The Movie
Late into Redwoods, the main character turns to his love interest and compliments the novelist's writing: "It's so sparse...that's what makes it so powerful." You get the sense that writer/director David Lewis was aiming for the same effect with his film, a small effort that seems unapologetically singular in its purpose. I wanted to be swept away in the romantic intentions of Redwoods--really, I did. I'm not averse to severe displays of sentimentality, but the sap that flows from this gay-themed love story is so thick and...Read the entire review

The Movie
Until two months ago, I had never heard of the term "scally". But while interviewing a production company president for an article I was writing for a publication that focuses on another genre of film (let's just say it rhymes with "corn"), I asked about the term--a bit of U.K. slang used to describe a "rough and unkempt British street lad." The research served me well for Shank, a low-budget indie effort from across the pond that I missed during D.C.'s Reel Affirmations--one of many gay and lesbian film festivals the film played in 2009.

And there's no doubt that young Cal (Wayne Virgo) is a scally living on the edge--in the opening minutes, we witness him cruising for sex online, snorting...Read the entire review

THE FILM

Just in time for the holiday season comes "Make the Yuletide Gay," a softer, lighter romantic comedy from a genre not known for its restraint. Eschewing heavy dramatics, "Yuletide" makes an admirable attempt to remain buoyant, sustaining the festive Christmas mood as far as humanly possible. However, the material eventually falls apart, caught between the mechanics of an out-of-the-closet farce and a tender story of personal and familial acceptance. The festivities kick off with a hearty ho-ho-ho. They end with a disconcerting no-no-no.

While free to life openly as a gay man at college, Olaf Gunnunderson (Keith Jordan) is reluctant to return home for the holidays, where his Midwestern parents Anya (Kelly Heaton) and Sven (Derek Long) are unaware of his sexual preference, pushing their son towards a spunky neighbor girl (Hallee Hirsch). Removing all traces of ho...Read the entire review

The Movie
If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the cast of Schoolboy Crush was a comedy troupe faking Japanese for their mock movie. Intentionally affected mannerisms are joined by over-emoted acting and exaggerated line readings, facial expressions and gestures (watch the visual overkill when one actor looks at his watch at the 1-hour, 11-minute mark--one of many awful acting displays). The film is so cartoonish, subtitles aren't even necessary.

I don't speak Japanese, but you can pretty much figure things out by watching (and listening) to the over-the-top performances: When Riku is angry, he scowls and positions his arms in a confront...Read the entire review

The Film:

Gutterballs:
I'm not sure how much I cotton to this new breed of direct-to-DVD indie horror. I blame the Internet, because from where I sit, many of these movies seem to focus on combining relatively explicit 'adult activity' with the jugular ripping. Not that it bothers me, it's just that the World-wide-pornorama has apparently given guys the go-ahead to expose their willies for any old person to see - such as in Gutterballs - is the world coming to an end?

Gutterballs rolls a 7-10 split (and I'm done with my bowling puns now) combining nothing but trashier-than-trashy elements with an intentional B-movie ethos. Like a 7-10 split, this type of movie is hard to pull off, (or pick up, I suppose) and for Gutterballs, the bottom of the frame finds pin 7 just missing the 10. Not for lack of trying though, as Gutterballs layers on sick gore and bounteous nudity in a sleazy package. A tea...Read the entire review

The Movie
If The Big Chill ditched the dead body and made all its characters queer, it would look something like 3-Day Weekend--a film where four gay friends take a weekend trip to a cabin nestled in the beautiful outdoors. Hoping to shake up their routine, the gang decides that each of them must invite a single guest to "spice" things up. And by "spice", I mean "sex".

