Gay-Friendly Blu-rays (1 Viewer)

[Mark-W]

I'm excited reading these reviews for Of an Age. It happens to be playing downtown, so I'm going to be making plans to see it this coming Tuesday night if the weather is agreeable.

I got a chance to watch the movie Lonesome via Peccadillo Pictures streaming service. I did have to set my VPN to suggest I was in the UK in order to be able to watch it. But I'm so glad I did.

Even though I have the Blu-ray on the way, I was eager to see this film. It was worth it. Lonesome is lusciously gorgeous to watch. The filmmakers know that cinematography matters. There are moments so stunning that I wish I had large stills of them that I could hang on my walls. Maybe it's just all those Australian sunsets but the movie really makes things that are beautiful, beautiful and things that are ugly ugly.

This movie is truthful, raw, and intense. It immediately sets the tone with Casey hooking up with a random stranger at a gas station and it stays there. Casey, our protagonist, leaves his small rural town and heads to Sydney for reasons we'll soon know. What is obvious from the get go is that Casey has no financial resources, nor any other support systems. He is entirely on his own. He meets Tib, our other lead, during a hookup. Tib quickly realizes Casey has nowhere to crash and offers him the couch along with opportunities to earn some cash doing odd jobs.

While there is lots of nudity, given the situations these two guys put themselves in, it isn't forced or unnatural. It is often used to reveal great beauty with flashes of Casey in a field along with other moments of great ugliness. It also shows how these guys are at ease being physically naked, but find being emotionally naked all but impossible. It is so 2023.

At times, this movie can be difficult to watch. It presents itself as a romance between Casey and Tib, but it is their significant previous familial/hometown traumas and how those inform their current behavior that occupy the film’s narrative.

Misunderstanding the motivations of others is a recurring theme, whether it is Casey’s misinterpreting the nature of his first relationship, Tib’s misreading why the woman keeps hiring him, the leather daddy assessing Casey’s sexual appetites, or, ultimately, how Tib and Casey don’t have the insights into themselves to realize the ways they need and want each other.

The performances are great throughout. One can see all the thinking and feeling going on behind Casey's eyes. Tib's lackadaisical take-each-day-as-it comes attitude doesn't always successfully hide the fractured man that, at best, can raise a toast with Casey to their mutually horrible fathers.

I'm very glad I have the UK Blu-ray on the way because I suspect the writer/director's commentary track is going to be really informative. There's a lot I still need to unpack with this movie.

Cheers!

 

[Kenneth_C]

I watched a gay film last month called Hypochondriac. (It's available digitally. There is no physical release that I'm aware of.)

Will is a young, gay, Hispanic man, who works in a pottery studio, has a boyfriend, and seems relatively stable. But when his mentally-ill mother reenters his life, the childhood traumas he suffered at her hands begin to manifest themselves in physical symptoms and frightening hallucinations (often involving a Donnie Darko-esque wolf costume).



The trailer emphasizes the horror aspects of the story, but I thought it was even stronger as a character study of someone who is affected by mental illness and spiraling out of control. Will, who is played by the charismatic Zach Villa, is such a sweet and interesting character that you root for him to overcome his demons and find the help he needs.

It's a disturbing movie that will not be to everyone's taste, but I found it to be captivating. And, ultimately, it doesn't matter what Will's sexuality is. That is not the focus of the story. He just happens to be gay. I think that is something we've wanted to see in movies for awhile.

I wrote the above last November and just found out that XYZ Films (a partner label to Vinegar Syndrome) will be releasing Hypochondriac on Region A Blu-ray later this month. It will be available either with a limited edition slipcover or in a standard edition. Special features include deleted scenes, an interview featurette, a trilogy of short films, the web series "Kappa Force" and a commentary by writer/director Addison Heimann.

Although I already own the film digitally, I've pre-ordered the Blu-ray. I liked the film quite a bit when I saw it and am really interested in the extra features. The commentary, in particular, could be very worthwhile, as the director has previously stated that the film was influenced by his own mental health struggles.

 

[KeithDA]

I'm very glad I have the UK Blu-ray on the way because I suspect the writer/director's commentary track is going to be really informative. There's a lot I still need to unpack with this movie.

Mark, an excellent summary above (again - it encouraged me to order this film). The commentary also includes the main actor, Josh Lavery, and is more to do with the mechanics of film making than the plot, but it is still worthwhile. There's some fun with the explanation of a 'jizz canon' and what scene Josh had to 'phone his Mum to ask permission to shoot, (as it were)

The film is quite something to look at, with great cinematography, both inside and out (and the commentary tells us much was shot in winter and even when raining - but then that's Australia for you!)

