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Check out Gay Belfast's favourite gay films and the video page for the latest film trailer. Support our website by visiting the Gay Belfast Shop.
New Moon: The first bloodless vampire movie (Our Rating: GGG)
The first Twilight film wasn't exactly a hit with the critics – Peter Bradshaw and Xan Brooks's trend-bucking notwithstanding – but the teen vampire romance based on the popular novel by Stephenie Meyers did incredibly well at the box office, racking up $382m (£233m) worldwide. Shortly afterwards, producers Summit Entertainment parted company with director Catherine Hardwicke after she said she could not turn around the sequel, New Moon, in the short time that was being demanded.
Hardwicke, who also directed teen drama Thirteen and skating documentary Lords of Dogtown, reportedly cited the difficulty of producing convincing CGI in haste for certain sequences in the followup, which focuses on a rival clan of werewolves. Instead, Summit, fearing fans of the first film would lose interest in the interim, charged Chris Weitz (who made the 2007 adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass) with bringing the second film to the screen within a year of Twilight's release.
Weitz, if the first trailer for New Moon is indicative, has found a novel way to bypass those complicated, CGI-heavy lycanthrope transformation scenes: instead of showing a man changing slowly into a wolf, he shows a man leaping into the air and landing as a wolf, omitting the actual transformation bit completely. Clever, huh?
This isn't the only reason why New Moon, out on 20 November in the US and a week later here, might be the single most missable movie of 2009. The lingering glances and brooding stares which constituted the performances of Bella Swann (Kristen Stewart) and vampire lover Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in the first movie are back, as are the Gap model bloodsuckers. And the wolf, once it does land, looks slightly less terrifying than an angry chihuahua.
Of course, New Moon only has to appeal to fans of Meyers's novels and the first movie, as well as teenage girls who presumably like to imagine Pattinson ravaging their own tender necks. But it would be nice if the whole project wasn't so, well, bloodless. What do you make of this one?
Big Gay Musical (Our Rating: GGGG)
Paul and Eddie are working on a new Off-Broadway musical “Adam and Steve: Just the Way God Made ‘Em.” Paul is looking for the perfect man and Eddie is dealing with how his sexuality and faith can mix. After yet another disaster, Paul decides he’s done with dating and Eddie has to tell his parents that he’s gay and is starring in a show that calls the bible the “Breeder’s Informational Book of Living Examples”... Musical numbers, tap dancing angels, a retelling of Genesis...this is a smart, funny and thoroughly entertaining film about realising that life gets better once you accept who you really are. Showing at the QFT on Tue 17th Nov - 9:15pm. Movie Website at www.thebiggaymusical.com
Milk
An audiotape Milk records “just in case” is screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s convenient structuring device, allowing Harvey to narrate his own life story. In this telling it’s a life that begins at 40 – when he picks up Scott (James Franco), falls in love, comes out and drops out. The year is 1970 and San Francisco beckons. Their Castro Street camera store soon becomes a focal point for the booming gay community, and it’s not long before Harvey makes the first of several unsuccessful runs for district supervisor.
Civic elections might seem like small beer, especially up against the competition from Frost/Nixon, W. and indeed Barack Obama, but the persecution that compelled Milk to stand is no trivial matter. The gay rights movement’s most critical accomplishment, the film suggests, is how it liberated gays to be themselves. As Harvey tries to explain to his heterosexual colleague Dan White (Josh Brolin), this isn’t about principles, it’s about people’s lives – three of his lovers had threatened suicide. One of them, Jack Lira (Diego Luna), goes through with it. The political can’t get more personal than that. Ironically the devoutly “normal” White is the one who is truly messed up. (Brolin is terrific in this part, incidentally, much more sympathetic than White probably deserves.)
Here’s another irony: to earn the recognition and validation of the voters, Milk has to shed his reborn hippie uniform and ponytail, put on a suit and get a hair cut. Making the same calculation, director Gus Van Sant has axed the long takes and experimentalism that made Elephant and Paranoid Park arresting but decidedly marginal experiences and turned in his most conventional movie since Finding Forrester. In other words, he’s playing it straight this time.