Middle-aged couple Jason (Douglas Myers) and Simon (Derek Meeker) are the hosts, joined by generation-gap couple Cooper, 48 (Derek Long) and Ace, 25 (Stephen Twardokus). The party crashers are Mac (Chris Carlisle), Jason's young, shy co-worker; Andre (Daniel Rhyder), an escort that Simon frequently hires yet still keeps secret from open-relationship ...Read the entire review

The Movie
There's a 99 percent chance that a low-budget indie film targeted toward gay men will have some skin on its DVD box cover. And while I frequently decry the practice as an unfortunate marketing ploy that cheapens the film and the audience's intelligence, I'd be lying if I said it never works. And with the handsome face and toned pecs of Paul Preiss staring at me, it explains why--when I had a stack of films to watch--I started with Dog Tags (shameful, I know, but I'm only human). And you can't judge a movie by its DVD cover, right?

Preiss plays Nate, a former mechanic and community college dropout who lives in his ...Read the entire review

THE FILM

Any film that opens with a comical beheading and electrocution deserves at least some praise, however faint it may be. A follow-up to the unleashed lunacy of 2006's "Another Gay Movie," "Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild" takes this improbable franchise even further into comedic dementia, eager to top the original picture in pure knockout vulgarity. I'd say it's a photo finish.

Off to Ft. Lauderdale for a Spring Break blowout vacation, Andy (Jake Mosser), Nico (Jonah Blechman), Jarod (Jimmy Clabots), and Griff (Aaron Michael Davies) are at a loss for words when they arrive at their resort. Confronted with available men as far as the eye can see, the boys are tickled when the "Gays Gone Wild" contest commences, awarding points for sexual encounters and assorted mischief. Pushed into the madness of the week's festivities, the men are forced to consider matters of the heart...Read the entire review

The Movie
If you ever wondered what a 90-minute gay love story music video looked like, welcome to this 2007 Thai entry from writer/director Poj Arnon. Short on story but high on vivid visuals, it's almost like a softcore adult film set to cheesy music. We're immediately introduced to Cloud (aka Mehk, played by Rattanaballang Tohssawat), a sad assassin who longs to break free from his cold and lonely world. His brother afflicted with HIV and his mother spiraling into dementia and depression, Cloud kills for the money to save his family.

But his latest assignment presents a problem. While Cloud completes the first part of h...Read the entire review

Summer Scars:
British director Julian Richards teams up with his Last Horror Movie cohort actor Kevin Howarth for another go at the reality-thriller-horror genre with Summer Scars. This time however, 'based on a true story' quite effectively replaces the tissue-paper thin conceit from Last Horror, making for affecting, disturbing viewing of high order.

A group of disaffected British youths (including the token girl) have naught to do but nick motor scooters and play in the woods. They're toughs the likes of which boys who identify with Michael Cera might rather be (except Cera keeps getting the girl, so what do I know?) These dudes seem content with bluster and bullying, egged on by tomboy Leanne, (perfectly played by Amy Harvey) until a brash joyride on the stolen scooter accidentally bags 'em a weird transient.

The bum, Peter (Howarth) catches up with the panicked kids, complains of a ...Read the entire review

THE FILM

Jack Wrangler was an adult film superstar in a way you don't find anymore these days. He was a phenomenon that slowly enveloped the smut culture, constructing a name for himself through whispers and uncomfortably long, held gazes. When they write that they don't make 'em like they used to, they're talking exclusively about Jack Wrangler.

"Anatomy of an Icon" is a straightforward documentary piecing together an overview of Wrangler's often potent life and his imprint on the glittery, marquee-intensive "Boogie Nights" culture of 1970's pornography. Directed by longtime documentarian Jeffrey Schwarz, the picture is a blazingly paced injection of information and retro sensations, revealing Wrangler to be a puzzling, intelligent human being who greatly contrasted the perception of the adult movie world, eventually reaching icon status as he conquered the gay porn scene and then...Read the entire review

The Product:
Sometimes, a complicated project requires an innovative approach. Unusual material frequently mandates an equally atypical take. A while back, the art of stop motion animation was used to bring the story of Charles Manson and his Freaky Deaky Helter Skelter philosophies to darkly comic life, while Steven Spielberg once contemplated turning the musical Cats into a traditional 2D animated adventure. In the case of Dante Alighieri's classic literary treasure The Divine Comedy, many have taken on the epic poem's first cantica, "Inferno". But few have found a way to make it come alive for a contemporary audience like Sean Meredith and his creative collaborators Sandow Birk and Paul Zaloom. Using live action puppetry and post-modern artistic renderings, they have refashioned Aligheri's trip through Hell into a stunning social commentary. The results - both ...Read the entire review

