Friday, December 09, 2016
Another coming out
Today's film is another of those "first films" for the writer/director
And, as is often the case, if it is not autobiographical it feels that way. Totally.
A young Chinese American boy gets a job in an all male spa.
Surprised to see all those men who came to make out with one another, he identifies and starts to be a patron as well as an employee.
Yes the baths are still an option for some gay men. Anonymous and usually safe. Even when they are straight they are gay.
This is one of those films where nothing happens but everything happens for the boy who does find himself.
There s some adult child of an alcoholic things here. Not very well done but clear enough. There are the usual difficulties with culture clash. Immigrants assimilating. In this case Korean.
Good job. A 3 out of Netflix5.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Optometry
Today's film has gotten a big play on the Festival circuit.
So I figured I would see for myself, an eye witness, eyeball the film and eye-dentify what is going on.
It is a reunion picture. Two ex-lovers meet in Joshua Tree National Park, in an isolated cabin, after 15 years with a lot of life in between.
There is a lot of talk. And when they are done talking about the past they talk about the near present and then they talk about the past again.
They are good looking, healthy gay males of the latest, I believe jaded, generation.
No gay lib wounds or other interesting side effects.
I found the whole enterprise boring and would not want to spend another minute with them.
They do deserve each other.
One is in a long time relationship but obviously the husband, they are married, is not there.
OK. It is filmed in Joshua Tree National Forest, quite nearby. We have been to a lot of the locations that are used. There is a lot of amusement in that. But not enough.
I bought the film sight unseen. And I figure that for me it will remain that way from here on out.
Did I say that I hope they stay together because they deserve one another?
In all fairness, I should mention that the last 20 minutes of the DVD were screwed up. They deserve a re-hearing with the new disc I am getting.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Sorting it out
Today's movie is a very good depiction of a gay relationship in trouble.
There are no shouting matches, no histrionics. Just a quiet landslide ending in separation.
That is not a spoiler, nor is it the whole story.
We are led through the steps of this dissolution and allowed to draw our own conclusions about the situation.
Both men are a bit rootless. One is a singer, the other an actor. Already in a slippery place professionally. Perhaps they are depending too much on each other to provide the stability they are not getting anywhere else.
We get to see a bit into one man's past and his relationship with his father and sister.
I liked this film very much and probably would not want to see it again although the sex scenes are very good. A lot of body exploration, very close up. Male beauty. They are both stunners. And we see all of them. Almost.
So a 3 out of Netflix 5 unless a late night conversion drives to me to buy the DVD. Or if my husband likes it a lot more than I did.
Friday, October 21, 2016
Let there be blood
Gay rights have taken us very far.
So far that now we can have our own vampire movies with real naked mens getting all bloody and doing stuff to one another.
A step too far.
This is a really lousy movie.
It is film hackery from beginning to end.
Even the end to end naked bodies being eaten or bloodied or having gory sex together do not redeem it. Gore porn.
I shouldn't even be writing about it.
As for the sexy parts, they are not. The guys are kind of hairy slim Jims. The vampire in contrast is blond and beautifully cut and hunky.
Why am I writing this? It is not likely you will want to ever see this especially after I give it a 1 out of Netflix5.
In fact, a tipoff, only four critics bothered to write about it.
Too bad. There are still possibilities in gay vampires. Lestat was gay. This is nothing near Ann Rice. An embarrassment. I did not wait until the end but I stayed for all but five minutes. I couldn't face the inevitable transition of the rather homely victims. Pale limp gay Brits.
Labels: gay films
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Bonds
The bonds between two friends when one is straight and the other is gay are very interesting to explore.
I have had some success in maintaining such relationships and also some complete flops.
When I came out to some long time best friends they freaked out and we did not see much of each other again.
Some stayed.
It is not easy to navigate the rapids in such a change in friendship.
The other thing is that very often the straight friend sees "designs" by the gay one. Threats. This is too bad but can't be helped. There is not justifying either self hatred or innate or learned homophobia.
And so on. So boring to still be talking about this shit all these years later.
But here we are with a wonderfully sweet German film where just this kind of thing happens. Two friends who have met at school get together again and enjoy a road trip through Germany. All is well. Then they pick up a hitchhiker who upsets the apple cart.
In a way, this is a play on the old idea that "three is a crowd". But when gay feelings are bouncing around it makes it even more crowded.
