Review of Emanuel Parvu’s film Three Kilometres to the End of the World. A poignant portrait of a boy subjected to homophobia in a Romanian village. Although its form is not particularly surprising—with its dry style and documentary precision typical of many “social cinema” films—this feature film has the…
Review of My Personal Weatherman, a BL series portraying a relationship between a highly unequal couple. Boys\' Love series are fond of opposites attracting and power dynamics in intimacy. This Japanese manga adaptation goes even further (too far?) by immersing us in the daily life of a rather unusual couple....
Review of the film NO REGRET by Hee-il Leesong. Two boys from different backgrounds fall in love in Seoul in this troubled gay romance. Seoul, early 2000s. The handsome and sunny Su-min (Lee Young-hoon) takes on a series of odd jobs to survive. An orphan, he has learned to work hard to support himself. He works in a factory during the day and as a driver in the evening. He works...
Review of Nehir Tuna’s film Yurt, a Turkish film blending politics, religion and crypto-gay male friendship. A Turkish drama about youth confronted with religion and the rise of Islamism in the 1990s. Yurt, Nehir Tuna’s very beautiful first feature film, plunges us into the Turkey of the…
Review of the Thai gay film The Blue Hour, a unique work poised between teenage angst and fantasy. The screenwriter of the very interesting Boyslove series NOT ME, Anucha Boonyawatana delivers a bold work with The Blue Hour (that is, the blue hour, that moment just before sunrise or sunset when the sky takes on a bluish hue)….
A review of Hisayasu Satô’s film Muscle. A twisted relationship and obsession unfold in this strange feature film, which has become a cult classic. Muscle certainly cannot be recommended to everyone, as it is so bizarre and at times frankly disturbing. At the time of writing, director Hisayasu Satô’s film is impossible to find; it can only be tracked down indirectly through Internet searches…
A review of the series OH OTTO! by Stijn van Kerkhoven, following a young gay man from Brussels after a breakup. An engaging and endearing drama. A touching Belgian gay series about breaking up and rebuilding in Brussels. Here, we love gay series that focus on feelings, and in that genre, Oh,…
A review of Silent Sparks, directed by Ping Chu, which follows the gay relationship between two former prisoners. The handsome Pua (Guan-Zhi Huang) tries to live a more or less normal life after getting out of prison. He has not fully learned from his mistakes and continues to make money through schemes that are not entirely legal...
Review of Rodrigo Bellott’s film I Miss You. A drama inspired by a true story about persistent homophobia in Bolivia. In this sensitive and raw feature film, Bolivian director Rodrigo Bellott adapts a play that caused quite a stir in Bolivia and was itself drawn from a true story. I…
Review of Lucas Santa Ana’s film The Party Poopers (Blue Lights). An older gay couple welcomes friends for an emotion-filled dinner. In this queer, generational chamber piece, Lucas Santa Ana’s Argentinian feature film invites us into the home of the older gay couple Alejandro (Ernesto Larrese) and Pedro (Claudio Da…
Review of the film The Wild Region (The Untamed) by Amat Escalante. A cinematic experience as strange as it is unsettling. This is not a comfortable viewing experience: this highly singular feature film, which cultivates mystery, is filled with unsettling scenes. It begins with Verónica (Simone Bucio), a beautiful young woman who has been visiting a cabin for some time, where she has relations with a strange, extraterrestrial-looking creature.…
Review of Robert W. Gray’s film Entropic, in which the most beautiful man in the world undertakes a strange experiment with his most faithful friend. Entropic is a singular film that will not appeal to everyone. It is experienced somewhat like an artistic performance. Highly conceptual, it raises a whole host of questions and may stimulate some as much as it irritates others. Here, we were carried away by it.…
