The fine line between straight boys “being boys” and homoeroticism is on display in Marco Berger’s latest feature, Horseplay (Los agitadores), that leans into the liminal spaces of male sexuality and “manhood”. A group of twenty-something young Argentinian men are vacationing together in a luxury villa. Freed from the constraints of parents and family, the... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: Elephant (Słoń) ★★★★
The autumnal landscape of southern Poland shines in writer-director Kamil Krawczycki’s new feature, Elephant (Słoń), adding fresh layers to the familiar tale of a rural young man discovering his sexuality in a homophobic town. Bartek (Jan Hrynkiewicz) works multiple jobs to support himself and his mother, looking after their farm animals by day and helping... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: Where Butterflies Don’t Fly (Kam motýli nelétají) ★★★
When a bullied gay teen and his discreetly gay teacher are stranded in a complex cave system, they both need to drop their pretenses and learn to survive in order to escape in writer-director Roman Němec's claustrophobic feature debut, Where Butterflies Don’t Fly. Also there are sandwiches, but we’ll get to that later. Daniel (Daniel... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Spoiler Alert ★★★★
Even if you didn't know the full title of the bestselling memoir by entertainment journalist Michael Ausiello that this film is based on—Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies—within the opening moments you'll find out where it's eventually headed. We see a heathy looking, but distraught Michael (Jim Parsons) in a hospital bed lovingly facing an ailing... Continue Reading →
Film Review: In From The Side ★★★
UPDATE: In From The Side screens at Queer Screen’s 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival running in cinemas in Sydney and on demand Australia-wide from February 15th to March 2nd, 2023. Click here for tickets and more information. Affairs can be messy, especially in the small, incestuous world of a South London gay rugby team. Writer-director-producer-cinematographer-editor-composer... Continue Reading →
Meat Rack cute – Film Review: Fire Island ★★★★
Jane Austen was an astute observer of human behaviour. Behaviour that's changed very little in the two hundred years or so since she wrote Pride and Prejudice, the nuances of which can just as readily be found among gay men summering on Fire Island in 2022 as they could in Austen's nineteenth century high society... Continue Reading →
Mother Of Intervention – Film Review: Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life ★★★★
Many years ago, Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann thought it would be a fluffy good time to follow around one of the world’s leading gay adult film stars in service of a sexy, funny documentary. Little did he know at the time that his years of filming his star, Jonathan Agassi, would instead result in something... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Firebird ★★★1/2
Based on the memoir of Sergey Fetisov, Peeter Rebane's achingly romantic Firebird is released in US theaters today. After receiving its world premiere at last year's BFI Flare, the film went on be a queer festival hit, garnering award recognition along the way including honorable mention for Best First Feature at Frameline and snatching wins... Continue Reading →
NewFest 2021 Closing Night Film Review: Flee ★★★★
Jonas Poher Rasmussen's remarkable Flee, which I first saw when it world premiered at Sundance 2021 where it took the festival's World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, closes NewFest's 33rd New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Sunday October 24th at the SVA Theatre at 7pm. As the film opens a caption tells us that... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Moffie ★★★★★
As writer-director Oliver Hermanus' Moffie opens in Apartheid South Africa in 1981, Nicholas (Kai Luke Brümmer) has just turned 16 making him, along with all other white men of his age, eligible for mandatory military service at a time when the country is engaged in a military operation at the border with Soviet-backed Angola in... Continue Reading →