Gay-Friendly Blu-rays (1 Viewer)

[cinemiracle]

So CALL ME BY YOUR NAME is due out in the UK on March 5th and stateside on March 13th. Amazon.com lists the disc as region free while Amazon.co.uk lists THEIRS as Region B. I'm wondering if it's a mistake as why would Sony release it as region free in the US and region locked in the UK?

It's all pretty academic anyway as the British disc is currently 14.99 pounds (approx 12.59 pounds after VAT is removed) which makes the price almost the same as the US disc BEFORE shipping is added (which means we probably wouldn't get it until the US disc is out anyway)


It was actually in the mail on 3 March- not 5 March as listed as the release date.

 

[KeithDA]

'Call me by your name' came out in the UK on a Region B Blu Ray with Ultraviolet yesterday (March 5th) (Amazon UK says it has a second commentary track with the director - it doesn't)

I’ve watched it twice (once with the commentary track) and yes, it is an important film for the gay canon, but perhaps more importantly for youth, young love and beginning to deal with heartache.

This disc does not default to automatic subtitles for the Italian/French dialogue and I was perhaps 30 minutes in before I had a ‘toggle’ to find that there was a track that just subtitled anything that wasn’t spoken in English. On the second viewing, I realised how much I had missed about the little observations about Oliver from Elio’s Italian friends. Watch out for this aspect of disc authoring.

Spoiler: Thoughts on the film and the novel

Does it work? Absolutely! As a standalone film it ends in a more hopeful place than the novel. After Mr Perlman’s speech, we hope that Elio will treasure the experience and build on it as he develops as a young person. He has Mr Perlman’s (and by association, Mrs Perlman’s) blessing to be who he wants – sexuality is not an issue but making a connection with another person is. After all my talk of ‘God’s own country’, there are so many similarities here!

Did I miss the Riviera setting of the novel? Possibly. The novel is sun-drenched with its evocation of the sheer informality of beach life, bodies and heat where anything could happen. A countryside setting is perhaps a little more strait-laced - but still done beautifully in the film.

The novel’s epilogue is where the knife was turned for me. That looking back and remembering everything and wondering how it could have played out differently was the emotional punch. I have perhaps been spending too much time recently looking back over my own life (!) Mr Perlman’s line (paraphrasing here) of how we give ourselves so much to one person that when that relationship ends, a part of our ability to give to the next is lost. How true! This is such a powerful observation (both in the film and the novel) that unless your parents are Perlmans, it should be required viewing/reading for all teenagers. I can see how Guadagnino may want to address this in a future sequel, particularly as there are no deleted scenes on this disc.

What a pair of films we have had in CMBYN and GOC. Great cinema, powerful storytelling and a real churning up of the emotions.

 

[SteveJKo]

I was thrilled with James Ivory’s Oscar win. He did an amazing job of converting the introspective poetry of the book into a visual feast for the eyes....

Mark I just started reading the novel. To say Mr. Ivory did an amazing job of translating this work into a screenplay just might be the understatement of the year. I can't think of a more worthy recipient!

...it is an important film for the gay canon, but perhaps more importantly for youth, young love and beginning to deal with heartache....

Exactly Keith! This universality puts CMBYN up there with some of Hollywood's greatest love stories. I can't wait to pick up the blu-ray next week!

 

[Jason_V]

I mentioned pages and pages ago I was working through Eastsiders, making a comment I didn't like any of the characters in Season 1. I've made it to the end of Season 3; my view has changed a bit.

All the things I had put in the "negative" column for Cal and Tom turned into positives in S3. There is a progression...an arc...for both of them, and to a much lesser extent, everyone else in the show. They acknowledge they drink too much and they have a problem with sex. They know they do stupid things, but it tends to be okay since they're doing stupid together and always have each other to see them through. During the road trip which takes all of S3, these two transformed into three-dimensional characters instead of just caricatures for me.

Season 2 was nice in the fact the show seems to be pushing the boundaries of the kinds of men shown in entertainment. Not everyone is a young 20's white smooth guy; there are men of color, hairy guys, somewhat different ages. Cal and Tom don't discriminate in who they invite to bed, though that isn't necessarily good in context of the show. Social issues, like STD's, are important to the show, but they're not the "bonk bonk on the head" type. They are part of the overall story.