With a deft hand and a sweet sensibility this film explores the situation and draws few conclusions. We are left to form our own.
This DVD is not widely distributed and it has not appeared anywhere but the festival circuit. Good reasons, for one, is that it is not a long film. 70 plus minutes. It is also not set up for popular appreciation. A limited taste or sensibility.
I can say you will not be disappointed. The biggest threat is that you might be bored if you do not identify with the situation. As a "straight" man who got into confused friendships with straight men continually it is not boring at all. It is me.
The DVD from Breaking Glass is subtitled in English.
A hidden gem.
Labels: gay films
Saturday, October 01, 2016
Stinker
Today's film is a gay thriller.
But not so much. It is gay but not too thrilling.
Based on a Ruth Rendell novel, well another pen name but still Miss Ruth, there is turmoil and more as a young man falls in love with two people at the same time. The usual adolescent conflict when one of those persons is a man and the other is a woman.
Of course, as someone points out, it is not really love that is involved here but teen age angst and Freudian roiling of the emotions.
And so on.
Move on, nothing to see here.
Of course, I am rooting for the gay side to win out but it is hard to sustain interest in someone as callow as the hero. The guy he falls for is sort of fucked up but at least he knows who he is.
Until the late middle, the story is conventional then it veers into a thriller. One of those where we are torn between our wanting the guy to get away with it and wishing he would get caught.
This is old fashioned manipulation and is sometimes OK but here it is just annoying. I wanted both of the guys punished for being wimps and dicks respectively.
I quit during an ocean storm and will not go back.
Incidentally, there is some nice footage of Anchorage Alaska where I have been and I can attest to the dismal, foggy weather. It is beautiful but impossible to enjoy because it is a constant fight with the elements. It is the only place I have seen board walks on the sidewalks to elevate over the runoff going down underfoot. All the time.
But there I go. After a thriller about two good looking boys I am reminiscing about the atmospherics.
A 1 out of Netflix5 because I could not finish it. Done. Over. Finis.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Adolescent
I am a sucker for gay coming of age films.
The best ones are those which do not really focus on the gay aspect but more of the dynamics of growing up and out of the home. To be on one's own.
Today[s film is a superb example, and happily, the two young men happen to be gay. The guy we are focused on and his first boyfriend.
The film is famous as a gay film but transcends that genré nicely without giving up some rich love scenes and really enjoyable romantic times.
I am still working out of our own DVD collection. Once I got started with a few Techine films I couldn't stop. But I will soon. The Netflix are stacking up.
There is another film of this name so if you go looking, be careful. This is the 2001 one.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Kids
Today's more André Téchiné.
Les roseaux savages / Wild Reeds (1993)
A group of provincial young people find themselves busting out of the restrictions that their bourgeois life presents.
Very nice. A universal theme. As usual there is a gay kid in the mix who is trying to figure out why he is different.
This is a great film for coming out. It does not offer answers so much as some insights and ways of thinking that would help any boy (the girl is not confused about sex) figure himself out in the sex department.
In any case it ia a beautiful film done in the countryside with lots of moving water, waving grass and, of course, reeds. The ones who bend in the wind and do not topple as a tree would.
I have seen it several times so a 5 out of Netflix5. Bravo.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Coming of age
I ran out of Netflix so back to our own library.
Today, revisiting André Techiné with
L'embrasse pas / I Don't Kiss (1991)
A young man comes to Paris and finds life.
Part of that is the realization he has no talent, no skills, no basis for a job at all. At least not one that he wants. Dishwashing is not a solution.
He meets a prostitute and realizes this is a way for him to make some money and have what he wants.
For awhile this works and then it does not.
He is taken in by an older gay couple who influence him to go straight.
Which he does. But not in the way that they had in mind.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Unrequited
Today, a sexy gay film about unrequited love.
Surprising, huh?
For various clinical and aesthetic reasons a lot of gay love goes unrequited. Asd, I suppose the het kind does too. Plays, songs, operas abound around this subject.
So much about "the gays" being like bunnies, doing it all the time. They all do it and have to pay the pipers.
Of course, doing it is not the same as loving. And, I think this is the film's point.
But along the way this is a very sturdy and well done romantic story with very attractive but not over the top handsome men. They have normal desires and trouble realizing their satisfaction.