The strategy is sound; the execution, assured. Van Sant captures the time and the place with unobtrusive precision, seamlessly mixing in reams of archival news reports but never tipping the 70s detail into kitsch. Sean Penn is studied and thoughtful, impassioned and immediately sympathetic as Harvey. We can see how he attracts so much support – and how his drive and commitment doesn’t leave enough time for a “real” life. When Penn smiles, there’s always pain there – it’s almost a wince – but we’re the ones who feel the sorrow: this Milk seems like a genuinely good guy, and we’d rather not lose him.
In truth, Milk the movie seems a little on the tame side. It’s a matter of taste, but I think it’s obvious that Van Sant expresses himself more freely and adventurously in his more experimental, independent films. That said, this is yet another exploration of untimely death, a subject that seems to have preoccupied Van Sant since the passing of River Phoenix. I would also venture to hazard that he found something to relate to in Harvey’s series of relationships with younger men.
Like Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain, Milk advances its agenda with some caution – but no matter that all three films end in death and tears, that agenda is progressing, step by step. As I recall, Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas barely touched lips in Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning film. Ang Lee’s love story is more explicit than Milk, but it’s also haunted by repression in a way that Van Sant’s frank and intimate, forthright and engaged movie is not.
This is not just a single-issue movie either. In its conviction that change isn’t affected through rhetoric alone, but through the hard dedication of campaign work, persuasion, inspiration, inclusion, and good old, bad old politicking, Milk feels more than timely. It stakes a claim to be the first movie to reflect the Obama ascendancy, in all its audacity and hope.
Buy MILK from Amazon and support our website
Psycho Beach Party
Our favourite DVD at this moment is Psycho Beach Party
Shortbus
Young New Yorkers navigate their ways through sex and love in and around a modern-day underground salon called Shortbus. Tragicomedy with plenty of real sex, from writer-director John Cameron Mitchell Early on in Shortbus, a young man being disciplined by a whip-wielding dominatrix accidentally ejaculates all over a Jackson Pollock-esque expressionist painting, his fluid merging with the picture's splattered brushstroke style until the two blend entirely. As cheeky metaphors for your own movie go, John Cameron Mitchell could scarcely have come up with a more telling one: porn meets art, with the latter effortlessly absorbing the former, until you don't really notice it's there. Though notorious for its numerous scenes of unsimulated sex, Shortbus is hardly a taboo-buster. So many recent movies from Intimacy to Romance to 9 Songs have shown real sex, one wonders if any onscreen sex outside of Hollywood isn't authentic; Shortbus, however, is the first extended, vaguely mainstream American airing of so much genital gymnastics; hence all the fuss: it's a red, white and very blue movie. For all its explicitness - and Mitchell, attempting to normalize the sex acts, starts the balls rolling with an eye-opening montage, including a man blowing his own, er, "trumpet"- what's most surprising about the film is how sweet it is; a playful puppy bounding around with an enormous erection.
The various characters, including pre-orgasmic sex therapist Sofia (Lee), frustrated gay couple the two Jamies (Dawson and DeBoy) and surly dominatrix Severin (Beamish), are a fragile bunch. 'Shortbus', the underground Manhattan club (so-named after the truncated US yellow school buses designed for special needs kids) becomes as much a sanctuary as a pleasure dome. For a proudly streetwise New York story, the friendly welcome is more reminiscent of the down-home Midwest. This is due in part to Mitchell's methodology as much as his narrative, workshopping and improvising with a largely untried cast for over two years. There's an unaffected quality, even an engaging amateurism, to the performers that defuses much of the sexual pyrotechnics and instead illuminates the film's emotional potency. For the first half of the movie Mitchell and Co. juggle the sex, caustic humour and drama with dazzling acuity. Most audiences will quickly get past the naked bodies - refreshingly not traditional Hollywood airbrushed gloss - to focus on the people underneath, no pun intended. It's the second half where the slant becomes more problematic. Straining everything through a sexual filter, emphasizing personal gratification at the expense of everything and everyone else tips the supposed sense of community into the solipsistic. It's ultimately all about feelings, emotions and me, me, me. Verdict Bold, witty, warm and, yes, sexy, Shortbus is a brave attempt to talk openly about matters of the heart and loins; a little too self-infatuated but still eminently lovable. Buy Shortbus from Amazon and support our website
Happy Endings
An ensemble cast telling 10 stories
with intertwining characters. One story is about a father and gay son
who are briefly dating the same woman . Another features a woman who long
ago gave her baby up for adoption but is now being blackmailed by a documentary
filmmaker who claims to know the now-grown child's whereabouts. Mamie
Toll (Lisa Kudrow) is an abortion clinic counselor with a massage therapist
lover, Javier (Bobby Cannavale), and a secret: when she was younger, she
and her gay stepbrother, Charley Peppitone (an excellent Steve Coogan),
had a child she gave up for adoption. One day, Nicky Kunitz (Jesse Bradford),
a sleazy filmmaker, shows up and plans to blackmail her with information
on her child's whereabouts so that he can film the reunion and use it
to get into the AFI. Charley now runs his father's restaurant with his
lover, Gil (David Sutcliffe), and suspects that their lesbian friends,
Pam (Laura Dern) and Diane (Sarah Clarke), lied about using Gil's sperm
to create a child so that they wouldn't have to share him with them. Jude
(Maggie Gyllenhaal) has been kicked out of her cousin's house and is now
living with the latent Otis (Jason Ritter), who lives with his widower
father, Frank McKee (Tom Arnold), who has become infatuated with Jude.
What Jude didn't count on was actually falling in love with Frank. In
the end, will anyone have a happy ending - you bet they do and if you
watch this film so will you! Five Gay Stars Buy
Happy Endings from Amazon for under 5 pounds and support our website
Parallel Sons
Set
in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, this artful gay drama centres
on the developing relationship between two very different people: Seth
(Gabriel Mann), a bored 20-year-old white man with a drinking problem
and an obsession to black culture (hence his blond dreadlocks) and Knowledge,
an African-American prison escapee simply looking for freedom. Seth, who
longs to leave his backwoods existence and study art in New York City
spends his time listening to rap and hip-hop and reading, and interestingly,
he's never met a black person. When Knowledge (Lawrence Mason) suddenly
staggers into his world, dripping blood from a bullet wound and wielding
a gun, Seth is unfazed. The young man sequesters him to a cabin in the
woods to help nurse him back to health. The two have an immediate culture
clash, but eventually form a relationship that wends its way through mutual
curiosity, awkward desire and passionate love. Buy
Parallel Sons from Amazon and support our website
Nina's Heavenly Delights
Nina,
a young lesbian woman, leaves home under a cloud. When her father dies
she returns to the family owned Indian restaurant. Her return brings many
surprises - discovering her father's gambling debts, a confrontation with
a jilted ex-fiancée, and meeting, Lisa, a charismatic young woman
who now owns half the restaurant. Amid an identity crisis and after having
a row with her father, Indo-Scotswoman Nina leaves home. Peace and tranquillity
is short-lived when she receives news that her father has died and that
she must return home to run the family curry house. With the Best Of The
West curry competition heating up and a romance with her father's former
business partner brewing, Nina must pull out all the stops if she is to
win both of the prizes she covets. A heart-warming comedy with a spicy
flavour. Great performances from Shelly Conn (Nina) and Laura Fraser (Lisa).
Would recommend it highly. Buy
Nina's Heavenly Delights from Amazon and support our website
Garçon Stupide(Stupid Boy)
A gorgeous
young gay man wends his way through a series of casual sexual encounters
with little thought until he meets an older man who opens his heart and
mind to love. Loic, a young gay man in Switzerland, spends his days working
in a mind-numbing chocolate factory, and his nights with anonymous tricks
and paying johns. He has no interest in a relationship and regards the
men who rotate in his bedroom with little interest. The only emotional
attachment Loic has is with his very close friend/roommate Marie. She
listens to his tales of sexual conquests, and tries to block her feelings
towards her roommate. Loic realizes that his life is empty and he muses
on a career in photography, dabbles in art history and he even scans the
dictionary looking for a way not to be just a "stupid boy."
