Tag: gay

About Us But Not About Us

Posted on by Jeremy Clarke

[dropca[]A[/dropcap]n older man meets a younger man in a restaurant. Both are gay. The older man, Eric (Romnick Sarmenta), has recently lost his longtime partner Marcus (who we never see… well, not exactly) while the younger man Lance (Elijah Canlas) knew Marcus as his writing tutor, both elder men working as professors at the English language faculty of the university at which Lance is a student.

As the narrative plays out in real time, it moves through a number of difficult areas. Lance was having problems at home; specifically, being beaten by his stepfather, so Eric intervened by letting Lance stay at his place, bringing upon the pair rumours that they were lovers (although everything in the restaurant conversation suggests those rumours to be unfounded). It later transpires that Lance has written his first novel. When Lance presents the manuscript to Eric, Eric accuses Lance of plagiarism after reading the first few pages when Lance walks offscreen for a minute or two to take a toilet break.

Director Lana deploys a variety of theatrical and cinematic tricks in order to make the piece work. He has thought a lot about where to place the camera, and what each specific shot contributes to the whole. He deploys some bravura cinematic tricks. A clever combination of blocking, camera positioning and Lance cleaning his spectacles lenses allows Lance to temporarily transform into Marcus; a similar setup allows Eric talking to Lance to transform into Marcus talking to Lance, all acheived without lap dissolves, traditional flashback techniques, different actors or prosthetics makeup.

Whereas Hitchcock undertook Rope (1948) as a kind of stunt, which still delivered as a thriller, About Us But Not About Us doesn’t have any such genre trappings. It’s fundamentally a film about two people talking over a meal in a restaurant, something Hitch would have decried as “photographs of people talking”. To be fair, it does contain some bravura cinematic tricks, but somehow those look like trickery rather than enhancing the tale of the characters and making the audience feel for their plight. I, for one, didn’t really care about what the characters were going through. Unlike Rope, the film lacks Hitch’s understanding of the psychology of audiences.

Although no masks are worn, the pair are only allowed a 90 minutes because of the restaurant’s post-COVID policies and characters make references to the pandemic throughout. That’s not the subject of the film per se, but it’s good that it at least acknowledges the pandemic in passing when so many movies seem to want to pretend it never happened, that it’s business as usual. Whatever my other opinions of the film, this, at least, is something in its favour.

About Us But Not About Us premieres in the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

No Hard Feelings (Futur Drei)

Posted on by Redmond Bacon

Germany has a curious relationship with its non-white residents. You can be third or fourth-generation in the country, and still be referred to as an Ausländer (foreigner). Yet, connecting with your supposed homeland can be a perilous task if you have grown up in Germany your whole life. No Hard Feelings, centring around the experiences of a gay Iranian-German in a small town near Hanover, deftly explores this theme, providing a fresh, intersectional take on the coming-of-age story.

Parvis (Benny Radjaipour) is an aimless young man, who begins in the film in a gay club, stealing a bottle of champagne and hooking up with whoever will have him. His parents, Iranian exiles who run a supermarket, are disappointed in him, not necessarily because he’s homosexual, but because he has no real purpose in life. This changes when he’s suddenly forced to work in a refugee centre.

The job is surprisingly tough. When he is tasked with translating the Farsi of a woman scheduled for deportation, he can barely understand her regional accent. But this experience gives him an eye-opening insight into the plight of his fellow ausländer, who may not have German citizenship but share the discrimination he feels. These feelings come to the fore when he falls for the Iranian refugee Amon (Benny Radjaipour) and makes friends with his sister Banafshe (Banafshe Hourmazdi).

No Hard Feelings

No Hard Feelings deserves credit for the way it weaves systematic racism within a queer coming-of-age tale. For example, after a refreshingly graphic hook-up with an older white German man, he is immediately singled out by his race — the other man saying that he normally doesn’t go for hairy südlander (a term that usually refers to anyone dark from Balkans, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East), but that Parvis shouldn’t worry, as he “isn’t hairy”. The racist insult rolls off the tongue in such a way that the speaker has no idea that he’s being offensive, showing how embedded and unquestioned such views can be within German culture. Yet, among the refugees, also homophobia runs unchecked within the Arab/Iranian community, director Faraz Shariat skilfully aiming shots at both side of the cultural divide.