Man, Woman, and the Wall is a 2007 Japanese pinku film from Junk Food director Masashi Yamamoto. The film follows Ryu a twenty-something writer for a generic magazine who has just moved into a new apartment. He quickly becomes enamored by his cute next door neighbor Satsuki. Faster than you can put on a pair of headphones and say "The Conversation", Ryu is using a microphone to listen through the thin walls (eavesdropping on her baths, hook-ups with her boyfriend, and convos with a rival stalker who keeps calling her), picking through her trash, and inventing ways to strike up conversations with her.

Okay, it's a typical male fantasy, most pinku/softcore flicks are, which leads me to wonder what a pinku written and directed by a woman would be like. I wonder if there is one. I know the genre fairly well and cannot think of a noted woman helmer. Drop me a line if you know of one. ...Read the entire review

Any film that opens with a comical beheading and electrocution deserves at least some praise, however faint it may be. A follow-up to the unleashed lunacy of 2006's "Another Gay Movie," "Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild" takes this improbable franchise even further into comedic dementia, eager to top the original picture in pure knockout vulgarity. I'd say it's a photo finish.

Off to Ft. Lauderdale for a Spring Break blowout vacation, Andy (Jake Mosser), Nico (Jonah Blechman), Jarod (Jimmy Clabots), and Griff (Aaron Michael Davies) are at a loss for words when they arrive at their resort. Confronted with available men as far as the eye can see, the boys are tickled when the "Gays Gone Wild" contest commences, awarding points for sexual encounters and assorted mischief. Pushed into the madness of the week's festivities, the men are forced to consider matters of the heart before indulging their carna...Read the entire review

The Movie
Ever been on the verge of sneezing but then don't? That feeling sucks, doesn't it? You're about ready to give in, but forces beyond your control pull you back, leaving you with a knife up your nose--an uncomfortable tingle that makes you want to turn your skin inside out and spit on it for fooling you. That's kind of the feeling I had with The Houseboy, a film with honest intentions yet oh-so empty promises.

If there was any need for a public service announcement about the dangers of being the third wheel in a gay couple, it's this movie. When the film starts, little Ricky (Nick May) is sandwiched between two older hunks in bed: the kind, lovable Si...Read the entire review

Jack Wrangler was an adult film superstar in a way you don't find anymore these days. He was a phenomenon that slowly enveloped the smut culture, constructing a name for himself through whispers and uncomfortably long, held gazes. When they write that they don't make 'em like they used to, they're talking exclusively about Jack Wrangler.

"Anatomy of an Icon" is a straightforward documentary piecing together an overview of Wrangler's often potent life and his imprint on the glittery, marquee-intensive "Boogie Nights" culture of 1970's pornography. Directed by longtime documentarian Jeffrey Schwarz, the picture is a blazingly-paced injection of information and retro sensations, revealing Wrangler to be a puzzling, intelligent human being who greatly contrasted the perception of the adult movie world, eventually reaching icon status as he conquered the gay porn scene and then, without batting an eye, th...Read the entire review

The Product:
Thank GOD for DVD. No, seriously. All substandard barebones Hollywood hack product aside, the digital format has acted like a literal cinematic archeologist, digging deep into the filmmaking firmament both here and abroad to unearth some amazing movie masterworks. Without the new technology, it's a safe bet that few would have witnessed the brilliance of the Plaga Zombie films, the blasphemous creativity of Coffin Joe, the unhinged horrors of French films like Ils and Inside, or the psychedelic spaghetti westernism of The Legend of God's Gun. Indeed, DVD does such a great job of generating buzz where none exists that any "blu" update will have a lot to live up to. Take Hell's Ground, for example. YouTube has been feasting on the trailer for Omar Ali Khan's homage to the fright flicks he grew up loving as a youth in Pakistan. Now, he give...Read the entire review

The Movie
I had given up on Back Soon after an hour of viewing when I was suddenly greeted with six minutes of somewhat meaningful (if predictable) material. But my joy was brief: At the 1-hour, 6-minute mark, a scene so ridiculously absurd slapped me back to reality. Even though the final scene was handled well, I felt a huge sense of frustration with the wasted potential. There's a good idea here, but it's handled horribly.