All that changes when he meets Lionel, an older man who is actually interested
in what is going on in Loic's life. The young man is intrigued by the
possibility that someone is interested in more than just having sex with
him, and his heart opens to the new man in his life. This captivating
portrait of a young man facing adulthood is director Lionel Baier's first
film; we're eagerly awaiting his next! Buy
Gargon Stupide from Amazon and support our website
Another
Gay Movie
Candy-colored, hilariously raunchy and outrageously un-PC sex comedy about four high school graduates’ mission to lose their anal virginity, any way they can is coming to home video! Let's meet the targets of affection: You have studly jock Jarod (Jonathan Chase), who thinks he’s "top" but we all know better; nerdy Griff (Mitch Morris), who secretly harbors a crush on Jarod while obsessing about his butt or lack thereof; Nico (Jonah Blechman), the flamboyant cinema geek who is aiming to find a “Daddy” to break him in and, finally, the seemingly innocent Andy, who finds that a quiche may become his best friend (American Pie, anyone?). Guided by their “chick magnet” lesbian gal pal Muffler, they're bent on doing the “Big A” by the end of the summer. And will try anyone and, in some cases, anything to lose it.
Todd Stephens (writer/producer of Edge of Seventeen, writer/director/producer of Gypsy '83) breaks new ground in queer cinema by taking the straight teen comedy and reinventing it as a lavender extravaganza that features a who’s who of gay celebrities like Lypsinka (doing her best Mommie Dearest); Graham Norton as Mr. Puckov, their prodigiously endowed, anything-goes exchange teacher; Scott Thompson as Andy’s uncomfortably accepting father with a secret of his own; Darryl Stephens (“Noah’s Arc”) as a sexed up aerobics instructor and Matthew Rush, who “rises” to the occasion as a date gone bad. As if that isn’t enough, even a cameo from Richard Hatch (“Survivor”) literally shows he has balls. Mix in assorted garden vegetables, a butt plug about the size of a Hummer, furry gerbils prone to roam, penis pumps from hell, six-inch nipples, long-tongued lesbians and a few dozen enemas and you have a film that will definitely give the Right Wing coronaries en masse, and why not? With 100 jokes a minute and a delicious looking cast, Another Gay Movie is a 100% gay, in-your-face spoof that will have you giggling with glee and gasping from the uncensored outrageousness. Buy Another Gay Movie from Amazon and support our website
HellBent
HellBent, the directorial debut of Texas-born art director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts, makes the rather unique claim of being the world's very first "gay slasher flick". It's also a pretty well-crafted and surprisingly intelligent little psycho-thriller, and one that manages to surpass its own gimmicky description while giving the adventurous genre fans something interesting to chew on - the hot guys also help! The plot is certainly nothing revolutionary: A group of fun-loving friends plans to spend one wild Halloween together -- despite that fact that a local lunatic has been slashing gay guys to ribbons while they make out in parked cars. That's pretty much it, plot-wise, but hey; it's not like Friday the 13th is a masterpiece of brilliant narrative structure, so off we go to the Halloween slash-fest. Those expecting some sort of pedestal standing tract on the equality of homosexuals will be pleased to note that HellBent does not preach or make speeches. It's just a nasty little hack-'em-up in which the victims simply happen to be horny gay guys instead of horny football jocks or busty cheerleader chicks. The actors are not only very hunky but they can also act, the kills are enjoyably and gruesomely nasty, and the subtext is clear and obvious enough as to avoid a feeling or button-pushing or outright pretense. It's not deep and it's not unique, but HellBent approaches an oft abused sub-genre with just enough originality and creativity to warrant praise. Buy Hellbent from Amazon and support our website
200 American