Utilising an Instagram friendly aesthetic, with a square frame and a popcorn-pastel colour palette, the style of the movie reflects the expressive nature of its characters. Stagier moments, scored to electronic music, contrast against the hand-held naturalism of dialogue or sex driven-scenes, showing both the world as these young people imagine it (or might stage it on their phone) and the way it really is. Later scenes of intimacy are shot with much more focus on emotion, later giving one of the best contrasts between merely shagging and actually making love.

While the scenes don’t flow together to create maximum effect, with random inserts or fantasy-esque sequences often undercutting the impact of the story, the style of No Hard Feelings asserts the strong sensibility of debut writer-director Shariat.

No Hard Feelings is out on Digital on Monday, December 7th.

The top picks to succeed Daniel Craig as the next James Bond

Posted on by victorfraga

British actor Daniel Craig [pictured above] will wear the famous tuxedo one final time in No Time To Die (Cary Joji Fukunaga) next year before making way for the next in line. So it’s now time to find his successor!

Unsurprisingly, British actors dominate the field to be cast as the next 007. London-born James Norton is most people’s favourite to take the role, though Scotsman Richard Madden is also heavily fancied. Irish-German Michael Fassbender and British-Malaysian Henry Golding are also believed to be interested, while Irishmen Cillian Murphy and Aidan Turner are thought to be in contention.

Stars like Gillian Anderson [pictured above] have been linked with being cast as the first-ever female Bond, and insiders suggest there’ll be a prominent female role in the new story. Other potential female candidates include Emily Blunt, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Emilia Clarke, Jodie Comer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Vicky McClure and Helen Mirren.

Recent YouGov data suggests that 51% of Bond’s British compatriots are ready to accept a female James Bond, and that appears to be a less controversial option than Bond being portrayed as from somewhere other than the UK; just 35% say they’d accept a non-British persona for 007.

The data also reveals that 29% of Brits would find it unacceptable for Bond to be black, while a further 13% admit to being unsure. Meanwhile, a gay Bond would be unacceptable to 40% of the UK population, and a further 13% are unsure, leaving just 47% who say they’d accept it. So, perhaps it’ll be some time before the franchise breaks with tradition when casting for their lead role.

Of course, looking good in a tuxedo is a must-have for the part, alongside knowing your way around a baccarat table. Luckily for the candidates, sites such as BonusFinder provide a full list of real money casinos for our would-be Bonds to explore while researching the role, including a healthy dose of bonuses to help you improve at your preferred casino games.

Here are our top five picks to be cast as the next James Bond:

  1. James Norton – The 34-year-old is best known for his work in British TV, where he has starred in dramas including Happy Valley and McMafia. He also played the title role in 2019’s Mr Jones and will feature in horror-thriller Things Heard and Seen next year.
  2. Richard Madden – Madden earned critical acclaim for his performance in the British TV thriller Bodyguard, collecting a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He recently played a lead role in war epic 1917 and is presently filming for Marvel’s upcoming picture, The Eternals.
  3. Tom Hiddleston – Perhaps best known to American audiences for his recent appearances in Avengers pictures Infinity War and Endgame, Hiddleston is a relative veteran of the big screen. He has also recently captured attention as Loki in the Thor franchise.
  4. Michael Fassbender – Born in Germany, Fassbender is remembered for his portrayal of Magneto in the X-Men series, after having appeared in 300 at the start of his bigscreen run. He received critical acclaim for his part as Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave.
  5. Idris Elba – The veteran of our shortlist [pictured above], Elba’s major picture debut came before the turn of the century and enjoyed critical breakthrough in 2010 for his role as Luther in the TV series of the same name.

We’re still in the dark for now, and we’re likely to remain so until after the release of Bond 25 in April 2020. While we wait, we can turn our excitement towards that new film and enjoy Craig’s last outing as 007.