It is not a romantic comedy but it is also not a dreary rehash of all the bad things that happen to people who love. And it is a very very far cry from the old model of gay film where happiness must not go unpunished.
There is also a significant subplot about money which goes away when the market crashes. Also something about lost fathers.
I liked it very much and if my romantic interest is interested, I will buy it for us to put in our library. That would make it a 5 out of Netflix5 or if we don't buy it, well, a 4. But I sure plan on seeing it again.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Retro
Today's film is a new gay film with an old premise.
Young man loose in the big city gets help from some of his friends who have various motives. No satisfactory ending.
First, as a long ago Philadelphian, the city scape is superb.A lot of night shots show off the good points without letting the grub shine through.
Second, the people in this are very appealing and probably staple characters from any coming out film. This is not a first coming out story but more a mature coming out story when the bar life and the fast moving scene fails to satisfy.
I think this makes it hard to film in an exciting way because these people are jaded and have reached a kind of jumping off place.
It is interesting.
Made by the same guy who made one of the wonderful movies in my DVD collection, Strapped (2010). This is a worthy addition but lacks some of the innocence of that venture (a few actors in the first return here).
It is a 4 out of Netflix5. Worth seeing again if the opportunity comes up.
Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Rites of passage and back again
Today's film follows two friends who use the opportunity to run away with another friend's fiancé.
Which is hardly an apt description of this fine Mexican film.
I have seen this many times and it does not dim with repetition.
I think that what attracts me is the ambience which, like other recent films, is definitely "on the road" with real people. Real locations. Not a hint of a movie crew. A lot of hand held. I know that there are probably 30-40 people behind the camera but it does not come off that way.
Also, the actors, Gael Garcia Benal, Diego Luna and Maribel Verdu are totally in sync with one another. How scripted? I do not know. Which is part of the success of the film.
There is also the "gay" content which is mostly accidental but not. These guys are definitely so bent as heterosexuals that anything else, even a threesome, is shameful to them unless they are drunk. The two meet after they return by accident. They have coffee and cannot take the heat of the reunion.
Shame is a powerful force inflicted by a disapproving society.
A 5 out of Netflix5.
Nice
Pansexuality arrives.
Or maybe it has always been here but I missed the train.
In any case, it is nice to see "the young" branching out. Stay to the end.
Labels: gay films
Monday, June 06, 2016
Stinker
Very few book adaptations survive on the screen whether film or video.
I should not have expected much from the CBC production with Lothaire Bluto.
Other Voices Other Rooms (1995).
Truman Capote's first successful short novel. Or novella.
The film is a travesty.
Told in a simulation of Capote's voice the story, slim and thin, is rolled out in one lousy farm after another.
I could not watch it all.
A 1 out of Netflix5. A long time since I have seen this much bad in only 20 minutes before I ended my misery.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Stew
A good stew does not require elaborating on its constituent parts.
If it is good, well that is enough. If it is bad don't eat it.
For awhile it was touch and go with today's film.
Une Nouvelle Amie / My New Girlfriend (2015)
Romain Duris is not quite convincing as a transvestite but then few transvestites are convincing. Look at the hands, the legs.
But that is not the point. The desire to cross-dress is a thing that is inside people. How they act it out is sometimes not pretty but that they can be brave enough to be themselves is quite thrilling.
Think about it. The looks, the jibes. In many cases, the violence. It scares the shit out of some men. They react.
This film takes a lot of risks. Not the least of which is to cast one of the most masculine of film stars in the key role.
His best friend, actually the best friend of his recently deceased wife aids and abets his transition. Trans-ition.
What makes this work? I do not know. I am resistant to the whole idea of drag queens. But this guy is not a drag queen. The drag is not a costume. The inner female is very strong. And so on.
I liked this film a lot and would be willing to watch it again so it is a 4 out of Netflix5. Not bad from one of those guys, me, who is not very transfriendly.
I have an acquaintance who has transitioned. I have seen him a few times since. It is a bit of a surprise at first but one which is easily managed. I have never equated being gay with being either female or a drag queen. I feel pretty secure. So I can hug my friend and wish him well. And admire his courage to carry on with his inner man/woman.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
And waiting
The story of the Stonewall riots needs a good film to tell its story.
Today's film is not it.
Bloated and sometimes incoherent this film is chock full of over the top gay stereotypes.
It does show what we are all up against in the continuing struggle for equality for gay men, women and young people.
