Gay Cinema

If you know anything about me then you should have accepted this post sooner or later. It was just a matter of time before I tried to tackle to bombshell that is gay cinema, or if you want to be really politically correct; LGBT cinema. (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.. blah blah.) Let me start with saying that as gay cinema isn't nearly as mainstream as, y'know, mainstream cinema, it's actually quite hard to obtain the good stuff. Seriously, can you remember the last publicized, widely seen and media-accepted LGBT film? Brokeback Mountain, right? Shocking. I don't claim to be a connoisseur of this particular niche in the market, but here's some I've seen recently.

BOY CULTURE.

We'll start with an actual full feature film. Boy Culture. Where do I start.. Hm, right. Boy Culture follows the almost-biographical journey of a highly successful male escort. Not throughout his whole life, but the film entails a look into a few of his relationships; those being with his two gay roommates and a older, enigmatic client. Of course, there are some twists. One of his roommates is in love with our character - who remains known as 'X' - whereas X is in love with the other. Cue trashy comments, romantic comedy like unbelievable situations, blahblah. Wrong. The film actually manages to create 3-dimensional, believable characters. Although the premise might be a tad hard to believe - 3 gay men in 1 apartment sounds a little bit.. 'eh' - but then again, the USA has a much bigger gay culture. The film manages to stay charming throughout and lacks (most of) the cliches that gay films seem to pick up. This film doesn't become a joke, but a real and engaging film. If you're interested in a romance without the slapstick, try this.

STARCROSSED

I'm sure if you've ever heard of Romeo & Juliet you'll immediately know the meaning behind the term 'star crossed lovers.' If you're not that educated (or thought Shakespeare's a load of shit) then it's a loose term meaning a relationship doomed from the start. This little mini-feature right here hits home. .. The only thing that some people might have trouble with is that this is the story of two brothers who fall completely and infallibly in love. Sexually, romantically, emotionally.. Yeah, you get it I'm sure. This film - only a whopping fifteen minutes long - managed to tackle homosexuality, coming out, incest, abuse at the home and suicide. A pretty big field for a film that, even at it's best, is quite amateurish. The good thing about this film is that it hits hard emotionally, despite the shoddy acting in some parts and the awkward script, it still managed to transcend that and make you grieve for the characters. Some people argue that the film's too short for you to invest in the characters; I disagree. If you can overcome the rather taboo issue it centers around, and the poor acting/script (only in some parts, though, the actors seem very heartfelt about their characters) then this film is, quite simply, beautiful. In it's 15 minutes it manages to challenge beliefs of very publicly unacceptable issues. To me, that's more important than a perfect script.
(I'm not gonna lie.. I cried like a baby. Multiple times.)

BEAUTIFUL THING

Hm. In a nutshell, 'Beautiful Thing' has the making of a classic gay genre to a tee. Set during a long and hot British summer, it's the coming of age of 3 people. One of them is our main character Jamie and how be begins dealing with his apparent sexuality with his best friend Stee; the abused boy next door who frequently seeks refuge with Jamie and his pub-manager mother. The third teen, and my favourite, is Leah, the african-american, drug using, school-expelled-from, Mama Cass loving girl next-door-but-one. It's a pretty typical plot within gay films, boy meets boy who is confused, boy falls in love and boy eventually stops being confused. If you're gay or know anyone who is, you/they can vouch that this is a pretty common theme. The charming thing about this film is that it's very gritty and believable, there's nothing far fetched about it so it's very easy to relate to. The acting is simple, but fine. The script is good and Leah's witticisms and quick mouth provide the comic relief. I'm not quite sure what to say about this film, it's good.. but not amazing. But if you're not in the mood for something;
a) indepth
b) a film that takes the piss out of gay people
c) something sweet without being sleazy
then it's a very good film. The end scene in particular is quite a fantastic shot given the premise of the film. Extremely sweet, truthful coming of age story. It delivers what it says on the tin.

Planet Terror: "Humanity's last hope... Rests on a high power machine gun."

Planet Terror is one half of the Grindhouse feature by the mastermind that is Robert Rodriguez. Who, if you live under a cinema-sheltered rock, brought us "Sin City." Which is awesome, you should watch that too. But yeah, Planet Terror. This film is pure dedication to the zombie genre, and as you can imagine it's a extremely competitive genre. With films like "Dawn of the Dead", "Day of the Dead", "Hour of the Dead", "Birthday of the Dead," blah blah blah etc etc etc, you get the point. With such a huge amount of films, good and bad, that make up this genre, Planet Terror is perhaps one of the best out at the moment. Basically, if you like gore, sexy ladies and fucking loads of action then you should really check out this film. The other half of the Grindhouse feature is "Deathproof" - which I thought was kind lackluster but whatever.

In all honesty though, this film fucking rocks. The homage to Grindhouse cinema is amazingly well done, complete with damaged film and even a missing reel which immediately makes viewers think WHAT THE FUCK. You might want to know what the film's actually about, right?
Here, taken shamelessly from IMDB;
"After an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning thousands into zombie-like creatures, it's up to a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the infected and those behind its release."

I'm not gonna give you a more in depth look because it'll take away the shock factor. You need to watch it with as little expectations as possible so you take the full effect. I randomly watched it and thought it was amazing, basically the image of a hot chick with a machine gun for a leg enticed me. What can I say? I'm simple.

This film is basically a marmite effect, you either love it or you hate it. The haters probably think "blah blah another Tarantino/Rodriguez gorefest, yawn." Although this does have some truth, the biggest entertainment in this film isn't the well-developed plot or answers that it gives you. It's the fact that it's basically a total zombie gorefest. But this is, I think, exactly what it's SUPPOSED to be. Remember the last ~mainstream~ zombie film with a 'plot'? No? It's probably "Resident Evil." Which is fine if you like a zombie film but the plot is questionable and the endings laughable.

If you like a good, non-challenging Zombie!fest with minimal character development then fucking watch this. If you like to be totally engrossed in the finesse of a finely-created plot... then find another film.
This is pure, bloody, zombie entertainment at it's fucking finest. Don't get invested in it, don't take it seriously, don't question the logic behind it. Just enjoy the ride.

International trailer: