, which shows as Chris Pratt back as Owen Grady, petting a very cute baby raptor. I suppose it’s a good thing Owen still has a good relationship with at least some of the dinos after the dramatic events of Jurassic World!

The footage was released on Twitter by Colin Trevorrow who directed Jurassic World and co-wrote and produces the sequel.

There’s still very little info on the exact plot, although the title suggests that there will still be major problems with the Park (we do know the film is returning to Isla Nublar, the original Jurassic Park/World island). Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard will once more be having dinosaur troubles, with Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm also returning to the franchise.

It’s been suggested that the movie will further explore the weaponisation of dinosaurs through genetic manipulation, although that hasn’t been confirmed. J.A. Bayona directs, with a June 2018 release date set.

Take a look at the first footage below. [Read more…]

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Jude Law Will Play The Male Lead Opposite Brie Larson In Captain Marvel

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It’s well over a year since Brie Larson signed on to play Captain Marvel on the big screen. However, it’s only now that Marvel and directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have started to build the cast around her. Ben Mendelsohn recently signed up to play the villain, and now Variety reports that Jude Law is in talks to play the male lead in the movie.

Different incarnations of Captain Marvel have been both male and female in the comics, but for the movies they are concentrating on Carol Danvers, an Air Force pilot whose DNA is fused with that of an alien during an accident. The resulting alteration imbues her with the super powers of strength, energy projection and flight.

Law will play ‘Doctor Walter Lawson, a.k.a. Mar-Vell, who becomes a mentor of sorts to Danvers as she tries to figure out her new powers.’

Interestingly the movie is planned as a prequel to most of the other Marvel movies, as it will be set in the 1990s. It’s also thought Samuel L. Jackson may show up as a younger Nick Fury. It’s due out March 2019.

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Jeffrey Tambor Quits Transparent Following Sexual Harrassment Allegations

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In the past few years Jeffrey Tambor has gotten a lot of praise for playing transgender character Maura Pfefferman in Amazon Prime’s hit show, Transparent, which has included him winning a Golden Globe and two Emmys. However, in the past few days he has been hit by allegations of sexual harassment/misconduct by co-star, Trace Lysette, and his former assistant, Van Barnes.

He immediately issued denials, saying ‘I know I haven’t always been the easiest person to work with. I can be volatile and ill-tempered, and too often I express my opinions harshly and without tact. But I have never been a predator – ever.’

However, he has now decided to leave the series entirely. Tambor released a statement, via Deadline, reading, ‘Playing Maura Pfefferman on Transparent has been one of the greatest privileges and creative experiences of my life. What has become clear over the past weeks, however, is that this is no longer the job I signed up for four years ago.

‘I’ve already made clear my deep regret if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being aggressive, but the idea that I would deliberately harass anyone is simply and utterly untrue. Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I don’t see how I can return to Transparent.’

There have been suggestions that since the accusations were made the makers of Transparent had already started discussing removing Tambor and his character from the show ahead of Season 5, and so it’s a case of the actor jumping before he could be pushed.

There are also suggestions that the ‘politicised atmosphere’ Tambor mentioned isn’t just that he’s alleged to have sexually harassed people, but growing discomfort amongst some of the crew about having such a prominent trans character played by a cis actor. Indeed one of the show’s trans writers, Our Lady J, suggested there was tension around this issue when she backed Tambor’s accuser while saying, ‘we cannot let trans content be taken down by a single cis man.’

There have already been calls to either bring in a trans actor to play Maura, or to ensure any new major trans character added to Season 5 isn’t played by a cis actor. As cis people playing trans character has become a much higher profile issues since Transparent started, and Tambor has been somewhat dismissive of people’s concerns about it, the current situation allows a reset of the show that will satisfy many.

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Desert Hearts (Criterion Blu-ray Review) – A landmark lesbian movie gets a well-deserved prestige release

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Watching Desert Hearts it’s difficult not to feel a little frustrated. That’s not because of anything in the movie itself. It’s because even 32 year later it still feels so exceptional. A film with a female director and screenwriter – and based on a novel by a woman – is still an unusual thing. A film that’s about the lives of women and not just how they relate to men, is still an unusual thing. A movie that treats lesbian love as a serious thing and isn’t framed by tragedy, is still an unusual thing.

It shouldn’t be that way, but Desert Hearts retains a very special position as one of those incredibly rare movies by women, that doesn’t feel like it’s been co-opted either by the influence of men, or by a need to please the male viewer. [Read more…]

Tom Of Finland (DVD Review) – Inside the challenging gay life of the homoerotic artist

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For a couple of years duelling biopics of Tom Of Finland were in the works, but this is the one that finally made it to the screen. The life of Touko Laaksonen is certainly an interesting subject to take on, and there are many ways it could have been done. The route they’ve gone down is to make a fairly traditional, prestige biopic, which is perhaps an unexpected choice for a man who made his name for outsider homoerotic art that defied conventions of both sexuality and class.

The film follows the life of Laaksonen, picking up his tale just after he has been discharged from the Finnish Army following the Second World War (the movie rather bypasses Finland complicated position in the conflict, other than that it was hell for the soldiers and also helped set off Touko’s love of Nazi uniforms). While he had encounters with men in the Army, in post-War Finland, being gay is still about furtive and dark meetings in order to avoid society’s rampant homophobia. [Read more…]

Jabberwocky (Criterion Blu-ray Review) – Terry Gilliam’s first directorial fantasy returns (including its little gay Easter Egg)

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In 1977 Monty Python had made their TV series and their first film, The Holy Grail, but hadn’t yet brought us Life Of Brian or The Meaning Of Life. In amongst this came Jabberwocky, which wasn’t a Python movie (although their production company was involved), but marked Terry Gilliam’s first movie as a solo director, and starred Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

The result is a movie that’s semi-Python, with echoes of the zany, off-the-wall humour, but which is still its own beast.

Palin plays Dennis, an apprentice cooper in a fantasy medieval kingdom. He’s desperately in love with Griselda (Annette Badland), and so to prove himself – and after a falling out with his father – he sets off to the city to make his fortune. [Read more…]