The Movie
Why are marketing efforts toward gay audiences sometimes so creepy? Welcome to Boys Briefs 5: Schoolboys, a collection of shorts from 2007 that--despite the wink wink! nature of its name--actually has a few deep and meaningful moments. But the title is only the tip of the icky iceberg: We also get a box cover with three actors transformed into super twinks dressed in highly unnecessary school uniforms (think Britney circa "(Hit Me)...Baby One More Time"), an image completely unrelated to any of the films.

There's also an unnecessary host: "charming 19-year-old" (why i...Read the entire review

The Movie
Don't get me wrong--I like watching a bunch of rich, sexually charged guys behaving badly in an all-male boarding school bursting with homoerotic imagery just as much as the rest of you. So I was more than happy to check out Teenage Angst, the oddly generic title (perhaps engineered by marketers for a North American DVD audience) of director Thomas Stuber's 61-minute German film.

It focuses on the relationship among four young men at an exclusive private school: Konstantin Sturmer (Franz Dinda) is the film's central character, who arrives back on campus after a family funeral; Drybusch (Niklas Kohrt) is the aggressive alpha male leader of the pack, a...Read the entire review

The Movie
Don't be confused...The Good Boy is not a boxing movie. It's also not a heist movie. Those two elements are just vehicles to tell the story of a young man's struggle, one fraught with bad influences and bad decisions.

This 2005 Spanish entry from director/story developer Daniel Cebrián picked up a few minor award wins and nominations, primarily for the performance of Álex González. He plays Angel, a promising boxer trying to make a life for himself in Madrid. But when a hand injury--and a reduction in hours at his part-time job as a mover--slows him down, things look bleak. In walks Vidal (...Read the entire review

The Film:

A made-for-TV Spanish drama A Love to Keep (original title is Electroshock) is the latest addition to PictureThis Entertainment and their diverse catalog of coming-of-age and gay-lesbian films. Written, produced, and directed by Juan Carlos Clavier pic attempts to shed light on the wide spread discrimination gay and lesbian couples were exposed to during the Franco regime.

Pilar (Carmen Elías) is madly in love with Elvira (Susi Sánchez). The two like to spend time together, listen to music, dance, and laugh. But they have to pay close attention to what their neighbors think of them. They must share their passion for each other only behind closed doors.

Determined to put an end to her medical condition Pilar's family agrees to send ...Read the entire review

The Film:

A sixteen-year old girl is the focus of attention in Finnish director Kirsi Liimatainen's Sonja (2006). Honest, devoid of moralistic preaching, and above all superbly acted pic tells a story about one's girl's desire to remain true to her feelings.

Sonja (Sabrina Kruschwitz) loves to spend time with her best friend Julia (Julia Kaufmann). They talk about relationships, vogue, and poetry. Julia also likes to talk about boys. But Sonja doesn't. Sonja likes Julia and the more she spends time with her the more she begins to miss her when her friend isn't around. Is this what love is supposed to feel like?

After a weekend in the countryside and a disappointing sexual encounter with an older man Sonja returns home determined to reveal her feelings to Julia. But Julia has moved on and found a new boyfriend.

If you've seen Lukas Moodysson's Fucking ÅmålRead the entire review

The MovieFour years before Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful another Italian (actually French and Italian) production recounted the horrific situation European Jews faced when the Nazi's marched in. Both films deal with the trauma war had inflicted on the children - too young to know what was going on, but equally punished - but Look to the Sky, or Jona Che Visse Nella Balena(Jona Who Lived in the Whale), focuses on not just telling the story through the eyes of a child but the voice as well, because the film is narrated by Jonah, a young boy from Amsterdam whose family is rounded up and sent to the Belson concentration camp. Written by Hugh Fleetwood, Fillippo Ottoni, and Roberto Faenza, who also directed it, but the script was based on the pages of Jona Oberski's autobiography, Childhood . The film was originally released in 1993, and has been remastered and re...Read the entire review

Improvisation is the new black in indie filmmaking. There's always been directors who rely on improv to some degree to add a sense of spontaneity to acting and dialogue. Examples include Mike Leigh, Christopher Guest, Jim Jarmusch and John Cassavetes. However, of late, the method is in vogue among notable new indie directors such as James Bolton (The Graffiti Artist), Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha), Jay Duplass (The Puffy Chair), Aaron Katz (Dance Party, USA), So Yong Kim (In Between Days), and Joe Swanberg (Kissing on the Mouth). Argentine director Alexis Dos Santos goes even further toward total improv than most with his first feature film Glue.

Set in a small town in Argentina's Patagonian outback, Glue relies on the improv of its three leads, Nahuel Perez Biscayart (Lucas), In...Read the entire review

The Film:

An edgy tale about an aging social worker and her obsession with a younger boy first -time German director Angelina Maccarone's Verfolgt a.k.a Punish Me (2006) is likely to gather plenty of momentum amongst those looking for bold and unconventional cinema.

50-year old Elsa (Maren Kroymann) is responsible for troublemaker Jan (Kostja Ullmann). She follows his progress at the local center for delinquents and even gets him a job with her partner. But Jan has an unusual interest in Elsa. The unlikely duo embarks on a controversial S&M affair.