One thing I could live without is Hillary, Ian and Kathy. Ian is a perpetual doormat and he seems like too good of a guy to continue the path he's on. Traci Lords as Cal's Mom is a dreadful actress and character; nothing she says is funny, witty or interesting.

Just some thoughts. If the show ends with S3, so be it. If there's more, I'll gladly watch.

 

[MatthewA]

What a pair of films we have had in CMBYN and GOC. Great cinema, powerful storytelling and a real churning up of the emotions.

That's true of GOC, anyway. That one actually has an original story created by a gay man, graphic gay sex between consenting adults, male leads who are genuinely hot and can act, and female supporting characters treated with respect. This is the great gay love story of our time, or of any time. And it's appropriate that Samuel Goldwyn is distributing it here in the US because I would put it up against the great M-G-M screen romances any day of the week, even Gone With the Wind and Camille.

I can't think of a more worthy recipient!

I can: any of the other nominees. And I can think of a better recipient for ALL the major awards except Best Supporting Actress (although one can quibble whether Gemma Jones deserved a lead or supporting nom more): God's Own Country.

This Oscar "race" was a complete travesty.

 

[Will Krupp]

I mentioned pages and pages ago I was working through Eastsiders, making a comment I didn't like any of the characters in Season 1. I've made it to the end of Season 3; my view has changed a bit.

All the things I had put in the "negative" column for Cal and Tom turned into positives in S3. There is a progression...an arc...for both of them, and to a much lesser extent, everyone else in the show.

Yaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!

 

[Kenneth_C]

Somewhere in a world beyond CMBYN and GOC....

I've watched 2 good gay-themed dramas this week. Neither on Blu-ray (of course), but both worthy of attention. So, herewith submitted for your approval:


Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2014)


I went into this expecting a fluffy bit of trash -- only to discover instead a thoughtful, intelligent, finely crafted and exceptionally well-acted romantic drama. The pseudo-documentary form is brilliantly realized, and the chemistry between the two leads is off the chart. (Timothée & Armie who?) There's even an underlying theme regarding the pros and cons of gay assimilation running throughout. Color me very, very surprised by this one.


In Bloom (2013)


Set in Chicago and far more "traditional" than Getting Go, this film recounts the dissolution of a relationship, done indie-style. But the performances are very good, the situations ring true, and there is real insight in the dialogue and the interactions between the characters. That said, I don't understand the minor subplot (involving a serial killer). Maybe it was meant as a metaphor??? Also, what's up with the title In Bloom? Between that title and the poster/DVD art, I thought I was going to be seeing a movie about young guys falling IN love, not OUT OF it. Still, it's a good flick.

 

[KeithDA]

Somewhere in a world beyond CMBYN and GOC....

Noooooooo I don't want to go there.....


I see 'Getting go' is made by the 'Were the world mine' team...

 

[Will Krupp]

GETTING GO is very surprising. I hate to give anything away but:

Spoiler

The thing that surprised me most was that the "hot" player guy turned out to be the sweet one and the "nerdy" filmmaker we are supposed to identify with is the one that turns out to be something of a shit.

I haven't seen it in awhile but I really did enjoy it, especially the guerilla-style film-making techniques in actual locations. If I'm remembering correctly, that's Matthew Camp's apartment they're shooting in and I think we glimpse his name on the mail.

I should see it again.

 

[Matt Hough]

Do any of you guys remember the Donald Strachey mystery series produced for the here! channel? There were four of them, and I dove into the second (and in my opinion, the best) one this afternoon A Shock to the System. (All four were released on DVD after their premieres on the here! channel.)

It's really an excellent mystery with an intriguing and still timely ex-gay plot surrounding the murders and a slew of men trying the ex-gay thing for a variety of reasons.

I'm going to be rewatching the other three over the next couple of days.

 

[Jason_V]

I have all four on the shelf, Matt. I adored and adore Chad Allen. The movies weren't the best, but I enjoyed them. I have one of the books on my iPad to read...just haven't gotten there yet.

The relationship between Donald and Tim always felt real to me: their interactions, their arguments, their love. I was devastated when they didn't make anymore.