I agree with there being a lot to unpack - its an honest and challenging look at being gay in 2023.

Spoiler: The field

Casey refers to the place his illicit affair at home took place was in a paddock. The field he is seen naked in the sun is is not really a paddock, but more of a fantasy rural scene, in the same way that his understanding of the affair was more fantasy than reality.

 

[ptb2017fr]

I’m halfway through Lonesome and had to stop as I wasn’t enjoying it at all, in spite of the gorgeous photography and the attractive openly gay star. But I found is really depressing so needed a break before watching the rest of it, which I’ll do tomorrow. if I’ve cheered up!

 

[ptb2017fr]

Mark, an excellent summary above (again - it encouraged me to order this film). The commentary also includes the main actor, Josh Lavery, and is more to do with the mechanics of film making than the plot, but it is still worthwhile. There's some fun with the explanation of a 'jizz canon' and what scene Josh had to 'phone his Mum to ask permission to shoot, (as it were)

The film is quite something to look at, with great cinematography, both inside and out (and the commentary tells us much was shot in winter and even when raining - but then that's Australia for you!)

I agree with there being a lot to unpack - its an honest and challenging look at being gay in 2023.

Spoiler: The field

Casey refers to the place his illicit affair at home took place was in a paddock. The field he is seen naked in the sun is is not really a paddock, but more of a fantasy rural scene, in the same way that his understanding of the affair was more fantasy than reality.

Your comments about jizz reminded me of French movie L’Inconnu du lac (Stranger by the lake) which has a real close up cum shot in it, at least in the original theatrical version. When it happened a woman in the row in front turned and glared at me as if I’d come all over her!

 

[ptb2017fr]

Got to the end of Lonesome. It doesn’t portray gay life as being anything other than lonely, filled with sex and the exploitation of the young by the older
which I found really depressing. The happy ending seemed tacked on and didnt convince me at all. Nice seeing so much of Josh Lavery’s ass though, but it didn’t make up for the downbeat storyline.
Just started another Aussie gay themed movie Punch, hoping this might be a bit cheerier. If not I’ll cheer myself up with the French Skam with its wonderfully upbeat ending.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Punch is another gay themed film in which homophobia in Australia is again to the fore and the out gay character Whetu is the focus of attacks and scorn. His friend, Jim the lead, is a handsome young boxer who he meets when he sees him stung by a jellyfish on a nearby beach and treats the wound. Jim has an alcoholic father/trainer played by Tim Roth. But everybody is out to exploit everybody else and boxer Jim leaves his dad after they argue and joins an unscrupulous promoter who beats up and rapes Whetu. Seems like raping a boy isn’t gay to these small town morons. The sexual tension between the boys is ever present. Is boxer Jim really straight? If he is why does he spend all his spare time with out gay Whetu? Will they or won’t they? Why does Whetu keep rejecting Jim’s touches and often his kindness when it’s obvious he’s in love with him? Eventually they do make love rather beautifully. But again the nasty promoters blackmail boxer Jim into fighting for them while having blown up his rapists beloved car leaves town. Jim’s dad, dying of cancer, turns up at the fight and the boy throws the fight to look after him. Meanwhile Whetu is seen singing the song he wrote about boxer Jim to a packed house in Sydney as Jim sits with his friend Whetu’s dog in the house in the country Whetu built for himself and where the friends spent so much time together. Will they ever see each other again? We are left guessing.
Jordan Oosterhof is a very attractive boxing Jim and Conan Hayes a nice looking Whetu. Some nice moments, some ugly ones, and an unsatisfactory conclusion, for me as well as the boys, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

 

[ptb2017fr]

I edited my review of Punch yesterday but the edit hasn’t it seems taken. Just want to be clear it isn’t Jim the boxer who blows up the rapists car but Whetu, though Jim helps him and takes the blame. Whetu leaves town and the rapists use this incident and Jim‘s relationship with Whetu to blackmail him into fighting, while telling him of his dads cancer and the dreadful costs of the treatment he will need. Nasty bunch.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Off to Mexico today with Cuatro Lunas, Four Moons. Had good reviews, so fingers crossed.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Nobody else seen Punch then? How about Isaac another Spanish movie I've been pointed to? Since March 6th nobody else but me has posted?