Richard LeMay's directorial debut is a quirky American indie, with subtle acting and unexpected plot twists that dispel cliches about its subject matter. Conrad is a successful CEO at an ad agency whose lover has left him due to his overwhelming tendency to be a control freak. Though an attractive man, Conrad opts to hire a prostitute for sex rather than risk emotional involvement, but when Ian arrives at his door he is unable to understand why such a nice boy chooses to sell himself for a living. Consequently, Conrad offers the hot Aussie hustler a job at his agency in exchange for twice-weekly sexual favours. The complications that ensue for both men attempting to navigate the sticky territory of money, sex, and love, are both amusing and highly moving. Buy 200 American from Amazon and support our website
Adam
& Steve
Having shared quite possibly the most excruciatingly embarrassing night together in cinematic history at the back end of the 1980s, Adam (Craig Chester) and Steve (Malcolm Gets) part company and don't look back. Fifteen years later the pair meet again and fall in love, not recognising each other from their earlier encounter. After a year together overcoming their neuroses--of which there are plenty thanks to that fateful night--the penny finally drops and it is too much for Steve, who calls the whole thing off. Adam is left heartbroken and it is up to their two friends, the formerly obese stand-up comedienne, Rhonda (Parker Posey) and stoner serial-seducer Michael (Chris Kattan) to try and patch things up. Can the pair learn to get past their embarrassment? Will Adam's family curse finally break? And will Rhonda realise she is no longer fat and that she needs some new material? Buy Adam & Steve from Amazon and support our website.
Breakfast On Pluto
A great Irish film staring Cillian Murphy as Patrick "Kitten" Braden who leaves behind his small-town life in Ireland for London, where he's reborn as a transvestite cabaret singer in the 1960s and 70s. Nominated for Golden Globe the film reunites writer Patrick McCabe with Neil Jordan who delivers another entertaining spectacle of a motion picture. Only £6.97 and eligible for Free UK delivery. Buy Breakfast On Pluto from Amazon and support our website.
Brokeback Mountain
Based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning
author E. Annie Proulx, 'Brokeback Mountain' is the tragic and moving story
of two cowboys who unexpectedly fall in love while working together one
summer in 1963. When the film begins, rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal)
and ranch-hand Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) are strangers meeting for the
first time. As the more outgoing one, it is Jack who must initiate a friendship
with Ennis, a man so tight-lipped and self-consciously macho he refuses
all facial expression. From this strained beginning, Jack and Ennis gradually
begin to bond on cold lonely nights over a fire in the mountains of Signal,
Wyoming. One particularly chilly evening, Jack invites Ennis into his tent,
where a sudden awkward embrace sends their relationship in a new direction.
Though each man stubbornly defends his heterosexuality, the spark between
them cannot help but grow, with that initial summer on Brokeback Mountain
becoming their reference point for happiness during the rest of their lives.
Spanning 20 years, the film moves at an impressively slow pace that really
captures the detailed and unhurried style of Proulx's story. Seeing each
other a few times a year at best, Ennis and Jack spend the rest of their
time halfheartedly living up to society's expectations by marrying and having
kids. When the lovers do meet, there is a sense of love so palpable and
frustrating it often manifests itself in physical violence. Gyllenhaal shines
as the film's hopeful light, and Ledger gives a powerful performance as
the emotionally blocked Ennis. Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee captures
the natural beauty of Wyoming and Texas with camerawork that, while beautiful,
never feels imposing. Gustavo Santaolalla's simple yet haunting score helps
to complete a beautiful portrait of regret and wasted chances. Only £5.97
and eligible for Free UK delivery. Buy Brokeback Mountain from Amazon and support our website.