 

[Mark-P]

Do any of you guys remember the Donald Strachey mystery series produced for the here! channel? There were four of them, and I dove into the second (and in my opinion, the best) one this afternoon A Shock to the System. (All four were released on DVD after their premieres on the here! channel.)

It's really an excellent mystery with an intriguing and still timely ex-gay plot surrounding the murders and a slew of men trying the ex-gay thing for a variety of reasons.

I'm going to be rewatching the other three over the next couple of days.

Thanks for reminding me about those. I have the DVDs, but I just checked iTunes and see that they are now available there in HD.

 

[MatthewA]

Speaking of Chad Allen, as I was in some of my footnotes in another thread recently, the 2007 movie Save Me is on DVD and a bunch of streaming platforms, including iTunes, but not Blu-ray. I saw it on streaming (I think it was on Netflix a few years ago) and I thought it was pretty well-made. I don't know if we've discussed it here, but he plays a guy who's fed up with drugs and meaningless sex, so he goes to ex-gay therapy where Judith Light, whom I've never liked in anything where she wasn't the villain, is in charge of it. But then

Spoiler: major spoiler

he falls in love with another guy there and they realize what a sham it is.

 

[Matt Hough]

I found Save Me so filled with anguish that it was hard to enjoy. The performances were excellent, but my memory otherwise is a little hazy. I'm not sure I ever bought it on DVD. I believe I saw it on one of the premium cable channels a couple of times or maybe on Bravo.

 

[MatthewA]

I don't disagree with you that anguish is an apt description of the tone, but consider the subject matter. Some people hate gays so much that they will go to absurd and destructive lengths to erase homosexuality, whether in the name of religion or in the name of science. In this case, it was religion.* I appreciated how the film showed that having to choose between self-denial and self-destruction is a false choice no gay man or lesbian should ever be forced to make. That made it a lot easier to take. The script was intelligent enough to acknowledge the downside of no-strings-attached sex, but it also acknowledged the inherent sham of ex-gay "therapy." Perhaps this is why some gay men are scared to come out; the fear of having to choose between false dichotomies in order to be accepted. But the reason they are false is that they are not the only choices.

As I recall, it was a First Run Features release, and they have only recently gotten into Blu-ray. In 2007, even the studios hadn't opened the floodgates yet. But since it was shot in a 2.4:1 aspect ratio, it would benefit from one.

But as for an example of a well-made film that is hard for me to watch for personally is As Good as it Gets, which turns 20 this year. Simon, Greg Kinnear's character, gets bashed and lived. 14-year-old me walked out of that theater with a crush on him, and I still wouldn't kick him out of bed, but I haven't seen it since, and I think it's largely because Matthew Shepard got bashed and died that same year. That hit way too close to home, but it was the last straw before I came out of the closet after having turned 15 that same year.

*Just a reminder, we don't talk religion or politics here. Even when they contradict building a career around taking your clothes off, touching other dudes, and crying more than any heterosexual man I've ever known, including but not limited to my own father, whom I've never seen shed a tear in three and a half decades of my being alive.

 

[JSLasher]

'Call me by your name' came out in the UK on a Region B Blu Ray with Ultraviolet yesterday (March 5th) (Amazon UK says it has a second commentary track with the director - it doesn't)

I’ve watched it twice (once with the commentary track) and yes, it is an important film for the gay canon, but perhaps more importantly for youth, young love and beginning to deal with heartache.

This disc does not default to automatic subtitles for the Italian/French dialogue and I was perhaps 30 minutes in before I had a ‘toggle’ to find that there was a track that just subtitled anything that wasn’t spoken in English. On the second viewing, I realised how much I had missed about the little observations about Oliver from Elio’s Italian friends. Watch out for this aspect of disc authoring.

Spoiler: Thoughts on the film and the novel

Does it work? Absolutely! As a standalone film it ends in a more hopeful place than the novel. After Mr Perlman’s speech, we hope that Elio will treasure the experience and build on it as he develops as a young person. He has Mr Perlman’s (and by association, Mrs Perlman’s) blessing to be who he wants – sexuality is not an issue but making a connection with another person is. After all my talk of ‘God’s own country’, there are so many similarities here!

Did I miss the Riviera setting of the novel? Possibly. The novel is sun-drenched with its evocation of the sheer informality of beach life, bodies and heat where anything could happen. A countryside setting is perhaps a little more strait-laced - but still done beautifully in the film.