Benjamin

Posted on by victorfraga

The side effect of watching too many films is that you develop a thick skin and become desensitised to the trivial joys of cinema. That’s a much bigger problem if you are a film critic. Thankfully, there are simple and effective gems like Benjamin that catch you off-guard, enabling you to reclaim these little pleasures. Simon Amstel’s charming new feature will appeal to LGBT romcom fans and the less romantic alike.

The titular protagonist (Colin Morgan) struggles with the post-production of his second feature when he lays eyes on a French heartthrob (Phénix Brossard) at a party. Both hit it off quite quickly and romance blooms. Benjamin finds out that the ultimate obstacle in his quest for love might be himself. The people around him, including his freewheeling publicist Bille (Jessica Reine), his ambitious screen partner Harry (Jack Rowan) and the struggling comedian bestie Stephen (Joel Fry) demonstrate that straight people too are grappling with such issues.

Benjamin is quite straightforward. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel. The plot consists of boy 1 meets boy 2, and boy 1 must sort his own personal mess before deep-diving into the romance. The characters are complex and fully fledged. The film offers a relatable version of London, which is also a love letter to the British capital per se.

In fact, Benjamin feels so real that it’s almost palpable. Anyone in the creative industry knows many Benjamins, Billies and Harries. Their insecurities and their awkwardness will ring a lot of bells. There is abundant cringe humour. So much that at times it feels almost like a tragedy.

Despite the gay love story at its centre, Amstell wants to talk to people of all sexualities about about the general apathy of contemporary relationships. The script was penned by the director himself, and it manages to reach the entire human spectrum in a seemingly effortless fashion and a confident display of strength.

The relatability of Benjamin makes it rise above other romcoms. In its quirks and off-beat punchlines, it reminds us as that, despite the confusion and the pain, it’s ok to laugh and at our perpetual search for love and our failures along the way. That’s complicity. That’s a comforting feeling. At the end of the day, that’s what romcoms are for.

Benjamin is out in cinemas across the UK on Friday, March 15th. On VoD Monday, May 13th.

1985

Posted on by Jeremy Clarke

Here’s a Christmas movie with a difference. It’s December 1985 and young New York ad agency man Adrian (Cory Michael Smith) flies home to Texas to see his family for the first time in several years. Tensions are immediately apparent between go-getter son and his blue-collar worker father Dale (Michael Chiklis) from the moment the latter picks him up from the airport. Once Adrian gets to the house, his devoted mother Eileen (Virginia Madsen) can’t stop fussing over him while his younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford), in his early teens, is distant having never forgiven Adrian for leaving.

Each of the family members presents Adrian with a different challenge. Dad is horrified at his Christmas present of an expensive leather jacket while Adrian is slightly shocked to receive a brand new Bible. Mom encourages him to call up Carly (Jamie Chung), a girl with whom Adrian grew up who also left Texas and is likewise home for the holidays and who he hasn’t seen for years. Andrew quit the school football team for its drama society, which is giving him issues with the father who understands contact sports but doesn’t really get the arts.

Underneath all of this is the presence of the local conservative Christian church, briefly heard as dad sits listening to sermons on a Christian radio station and seen as a worship service which the family attend in Sunday best where Adrian struggles to sing the words of hymns which make him uneasy. Elsewhere, Adrian has an embarrassing encounter with former high school jock turned supermarket manager Mark (Ryan Piers Williams) who has become a Christian and apologises for his past treatment of Adrian, although the two clearly have nothing in common.

Adrian learns from Andrew that his younger brother’s Madonna music cassettes and Bryan Adams poster have been taken off him because the local pastor deems them ungodly. When Andrew discovers that his brother saw Madonna on tour, he suddenly has a new-found respect for him. As a covert Christmas present, Adrian gives him a $100 voucher for the local Sound Warehouse to replenish his audio cassette collection, admonishing Andrew to keep his purchases hidden.

Contacting Carly, Adrian is invited to see her do an impressive improv stand-up gig where she expresses “all the shit you daredn’t say in real life”. Following some time at a dance club, they go back to hers which ends badly when she comes on strong to him but he isn’t really interested. As he tells her, “I’ve had a shitty year.”