Especially the kids.
Of course I was not there either. But I have read and heard about it from people who were.
But then the Stonewall riots are like a lot of other special events. If all the people who say they were there were actually there it would have been a junta with no survivors on the straight side.
So, too bad most of it is a FF to get through the pain. I did finish it but at warp speed. Maybe I did the skipping over the good parts but I do not think so.
A sad 2 out of Netflix5.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Boy love
In this case not the pedophilic kind but rather the kind between two boys.
Or rather gay boys just at the cusp of adulthood.
Very tricky ground.
And the film avoids both the cliché and the prurient.
Made in the Philippines. The boys in question are sort of innocent even if one of them dances as a stripper in a seedy night club.
The other is a middle class boy of 14 who is looking for, well, what?
He knows that he is gay. He knows that he likes to look. So he goes to a strip show on a Sunday night when there are no other patrons.
He is told that he can take on of the boys home for a fee. He pays up.
They go home.
What happens is at the core of the film which is quite beautiful as this type of film is meant to be.
There is a lot of fantasy at play here but it is not really bad fantasy. Everyone gets out unscathed. Even the innocent, sort of, mother.
This all takes place on New Years Eve after all.
Symbolic, yes.
I have seen this before. It is short and sweet. I am not turned on by kids, well not until they are older than maybe 18 and mature 18 at that. Perhaps 30.
The film manages to traverse a slippery road and come out the other side with a good taste that is, I think, hard to do.
I have seen this a couple of times so it is a 5 out of Netflix5 even though it is not a great film it is straight from and to the heart. Straight.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
In plain sight
Today, a gay first love story.
Nothing new here but we are never tired of hearing these tales of first awakening.
A escondido / Hidden Away (2014)
I have seen this before.
One boy is Moroccan which throws a twist to the plot. He is on the run, an illegal. The part that is hidden. Well, their relationship is hidden too.
This is a good movie with a lot of nice moments and some scary ones.
It is realistic about the young men's situation. No fantasy here.
Hard times.
There is no fat in this quickly moving story but there is time enough for some sweet moments between the guys.
Since I have seen it before and enjoyed it every time, it gets a 5 on the Netflix scale. Not because it is in the film pantheon but because it deserves to be seen and seen again.
Friday, May 13, 2016
Gray no color
Today's Chilean film goes nowhere.
En la gamma de los grises / In the Grayscale
A married guy is unhappy and goes to stay in his Grandad's decrepit house.
He meets Fer, a tour guide, but not on a tour.
They have an affair.
Finding a gay identity is not easy. Gay bars. Hanging out with other gay men.
The sex is good. It is confusing.
Coming out is never easy and to watch an uneasy process is likewise uncomfortable.
But there is no "out" here.
The closet door keeps swinging and the hero is left in the middle of the swing. He keeps getting hit with his own fear and ambiguity.
The evidence is pretty clear. But only we see it.
He is an urban architect so he is working on the restoration of an old bridge that was demolished in urban renewal. Only parts of it remain.
I guess this is the symbol under which our guy will live. Half in, half out. Pain and unhappiness.
This is not a movie to show to anyone who is just coming out. It is probably a tru-ish experience of some men.
Not mine. Nor of many of us who have faced the demons and moved to the other side.
I won't be getting this film for the collection. It is too much of a downer. Not likely to see it again.
I did not fast forward but I wanted to. I guess that makes it a 2 out of Netflix5.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Threesome
No one much liked today's Argentinian film.
But I did. There were even a couple of familiar actors!
El Tercero / The Third One (2014)
A gay couple decides to find a third man on line to shake up their own relationship.
Once they find the young man and things become less than theoretical, the reality of the encounter affects each man in different ways.
All of them good as far as I am concerned.
I know from personal experience that three-ways are pretty tough to carry out without some problems. The biggest is that someone is likely to be left out.
Happy to say that does not happen here, a spoiler, but it might encourage you to know that a good time is had by all including the viewer. And it seems likely that there is even a future for the three guys.
At least they say so.
The big thing is that neither of the couple is threatened by what happens.
Nor is the younger man.
I won't say a lot more about this.
The reviewer at the link complains that there was too much time spent on the sexual part. Huh?
It is very erotic but not gratuitous. There is still a creepy kind of puritanism in all of us.
This kind of film can go a far way to break through that hypocrisy and help make people happier.