Shooting a film where the main theme is a torrid S&M affair between an older woman and a significantly younger boy isn't the easiest of tasks. Certainly one is likely to gather plenty of criticism for overstepping the boundaries of "serious" cinema. For a good reason? Not unless you have a very narrow definition of wh...Read the entire review

The Film:

Amnon Buchbinder's Whole New Thing will definitely turn heads amongst those who believe that Canadian cinema has been in a state of hibernation. In a notably subtle fashion the Canuck director tells a compelling story about a 13-year old boy whose world turns upside down when he discovers how grown-ups express their feelings.

Emerson (Aaron Webber) lives with his parents in a desolated house in the snowy hills of Nova Scotia. He is home-schooled, in love with literature, and unsure about his sexuality. When he is enrolled in the local high school the youngster falls for his English teacher (Daniel Maclvor), a lonely gay man with a broken heart, thus causing a sea of problems.

Right off the bat...Whole New Thing might well be one of the best Canadian films I've seen in a long, very long time. Hilarious and sincere Emerson's struggle to embrace the ...Read the entire review

The Film:

Co-produced by Austria, Italy, and Germany tale about two teenagers obsessed with violence. Pic carries plenty of potential and first time writer-director Eva Urthaler is a name to be remembered.

After Sebastien (Sergej Moya) and Paul (Ludwig Trepte) become close friends they abduct 30-year-old Sonya (Elisabetta Roncchetti) and drag her to an abandoned factory with an impressive pornographic collection. There, the victim is tied up, played with, and eventually released. During the course of the game the two friends collapse under the weight of emotions they are unable to rationalize.

Out of Hand a.k.a Keller-Teenage Wasteland (2005) is a rough, disturbing, and powerful film about teenage angst whose mature look anything but suggests that this is the work of a director with no previous experience behind the camera. Avoiding ge...Read the entire review

The Film:

On a secluded militia camp, somewhere in Lebanon, a group of kids are trained to become assassins. One of them will have the honor of traveling to France where a high-profile target is to be eliminated.

Djilali (Teufik Jallab), the main protagonist in Giles de Maistre's Killer Kid (re-titled for US distribution as The Boy From Lebanon), quickly outpaces the rest of the competitors proving that he is the one.

In Paris, Djilali meets the enigmatic Karim (Younesse Boudache), a poor kid from the Arab suburbs of the city. While Djilali knows everything about guns and bombs Karim appears well-versed in rap music and women. The two click and eventually become friends. When the time finally comes for Djilali to carry out his mission he is faced with an impossible dilemma.

Despite the high praises and words of support The Boy Fro...Read the entire review

Note:
The Recruiter was released earlier last year by PictureThis Ent. under its original title: Schizo. This DVD release appears to be identical with only the main title altered to The Recruiter.

The film:
In the once glorious union of Soviet states chaos has taken over. Deep into the far East Kazakhstan has gained its independence but instead of economic prosperity and political stability the country is swamped by criminal elements and homeless beggars trying to make ends meet.

The infrastructure of the state is nearly non-existent: cars are barely seen running, electricity is often down, fresh water and medical supplies are a rare commodity. Yet, for fifteen-year old Mustafa, or as his friends call him Schizo (short for Schizophrenic)...Read the entire review

The Movie:
When this film opens, Jean and Phillipe are lovers in 1942 Paris, which has been occupied by Germany. No one knows about their clandestine relationship, and with good reason, as homosexuality is an instant death sentence under Nazi rule. Sara, a Jew who loves Jean but does not know at first that he is gay, re-enters his life when her family is massacred, and Jean agrees to hide her despite Phillipe's reluctance. Sara works under the name "Yvonne" in Jean's family's store and lives at Phillipe's apartment. In the meantime, Jean's brother, Jacques, a professional thief, returns home from jail and continues to loot the homes of wealthy Jews who have been sent to concentration camps while at the same time harboring a grudge that Jean is the favored child in the family. A love triangle also occurs between Jacques, Sara, and Jean, as Jacques begins to fall for Sara, who only has eyes for...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Eric, a Hong Kong teenager, finds his life turned upside down when a supposedly brief visit to Toronto ends up being a ploy for his parents to uproot the family permanently. Culture shock ensues as the cracks in Eric's parents' marriage begin to show, and Eric tries to establish himself in his new school and with various love interests.

Eric also happens to be gay. Innocent is not about his discovery of that fact; it is well-established from the beginning that he is attracted to men. When he moves to Toronto, he finds himself drawn to a number of them: from his incredibly good-looking cousin, to an older man he meets in a bookstore, to his new friend in school, and to a young cook in his mother's restaurant. In other words, he is a pretty typical teenager who is overrun with sexual energy as he stands on the precipice of adulthood.

Although Eric's romantic ev...Read the entire review

The Film:

A disturbing social drama about a Croatian prostitute (Chulpan Khamatova) living in Vienna with her son whose life is a never-ending struggle to accept the obvious Hurensohn a.k.a The Whore's Son (2004) feels very much like something Swedish director Lukas Moodysson would cook up. Raw, provocative, and unsettling this co-produced by Germany and Luxembourg film does not shy away from showing it all.