Shot in aesthetically pleasing black and white by Ten’s cameraman and co-screenwriter Hutch, this boasts a strong script with deftly sketched characters and is beautifully cast and acted to boot. It completely understands its chosen time period of the mid-eighties, a time of LP records and portable music cassette players, before mobile phones and the internet existed. The film grasps very profound topics: the pain of the gay community being decimated by the AIDS virus in urban locations like New York and the deficiencies of Bible Belt Protestant fundamentalism in its inability to comfort those feeling that pain. And it grasps them without judgement of one side or another.

This is full of genuinely touching moments. Via an overheard conversation in another room, Adrian hears his mother tell his father he really ought to wear that leather jacket to work. Carly’s stand-up routine details her heartfelt experiences of racism as a Korean-American. And in a frank conversation with his mother, Adrian learns that she… well, you’ll have to see the film to find out.

Most people have experienced the joys and heartaches of spending time with their families at Christmas. While 1985 is set in the Christmas of that year, and some of its issues are specific to that date and time, there’s also much here that relates to wider human issues of family, how children deal with parents and siblings, how parents deal with children and how, sometimes, with the best intentions, that can all go horribly wrong. And can then sometimes, somehow, tentatively, in small steps, be at least partly put right.

A Christmas treat.

1985 is out in the UK on Thursday, December 20th, and then on VoD on Monday, December 24th. Watch the film trailer below:

Ideal Home

Posted on by victorfraga

The tale of accidental “parenthood” (or, more broadly speaking, of the awkward and unexpected bonding of a child and an adult) is no big novelty. They includes classics such as Central Station (Walter Salles, 1997), Son of Saul (Laszlo Nemes, 2015) and also the more mainstream About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz). Ideal Home is a welcome addition to the list, providing a very gay and Camp touch to the subgenre.

Erasmus (Steve Coogan) and his partner Paul (a heavily bearded and mega cuddly version of Paul Rudd) lead a mostly pedestrian life, and bickering seems to be their biggest source of entertainment. Erasmus is an accomplished and respected TV boss, while Paul is some sort of younger househusband. One day, the 10-year-old grandson that Erasmus never knew he had shows up for dinner, and he has nowhere to go. That’s because his father, Erasmus’s estranged son, has been arrested on domestic violence charges. The two men are forced to look after the child (Jack Gore), who refuses to reveal his own name.

Both the dramatic and the comedic elements of the movie revolve around Erasmus and Paul trying to reconcile their mega-gay, NSFW lifestyle with bringing up an innocent child. They must quickly adapt. They have to hide their aptly-named porn Buttpluggerz and Bareback Mountain, the cocaine and the anxiety meds from both the child and the social workers who visit them occasionally in order to vouch for the minor’s safety. One day, Bill (a name the unnamed child picks for himself roughly halfway through the movie) wants a drink from the fridge while Erasmus and Paul engage in very heated and loud intercourse.

The acerbic and bitchy jokes provide the final touch to the comedy. The poster reads “These dads suck”, hinting at the sexual nature of the film’s humour. Erasmus and Paul mistake a banner that reads “felting” for “felching” upon a visit to Bill’s school. Pearls of wisdom include “everything is temporary, except herpes” and “a baby goat won’t visit you when you are old” (while pondering about the differences between parenthood and adopting a pet).

Paul is the first one to bond with the child. That’s because Erasmus is mostly busy at work and he’s left with most parental duties, including driving Bill to school and also picking him up. One day, Bill is nearly run over by a car, triggering a panic attack in Paul. He’s clearly emotionally attached to the child, and he’s also very insecure about his parenting skills.

Ideal Home successfully blends the thorny topics of domestic abuse, mental health issues and drug-taking with fatherhood and infancy, and it also extracts some humour from them. All the ingredients of a conventional romcom are there: the troubled romance, the humour and the upbeat/mawkish soundtrack. (with C+C Misc Factory’s Gonna Make You Sweat playing over and over).