When the drama starts, aspiring actor Logan Foster (Windham Beacham) is at the hospital, where his wife dies after being hit by a drunk driver (who was never caught). A year later, he sells their home to Gil Ramirez (Matthew Montgomery),...Read the entire review

The Product:
When it first hit theaters way back in 1999, people predicted that The Matrix would be influential. It had that amazing bullet time effect, lots of Wachowski Brothers bravado, and a narrative that lent itself to multiple viewings (and interpretations). Sadly, very few of the films inspired by this sci-fi landmark have come close to matching its power and providence. They either leave in the style and forget the substance, or visa versa. Now comes the Swedish directorial team of Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein. After years as part of their homeland's TV industry, the duo offers up their first full length feature, a direct take on Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity called Storm. With its reality vs. dream structure and slacker as superhero dynamic, there's a lot of comparable elements at work here. But Mårlind and Stein also manage the near impossible. They've made a movie ...Read the entire review

The Movie
When this low-budget mind-bender opens, we are slowly drifting up and away from the figure of Jack Emitni (Louis Morabito), who lies asleep in a snow ditch. His narration quickly informs us that he's obsessed with time (his last name is conveniently an anagram for "in time"), which we can perceive but not control--we can only pass through it, at one constant rate, in one single direction. Get out your thinking caps, folks, cause this is gonna be one of those movies.

Well, at least it thinks it is. The brainchild of writers/directors Dave Mazzoni and Tom Mattera--who developed the original concept while film students at Temple Unive...Read the entire review

The Movie
A Chilean-born director raised in Denmark shooting a modern-day western set in Copenhagen, showing influences of a famed Tejano filmmaker? It sounds wacky, but it works. Shaky Gonzalez could very well be following in the footsteps of Robert Rodriguez, who epitomized the spirit of independent filmmaking with his 1992 breakaway hit, El Mariachi.

Like that film, Pistoleros has a spirit and energy that oozes out of every frame, going a long way in selling the material. It's got gun fights, a heist, double crosses, slo-mo punches, bullets frozen mid-trajectory and lots of flashbacks--all steeped in Old West atmosphere (I kinda dig the sepia tone-like shots, which show up a few times). In ...Read the entire review

The Movie
The best way to enjoy Socket may be to create a drinking game out of it. Any time you see a montage, gulp a Blow Job (the shot, silly! The one with cream...Bailey's Irish cream, that is). You'll be doing it often, because believe me: There are hordes of rapid-fire, spliced-image montages here, including the very first scene. That's when doctor Bill Matthews (Derek Long) is on the operating table after becoming a human lightning rod. With nerve damage to his four extremities, it's likely he'll never perform surgery again.

But handsome intern Craig Murphy (Matthew Montgomery) suddenly shows an interest in Matthews, giving him a new calling: He invites the doc to a support club of people wh...Read the entire review

The Living and The Dead:

The Living and The Dead is two movies, actually, but there's no dividing line. There's no easy way to say 'here's a terrifying look at life and its awful inevitabilities, and here's where slavish idolatry and a curious performance make me want to poke myself in the eye.' Often times it's easy to see where a movie goes off the rails. And though scientifically, there's an empirical point between living and dead, this movie has one wheel on the rails and one off for the entire run-time. Dividing audiences, it fits the bill of an honest movie made with heart, strength, and intention - sometimes my favorite movies fall in the 'love it or hate it' category - and whether you love this or hate it, you will not be unaffected.

Simon Rumley's movie finds a fading empire in the Brocklebank house, an estate large enough to house 30 families, but with only a few bits of scabro...Read the entire review