The novel’s epilogue is where the knife was turned for me. That looking back and remembering everything and wondering how it could have played out differently was the emotional punch. I have perhaps been spending too much time recently looking back over my own life (!) Mr Perlman’s line (paraphrasing here) of how we give ourselves so much to one person that when that relationship ends, a part of our ability to give to the next is lost. How true! This is such a powerful observation (both in the film and the novel) that unless your parents are Perlmans, it should be required viewing/reading for all teenagers. I can see how Guadagnino may want to address this in a future sequel, particularly as there are no deleted scenes on this disc.

What a pair of films we have had in CMBYN and GOC. Great cinema, powerful storytelling and a real churning up of the emotions.

Allow me to weigh into this for a second or two. I am in accord with your comments, as they more or less reflect what I would say. I have seen both films, but I would defer to "God's Own Country" as my favourite amongst them. This is despite that fact that GOC borrows heavily on "Brokeback Mountain" for many of its ideas. The acting between the leads is spot-on. One relates to the actors. I love the full-frontal nude scene of Josh O'Connor and Alec S. The xenophobic Yanks must have gone "Burko" [an Aussie colloquialism denoting "aggro"(aggrevation) over something they find confronting] at seeing an intact [ie. uncircumcised penis] on the screen.

 

[MatthewA]

American audiences have more problems with male genitals than any other human body part, regardless of the presence of foreskin. That reminds me, I was just thinking: are there any gay-themed Australian films any of you recommend?

 

[cinemiracle]

American audiences have more problems with male genitals than any other human body part, regardless of the presence of foreskin. That reminds me, I was just thinking: are there any gay-themed Australian films any of you recommend?

ADVENTURES OF PRICILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
HEAD ON
HOLDING THE MAN -the stage show was much better.
REMEMBERING THE MAN -a feature length documentary about the true-life characters in the film :HOLDING THE MAN..A must see.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
GABY BABY
NEWCASTLE
SUM OF US
EVERLASTING SECRET FAMILY
DOWN RIVER
MONSTER PIES
TAN LINES

There have been several others but none have reached the heights of the first four films listed above.

Full-frontal male and female nudity is not a problem on free-to-air television channels in Australia.. A nude European dating show on a
deserted island has been running for several years here at 8-30pm once a week. Nothing is hidden from the audiences. Usually the participants are extremely good looking and none of the men seem to have been circumcised. We have 3 legal nudist beaches in Sydney as well as nudist clubs. I have even worked in a couple of office buildings where the toilets are all uni -sex. They are becoming more and more popular.. Our main Art Gallery recently had a group of dancers performing naked. It was sold out for each performance.The only catch was that the audience had also to be naked. Another gallery also had a nudist night whereby all the audience had to tour the gallery naked.. I can't see these things happening in the USA. CALLME BY YOUR NAME movie had a ridiculous 'R classification in The USA. In Australia anybody of any age could see the film

 

[Will Krupp]

The xenophobic Yanks must have gone "Burko" [an Aussie colloquialism denoting "aggro"(aggrevation) over something they find confronting] at seeing an intact [ie. uncircumcised penis] on the screen.

Appearances to the contrary, we are not all xenophobic. Nor are we all afraid of uncircumsized penises.

 

[MatthewA]

Already seen Priscilla, which I thought was good in parts but had kind of troubling implications,* so thanks for the other recommendations.

CALLME BY YOUR NAME movie had a ridiculous 'R classification in The USA. In Australia anybody of any age could see the film

You're right. It is ridiculous. It's too low. It America, which got gay marriage first, it should have been NC-17 since it's about sex between adults and minors. And as for anyone comparing the infinitely superior GOC, where Johnny and Gheorge were adults by any legal standard in any nation on Earth, to that vastly inferior and embarrassingly self-loathing Jake & Heath Tire Iron Melodrama**, that peach scene reminded me of a similar scene in another movie when I was almost that age. Oh yeah, it was called American Pie.

*I'm bothered by the idea that a man should have to copy women to get a man. There's something about that that strikes me as being extremely homophobic. We should be able to win men on our own strengths as men.
**I wish Hollywood knew how to quit making excuses for their shortcomings regarding gay films, shortcomings other countries' gay films don't seem to have as much.