The problem with Ideal Home is that – unlike the jokes – the dramatic element is only partly effective. This is for a number of reasons. Firstly, the chemistry between the two adults and the child actor isn’t entirely convincing. Secondly, some of the topics are not examined in too much depth, such as Paul’s mental health issues. The ending feels a little stale and unexciting. But do stay for the final credits, when images of real homossexual families with children are shown – perhaps the most engrossing part of the film.

This is an extremely personal film, which was in the making for 10 years. It is based on the experiences of the director Andrew Fleming. Like the film protagonist, the helmer is gay and works mostly on television. Far more significantly, he has helped to bring up the child of his partner of 23 years.

Ideal Home is out in cinemas across the UK on Friday, July 6th, and then on VoD the following Monday.

Call it by another name!!!

Posted on by victorfraga

It’s rare for cinema to come quite so close to perfection as Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017).

The Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay earlier this month was well deserved, and the legions of devotees on Twitter to be expected. That Instagram account where lead actors Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer are superimposed over Monet canvases captures the essence of the picture perfectly (pictured above and below), in a bizarre way.

Much like a snatched afternoon trip to the Musée de l’Orangerie, with its impressive exhibition of Monet’s waterlilies spanning the entire length and breadth of the walls, Call Me By Your Name feels like a fleeting glance into something much bigger than oneself. A snapshot of a world more delicate, more fragile, than our own. A world where you’re welcome to come and look, but unfortunately where you can’t stay. The museum is closing, and the reel has run out of film.

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If you are gay, you’ll suffer

It’s is also unique in the way it depicts gay romance, being that it is one of the only noteworthy works I can recall which does not eventually circle around into some sort of unbearable misery. The traditional queer breakdown scene is absent, as is the tearful coming out, the familial rejection, the violent assault, the tragic untimely death.

The overwhelmingly negative story arcs occupied by gay characters in both mainstream and arthouse media have a funny habit of leaving a bad taste in the mouths of young LGBT people. And I’m not talking about homophobic works, about the queer coding of villains, but the films the community reveres and holds up as our own.

Brokeback Mountain’s (Ang Lee, 2005) Jack Twist is murdered by a gang of passing homophobes. Sook-hee and Hideko’s relationship The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016) verges on abusive, founded on a veritable mountain of lies and deceit. The eponymous Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015; pictured below) loses custody of her daughter. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) is a lifelong chronicle of one man’s struggle to come to terms with his identity. The message starts to become clear. You’ll suffer, if you’re queer.

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A rosy existence

While Call Me By Your Name may not neatly tie a bow around Elio and Oscar’s relationship with all the fairy tale charm of a romantic comedy, at no point does their homosexuality cause them undue heartache or suffering.

Neither feels ashamed of their attraction to the other. Their family and friends are accepting of the relationship. There isn’t even any ill will from Elio’s ex-girlfriend Marzia, who gets a rather raw deal from the entire situation. No one is left beaten to a pulp on the pavement. Chalamet’s tearful Visions of Gideon closeup does not play out underneath the yellow light of a hospital ward, as his lover wheezes out his final breath. Elio and Oscar may not ride off into the sunset together, but the extenuating circumstances which tear them apart are not founded in prejudice or violence.

This is what made the film radical. Call Me By Your Name demonstrated that queer love could exist on screen, not to be some parable of noble suffering, but to simply play out for its own sake.

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So, what’s next?

Director Luca Guadagnino told USA Today on the Oscars red carpet that a sequel was in the early stages of production, loosely based around the epilogue of André Aciman’s original novel. He plans to set it five years on – the original film is set in 1983 – and deal directly with the AIDS crisis.

This is where the proverbial fly begins to make its way into the ointment.

I preface what I’m about to say with the following: queer narratives where characters suffer as a result of their queerness remain deeply relevant, and will do as long as the community continues to face undue discrimination and misery. This particularly applies to stories concerning the AIDS crisis. Furthermore, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that Elio and Oliver get an easier ride than other queer characters because they’re two affluent white men, which is worth keeping in the back of the mind when discussing LGBT sorrow in film in this context.