Eating
Out
Locked Up
Filmed entirely in an abandoned German jail, 'Locked
Up' boldly confronts romance and sex within the prison system. Busted
for credit card fraud, Dennis gets sent to a facility where the name of
the game is either to give in to the drug dealers or run the risk of getting
raped. From his cell window, he spots a fellow prisoner and immediately
falls in love with him. Though their first encounters are tentative, a
passionate romance develops as prison life unfolds. 'Locked Up' reveals
bizarre characters (a gay guard who enjoy watching the lovers in their
private moments) and painful prison bureaucracy that shows how inmates
negotiate with prison guards their time together. Locked Up features an
absolute bevy of buff, angry, and vulnerable Nordic young men with lots
of full frontal nudity. Only £13.99 and eligible for Free UK delivery.Buy
Locked Up from Amazon and support our website. 
The Trip
The Trip tells the story of Alan, an aspiring conservative journalist, and Tommy, a free spirited gay rights advocate. They meet as teenagers in 1973, embarking on a relationship that leads into the 80s. Along the way, their opposing careers and an ongoing national debate about homosexuality ensures that their love for one another must endure a series of often comical series obstacles revolving around both family and current events. At times hilariously funny and others, painfully heartbreaking, The Trip is a true balance of hilarity and tragedy that will move anyone. Only £6.97 and eligible for Free UK delivery. Buy The Trip from Amazon and support our website.Grande Ecole (Famous School)
Paul and Agnes have been going out for quite a while and Agnes is shocked to learn that he'd rather live with two roommates on campus than move in with her. As soon as he meets one of his roommates, Louis-Anault, Paul's behavior changes - he is attracted to Louis without realizing so himself. Agnes, on the other hand, gets quite jealous and offers a bet: Whoever gets to have Louis-Anault first, wins... If she does, Paul will no longer explore his homosexual desires, if he does - she'll walk away. Meanwhile, Paul meets Mecir, a young Arabic worker, who shows him there's more to life than elite colleges. Based on a stage play by Jean-Marie Besset and directed by Robert Salis, this French film has enough male nudity to keep your interest. Buy Grande Ecole from Amazon
COWBOYS & ANGELS
A
coming-of-age story in which a hapless young Irishman discovers his inner
hipness thanks to the tutelage of his stylish gay roommate. It is writer-director
David Gleeson’s debut feature.The story centres on Shane, an awkward
20-year-old who wants to be an artist but is stuck in a dead-end civil service
job. His life changes dramatically upon moving into a new apartment in Limerick
City, where his roommate, Vincent, a gay fashion student, immediately attempts
a “Queer Eye”- style makeover. Although Shane is reluctant,
he soon finds motivation in the form of Vincent’s beautiful friend
Gemma, a restaurant worker. Less felicitous an influence on the financially
deprived Shane is Keith, a neighbour who enlists him in an ill-advised drug-courier
run to Dublin. The film boasts many charms thanks to a witty screenplay
that never takes itself too seriously and the endearing performances by
its young leads. Legge manages to make Shane appealing as well as geeky,
Leech thankfully doesn’t overdo his character’s archness, and
Shiels is alluring as the love interest. On DVD at Xtravision or Buy
Cowboys & Angels from Amazon ALEXANDER
Oliver Stone's film is the first to recognize Alexander's
male-to-male love and sex, the Richard Burton 1956 version never even hinted
at it. The love between Alexander (Colin Farrell) and two boyhood friends,
Hephaestion (Jared Leto) and Bagoas (Francisco Bosch) is an integral part
of the film. The love scene, however, is left up to our imaginations, and
the nude shot of Farrell is all to brief. Nevertheless, it is there. "I
have no problem showing my cock," Farrell told 365Gay.com. "I worked out
a lot before and during Alexander. My ass was the most toned part of my
body, I think." Alexander's sex life was only a small part of the life of
this superhero. Although he was the ultimate warrior, Alexander had the
soul of an explorer - in his 22,000-mile march, he sought not to destroy,
but to re-invent each society in the mould of his own vision for a new world.
Stone's version of Alexander is by its very nature fictionalized. So few
of the facts surrounding Alexander's brief 32 year old life remain. Even
his earliest biographers could only take their best guess at the truth.
"Stone doesn't see the story of Alexander as belonging solely to the ancient
world. He had a lot of the demons that modern people have. Stone weaves
an exciting tale, even though we know the ending before we set foot in the
cinema. The battle scenes put Cecil B. DeMille to shame. Sweeping wide shots
with quick cuts to close-ups of the brutality of war. Alexander is a must
see and available on DVD. Buy
Alexander from Amazon 9 DEAD GAY GUYS
9 Dead Gay Guys is a British film by first-time Belfast born writer-director
Ky Lab Mo. It follows the tale of Irish boy Kenny (the handsome Glenn Mulhern),
who has traveled to London to hook up with his friend, Byron (the sharp-featured
and hot-bodied Brendan Mackey). It turns out that Brendan's been unable
to make much of himself, so he earns money by performing oral sex on old
gay men he meets in a local bar. Kenny, naturally, is a more than a little
nonplussed by Brendan's "day job". However, its not long before Kenny joins
Byron in the gay for pay activities, but Kenny enjoy is job a bit too much?
Campy and raucous to the hilt, it's a John Waters movie on steroids. The
fab fun film that manages to insult almost everybody is out on DVD now.
Buy
9 Dead Gay Guys at Amazon and support Gay Belfast.
TOUCH OF PINK
A comic clash of cultures, values, and sexuality,
Ian Iqbal Rashid's Touch of Pink cleverly borrows from several cinematic
traditions to concoct this romantic romp. Alim is an Ismaili Canadian
who lives in London, thousands of miles from his family, for one very
good reason--he has a boyfriend. His ideal gay life begins to unravel
when his mother shows up to find him a proper Muslim girlfriend and convince
him to return to Canada for his cousin's extravagant wedding. As orchestrated
by Rashid, this classic cast of characters perform marvellously, creating
opposing worlds that begin to collide--the judgmental mother, crazy relatives,
a bevy of trendy Londoners, and especially Jimi Mistry as the confused
Alim. But the most ingenious device is the Topper-esque ghost of Cary
Grant who appears in Alim's fantasy world. Kyle MacLachlan does a hilarious
star turn as Grant instructs Alim on the finer points of living in the
closet. Rashid's love of cinema is obvious in every frame. He interweaves
nostalgia with modern subject matter. Pace and comic timing are perfect
as Alim is coaxed to a place where he must finally decide his own destiny.
Touch of Pink begins like a sugar-dipped confection, but it leaves much
stronger medicine in its wake. The Sundance Film Festival hit is
available to buy or rent from amazon. 
Les
Dieux du Stade
Les Dieux du Stade need little introduction to Gay
Belfast visitors. This overtly homo-erotic 'Making Of' documentary charts
the kings of French rugby as they prepare and pose for Francois Rousseau's
camera. Directed by the photographer, this 100-minute long slice of 'sanctioned
voyeurism' features forty-six gorgeous, sinewy naked men bearing their wares
for Rousseau's exceedingly complimentary lens Whilst rugby balls and other
props are strategically-placed over the players during poses, many fall
away during the shoot... Anyone who appreciates the male physique will want
this in their permanent collection. Buy Les Dieux du Stade 2006 from Amazon
and support Gay Belfast The
Making Of The 2006 Calendar from Amazon.Krampack
Cesc Gay's second feature, in which two teenagers explore sex, love and jealousy on the Catalan coast, washes up in the UK just as his third (En la ciudad - In the City) is about to be released in Spain. Krampack is as surprisingly assured as its young leads (the characters are 16, the actors were just 20). While Fernando Ramallo had already starred in David Trueba's La buena vida, Jordi Vilches' only experience had been in a circus (he does some impressive back flips on the beach). Toothy and beaky, Vilches' Nico desires only to lose his virginity to a local girl.