 

[Matt Hough]

No, but I'd like to. I'm keeping an eye out for it.

 

[Mark-P]

Thanks for sharing this and your review. I look forward to seeing it!
I just watched another gay-centric film that was both fresh in its storyline and a well-crafted film.
In From The Side is about two teams of rugby players made up entirely gay men. There is the A team and the B team. The A team is winning and, according to the team's owner, is bringing respect to their organization. He questions whether the coach's efforts to build up the B squad is worth the time and money.

Our handsome protagonist, Mark, is the best player on the B team.
View attachment 164115

When he finds himself drawn to Warren, one of the star players on the A squad, things get complicated. Warren is in a LTR with another high-profile player on the A squad; Mark is in an open relationship.
View attachment 164120

The connection is intense and impacts every other aspect of these two men's lives.

Not only do both squads count on these players to be their best for games, but their friendships with each other off the field are stabilizing influences in their lives. None is more apparent than Mark's with his bestie, who seems to have trouble with alcohol consumption.
View attachment 164121

Telling stories about affairs in nothing new. Telling stories with gay men already is various forms of long term relationships and how a secret affair specifically impacts gay male friend groups, often made of chosen families, compared to how we often see heteronormative couples and friend groups makes this movie all the more for us, about us, in 2022.

The acting is great and I truly did not know how this was going to end until I reached the last ten minutes.

I am also just superficial enough to also enjoy seeing a bunch of sexy Rugby lads making out with each other.
View attachment 164122

Here is the trailer:


Like Wildhood, it is available via streaming from Peccadillo Pictures.

Watch Peccadillo Films Online In From The Side Rent Gay, Lesbian & LGBTQ Films (UK & Ireland)

Following a drunken encounter, two equally attached men from a cash-strapped and divided gay rugby club sleepwalk into an adulterous affair.

www.peccadillopod.com

View attachment 164123

Cheers!

Finally got to watch In From The Side and I absolutely loved it. Didn’t realize going in that it was about a gay rugby club, so I was initially puzzled, thinking ‘why is everybody gay’? So in that setting there is a refreshing absence of homophobia, and the conflict comes from an old-fashioned love affair between two men who are already in committed relationships. Well acted, great plot where you have no idea where it will end up, and yes it is possible to feel empathy for characters who are unfaithful to their spouses, though that is usually something I don’t feel.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Saw a German film from 1977 last night well worth seeing if you never have, directed by Wolfgang Peterson director of Das Boot and many others.
The Consequence.
Young Jürgen Prochknow aged 21 is sent to prison for having sex with a 15 year old boy.

Spoiler

In prison he develops a friendship with Thomas Manzoni (Ernst Hannawald), the 15-year-old son of the prison warden (Lüönd). The two fall in love and they both yearn for Kurath's release.
This triggers intense indignation in their surroundings.
After Kurath is released a year later, Thomas, accompanied by Kurath, tells his parents he is a homosexual. His father tells him to leave and never return. Kurath and Thomas move in together and Thomas enrolls in school. Thomas' father, however, then has him arrested and condemned to a brutal reformatory.
Kurath obtains a fake passport and poses as a psychology doctoral candidate and helps Thomas escape with him to Germany. They are betrayed by a German homosexual friend of Kurath's who insists, in Kurath's absence, that Thomas become his lover in order to obtain a German residency permit. Thomas does so, but then refuses to sleep with the betrayer, is kicked out and prostitutes himself.
Broken by these experiences, he voluntarily returns to the reformatory. When he reaches 21 and is released, he is so psychologically damaged that, despite reunion with Kurath, he attempts suicide and is committed to a psychiatric hospital. He escapes and the film ends with a TV announcement that the police are looking for him and that the public should, if approaching him, treat him gently, as he is very depressed and confused.

it is a tragic story but had some really touching moments and lots of explicit ones, but it’s beautifully played and did lots to change attitudes towards being gay in Germany and help change the laws. It can be found on DVD.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Of An Age took me a long time to get through, mainly because of the really bad sound recording that made a lot of the dialogue unintelligible. The young Serbian lead I found at first rather unattractive but when the brother of his dancer partner appeared to give him a ride with that winning smile I thought I’d hang around. Obviously made on a shoe string, maybe even on iPhones, it’s no photographic masterpiece, no beautiful shots of Australian landscapes or sunsets, just lots of industrial waste lads and electrical pylons , and with the first half taking place chiefly inside a car that wouldn't have mattered if one could understand all the dialogue. But something kept me watching.
SPOILER