Gay narratives can hardly be expected to exist in an a political vacuum, at least not quite at this stage in history. But to create a sequel to Call Me By Your Name which leaves the rose-tinted world it presently depicts, to hit it with a cold harsh dose of reality, dilutes what was ultimately innovative about it. It’s like spray painting a vital political statement over Monet’s water lilies. There’s a time and a place, and for once it’s not here.

Only having access to queer cinema pockmarked by pain is devastating for children growing up gay, as they come to believe this is all their life can ever be. Subliminally, they are told they carry within them a defect, and someone somewhere will always be conspiring to punish them for it.

I’m sure Guadagnino would create a work of abject beauty for this proposed sequel, if his filmography thus far is anything to go on. I’m sure I’d enjoy it, too. But if this is the direction he plans to take, then I fear it may dilute what made it the original work beautiful. By all means, make a film about the Aids crisis – cast Chalamet and Hammer all over again, for what it’s worth. But make them different characters, make it a different world. Let us keep our happy gays. We have so very few.

We need positive queer narratives. We need stories where boys can fall in love with boys and girls can fall in love with girls without fear that some outside force will make them hurt for it. We need bike rides through the Italian countryside, we need impromptu dances parties set to the Psychedelic Furs, we need that whole saga with the peach. We need friends and families who accept us as we are, we need beauty and art and life, and we need to know that if it all falls through it’s not because we were queer and that meant we weren’t allowed to be happy in the first place.

We need Call Me By Your Name. Unadulterated, and as it is.

The Marriage (Martesa)

Posted on by victorfraga

Set in present-day Prishtina (the capital of Kosovo), The Marriage is the story of an impossible love. Anita (Adriana Matoshi) and Bekim (Alban Ukaj) are adding the final touches to their wedding. Their preparations are almost complete and they will tie the knot in just two weeks. Anita has been living with the trauma of her missing parents during the Kosovo War of 1999, while Bekim is very much an established man in the city. In the course of their wedding-planning, Bekim’s secret ex-lover from the past, Nol (Genc Salihu), returns from France. His return changes course of events and establishes a new connection between characters.

First, Bekim and Nol recreate their love and desire for each other, while Anita embraces the “friendship” between the two men, constructed under heteronormative and traditional beliefs. Nol uses his time in Prishtina to make his way back into Bekim’s life, reassuring him that his love remains as strong as in the past.

Bekim and Nol began their relationship during the Kosovo War, as they took shelter with Bekim’s family. They face oppression on two levels: the Serbian terror against ethnic Albanians, and the widespread homophobia. The film states: if there’s one thing capable of uniting Albanians and Serbians, that’s hate for gay people. Bekim and Nol lie next to each other in a central moment of the film, during the War. Nearly two decades later, they reunite just before Bekim’s wedding, in a passionate lovemaking scene, the first of its kind in the history of Kosovo cinema.

Forbidden love is a source of great pain. And being a gay man in Kosovo is no easy ride. Nol is brutally beaten by a group of men, supposedly after a hook-up, and Bekim refuses to hire out his bar for an LGBT event, in two fine examples of different ways how homophobia manifests itself in the young nation of the Balkans. This is not a filmic shortcoming, but instead a actual reflection of attitudes towards homosexuality in Kosovo.

The movie also highlights the strict gender roles and hegemonic models everyone in Kosovo is subjected to, not just gay men. Bekim (Alban Ukaj) is determined to marry Anita. He’s an oppressed gay man unable to accept his sexuality as an identity, and instead chooses to internalise homophobia. The film neither rises above these phenomena nor offers any real solutions. Veteran Adriana Matoshi delivers an outstanding performance. She conveys the notion of female sacrifice extremely well. Genc Salihu makes a brilliant debut as Nol.

The Marriage is a dirty and thought-provoking movie, directed by a woman. Perhaps it’s not a militant LGBT movie, as many activists would like to see, but indeed it succeeds to raise awareness and stir debate around a diehard taboo. It showed in Kosovo last months to sold-out screening for two weeks. It’s has featured on various film events, and showing at Roze Filmdagen Amsterdam LGBT Film Festival, on March 10th. It premires in the UK as part of the Cambridge Film Festival taking place between October 25th and November 1st.