Fair-haired and introspective, Ramallo's Dani shifts
slowly from being his friend's eager bedmate to a would-be romantic lover,
silently wondering all the time at the changes he is experiencing. Both
boys convey convincing character arcs in which new experiences bring losses
as well as gains. Deceptively episodic and smartly paced, the script (by
the director and Tomas Aragay) is punctuated by enigmatic intertitles (such
as "Not so fast: it hurts") that help move the story forward. The mysterious
Spanish title (retainedin the UK) is a private word for mutual masturbation.
But while Krdmpack is more graphic than any Hollywood equivalent might be,
the sexual action remains just out of shot or under a sheet. The action
is more psychological than physical, subtly communicated by wounded looks
or stuttered words. The growing rift between the boys is shown by Gay in
a simple shot: both lie on the beach, but with heads turned away from each
other. Earlier the camera suggests their closeness by craning up from the
ground or pulling back from their room to show the boys framed by a single
illuminated window. Opening out the action from an original play that was
set in a single location, Gay offers us the surprisingly California-like
coast south of Barcelona and the white modernist house of Dani's rich, absent
parents, complete with Hockney-blue pool.This is a sunny film, in the best sense of the word. Events that might have led to disaster are here brushed off without a care: nervous Dani drugs one girl's sangria with Valium before attempting sex with her (she comes to no harm); and he tells another that it is not him but Nico who is queer (she laughs it off as a joke). The boys smoke dope, ride motorbikes and even go hunting with shotguns without adverse effects. We could hardly be further from the glum French seaside of Catherine Breillat's teen sex drama A ma soeur! or the winsome pathos ofAndre Techine's gay youth romance Les Roseaux sauvages. Adolescent ignorance is presented without embarrassment. Even a trip to the supermarket to buy condoms does not give rise to American Pie-style indignities: Dani is casually counselled on which brand to buy by an older gay friend (he goes for the strawberry flavour nonetheless).
While Historias del Kronen (1995), one of the very few earlier Spanish youth movies with a homoerotic twist, tipped over into sensationalism and tragedy, Krampack is as generous with its young heroes as it is with its audience. The well-structured script evolves into parallel plotlines (Dani has dinner with the older friend; Nico has his way with a girl) which are both resolved in unexpected ways. Free from stereotype and full of insight, Krampack is a uniquely enjoyable confection that took far too long to reach the UK. But the biggest surprise is that this youthful romance, so natural and affecting at showing gay love, should make Spanish adult dramas on the same theme appear so coarse by comparison. REVIEW BY:Sight and Sound - Paul Julian Smith. Buy Krampack [2000] from Amazon.
Food of Love
Young Paul
(Kevin Bishop) is a talented music student with dreams of becoming a concert
pianist. His first experience on the stage of a concert hall is in San
Francisco as a page turner for the British celebrity pianist Richard Kennington
(Paul Rhys), of whom Paul is an ardent fan. Paul's determination is only
matched by his good looks, a fact that does not go un-noticed by Kennington
or his agent Joseph Mansourian (Alan Corduner). After a messy break-up
with her husband, Paul's mother Pamela (Juliet Stevenson) whisks him off
to Barcelona for an overdue holiday. They run into Kennington who is performing
in the city, Paul allows himself to be seduced by the older man and a
passionate affair ensues, Pamela is blissfully unaware of this as she
considers the possibility that the charming single Englishman may just
be interested in her. Kennington has an international concert schedule
to follow and conveniently ends the affair leaving Paul devastated. Upon
returning to America Paul continues his studies in New York, but soon
comes to realise that he doesn't have enough talent to pursue a professional
career, but fortunately the music industry is full of older gentlemen
who are always keen to 'help' a handsome young man. Paul returns to San
Francisco for the Christmas holidays and Pamela soon becomes aware that
much more is going on in her sons life than she had previously realised.
Convinced that something is still going on between Paul and Kennington,
Pamela flies to New York to confront them. Her unexpected intrusion into
Paul's private lifestyle uncovers much more than she and her son could
have possibly imagined. Based on "The Page Turner" by David Leavitt. Buy
Food
Of Love [2003] from Amazon.
Visit the Cinema in Belfast: Check out the Queen's Film Theatre & Movie House
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