Spoiler

The ending is of course bitter sweet and I felt for the guys as I once lost the love of my life not realising he was crazy about me until years later. What could have been, and it’s the one name that comes back to me in my old age of all the men of my life. “My beautiful boy ” As are the last sad words of the film.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Of An Age took me a long time to get through, mainly because of the really bad sound recording that made a lot of the dialogue unintelligible. The young Serbian lead I found at first rather unattractive but when the brother of his dancer partner appeared to give him a ride with that winning smile I thought I’d hang around. Obviously made on a shoe string, maybe even on iPhones, it’s no photographic masterpiece, no beautiful shots of Australian landscapes or sunsets, just lots of industrial waste lads and electrical pylons , and with the first half taking place chiefly inside a car that wouldn’t have mattered if one could understand all the dialogue. Mote Thom Green indeed!

 

[ptb2017fr]

They are re running Teen Wolf tv series here again in France. God. Tyler Posey was gorgeous then! Why did he make himself so unattractive with all those ugly tats and hairiness?

 

[cinerama10]

Saw a German film from 1977 last night well worth seeing if you never have, directed by Wolfgang Peterson director of Das Boot and many others.
The Consequence.
Young Jürgen Prochknow aged 21 is sent to prison for having sex with a 15 year old boy.
In prison he develops a friendship with Thomas Manzoni (Ernst Hannawald), the 15-year-old son of the prison warden (Lüönd). The two fall in love and they both yearn for Kurath's release.
This triggers intense indignation in their surroundings.
After Kurath is released a year later, Thomas, accompanied by Kurath, tells his parents he is a homosexual. His father tells him to leave and never return. Kurath and Thomas move in together and Thomas enrolls in school. Thomas' father, however, then has him arrested and condemned to a brutal reformatory.
Kurath obtains a fake passport and poses as a psychology doctoral candidate and helps Thomas escape with him to Germany. They are betrayed by a German homosexual friend of Kurath's who insists, in Kurath's absence, that Thomas become his lover in order to obtain a German residency permit. Thomas does so, but then refuses to sleep with the betrayer, is kicked out and prostitutes himself.
Broken by these experiences, he voluntarily returns to the reformatory. When he reaches 21 and is released, he is so psychologically damaged that, despite reunion with Kurath, he attempts suicide and is committed to a psychiatric hospital. He escapes and the film ends with a TV announcement that the police are looking for him and that the public should, if approaching him, treat him gently, as he is very depressed and confused.
it is a tragic story but had some really touching moments and lots of explicit ones, but it’s beautifully played and did lots to change attitudes towards being gay in Germany and help change the laws. It can be found on DVD.

THE CONSEQUENCE is a great film. i saw it when it was first released and I watched it many times over the years on dvd. Watched it again a few weeks ago and it still moves me every time that I see it.
Why did you have to relate the entire film's story including the ending? You have now ruined the film for other people who have not seen it.

 

[EricSchulz]

Is Cucumber one of those shows that you have to sit through the first few episodes to really enjoy it? That’s what The Office and Schitts Creek were like for me upon initial viewings. Henry gives off such creepy “dirty old man” vibes it’s made it hard to get through the first episode. And he’s FORTY SIX? Any thoughts? And is Bananas very similar but with different (but somewhat connected) cast?

 

[Will Krupp]

Is Cucumber one of those shows that you have to sit through the first few episodes to really enjoy it? That’s what The Office and Schitts Creek were like for me upon initial viewings. Henry gives off such creepy “dirty old man” vibes it’s made it hard to get through the first episode. And he’s FORTY SIX? Any thoughts? And is Bananas very similar but with different (but somewhat connected) cast?

If you're going to watch Cucumber and Banana, it's best to watch them simultaneously by alternating episodes between the two. Cucumber is the main story and then the following (corresponding) episode of Banana usually takes one of the minor characters from the Cucumber episode and puts them front and center. It's an interesting concept and it works. It's not necessary to watch them this way (or to watch both at all) but you might as well if you're going to watch both as the episodes make the most sense.

To answer your other question, I find that Henry is pretty much of an asshole all the way through, but I enjoyed the ride nonetheless.

Spoiler

When he called the police in the first episode after things didn't go the way he wanted them to during the aborted three-way, I hated him so much I didn't think I could get over it. I eventually did and had a great time with the show.

 

[davy2]

EricSchulz, Oh, yes, they are both great shows, stick with them. I was wanting more when i had finished them.