Far and away is The Whore's Son however from the convincing storytelling of Lukas Moodysson. Based on the book by Gabriel Loidolt the script for this rather unknown in the US film appears notably flawed in key areas that tend to be easily singled out. The dialog, the main area of concern here, is not on par with the impressive camera work and for the most part it clearly shows-clichéd lines, overdone slang, and wannabe smart quotes preve...Read the entire review

The Film:

Seventeen-year-old Mikael (Johan Libéreau) is the leader of a small team of judo-wrestlers in a high-school where athletes are held in high regard. His newest friend, Clément (Pierre Perrier), whose father has agreed to sponsor the school's judo team, is eager to learn from Mikael and as a result the two spend more and more time together. Slightly jealous Mikael's sweetheart Vanessa (Salomé Stévenin) becomes attracted by Clément.

Screened during last year's Cannes Film Festival Douches Froides a.k.a Cold Showers (2005) is an honest film about maturation and one boy's struggle to follow his dreams. Explicit, controversial, and thought-provoking Cold Showers also marks French director Anthony Cordier's feature-film debut (the director's two previous works are short documentaries).

The bigger part of Cold Showers is concer...Read the entire review

The Film:

Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of men.

If there ever was a Balkan film that matched the intensity Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine (1995) revealed then Svetozar Ristovski's Iluzija a.k.a Mirage (2004) must be it. A carefully observed production about maturation Mirage combines the poetic brutality of Read the entire review

The Movie:

'Garcon Stupide', which translates to 'Stupid Boy' is a French film about a cute but not-so-bright gay young man who drifts through a rather meaningless existence while trying to prove to himself and those around him that he is not as stupid as everyone makes him out to be. Pierre Chatagny, a first-timer in the lead role of Loic, has handsome, angular features and a toned, tan body. The picture of him on the DVD cover really doesn't do him justice and it is surprising that the studio thought that such an image would have any sex appeal to the target audience for this movie. Loic uses his good looks to get easy, anonymous sex through internet hookups, often with older unattractive men. He unexpectedly meets one man for meaningless sex, only to find that the guy is more interested in him as a person, which confuses yet intrigues the young man. A strange, mentoring friendship develops ...Read the entire review

The Film:

On the outskirts of a poor Ukrainian village Barbu (Yasha Kultiasov) and his older sister Mimma (Julia Khanverdieva) often perform impressive tricks for those willing to spare a bit of cash. He is a skinny boy with legs that can barely support his tiny body, she is a charming girl with the smile of an angel.

During a routine performance at the main square in their village a wealthy circus owner (Lazar Ristovski) offers to the parents of Barbu and Mimma a deal they can not resist. Shortly after the two kids are sold to the rich foreigner for a few thousand German marks. Hours later Barbu, Mimma, and Caruso, head to the heart of Europe-Berlin.

In a cold an unfriendly train station on the Ukrainian-Slovakian border Barbu is unceremoniously abandoned. He is told to meet Caruso and Mimma in the German capital. Barbu hides in the restroom of an old and dingy train where th...Read the entire review

The Movie:
'3 Guys, 1 Girl, 2 Weddings' is a light-hearted French comedy that can best be described as a gay 'My Best Friend's Wedding.' This is a story that has been told before, even in other gay-themed films: Gay boy loves his straight best friend. They are happy with the boundaries established in their relationship. A woman arrives in the straight guy's life. Suddenly, the comfortable friendship shared by the two buddies is threatened by this new arrival. The gay boy feels himself losing the special relationship he has as the straight guy falls increasingly for the new woman. The gay boy realizes more and more how much he loves his straight friend and will do anything to break up the new lovers. Will he succeed at ending this intrusion on their friendship? Even better, will he actually be able to "turn" his friend and realize the true love of his life? This all leads to the inevitable con...Read the entire review

Movie:
L'amour Dangeroux [aka Trop plein d'amour] is a tepid French road movie about a young man and woman on the run from the law.

Originally made for French television and directed by Steve Suissa the film stars Simon (Nicolas Cazale) a young man who gets caught up in a bungled burglary attempt. While making a getaway one of his cohorts knocks a cop unconsious and into a coma. Everyone gets caught by the authorities except Simon who, naturally, is blamed for hitting the cop.

The basic set up of the story is good; a working class [possibly of Arab decent] young man faces tough odds. But then the film goes awry with the introduction of the Simon's love interest; Noemie (Jennifer Decke) an attractive upper class student who works in her father's bistro. Although Simon and Noemie appear to be no more than passing friends - who frequently eye each other - Noemie decides to give...Read the entire review

Royston Tan's 15 is the kind of stream-of-thought character study beloved of American filmmakers like Gus Van Zandt and Larry Clarke, except that since these kids live in the strictly structured city-state of Singapore, famous for its caning of youths for offenses like vandalism and for outlawing chewing gum, the sense of desperation and danger that hangs over the characters that informs every scene is extra complex. The dour, depressed lives of the five main characters would weigh down another film to the point that it would become unwatchable but Tan has a huge array of tricks up his sleeve that makes 15 provocative and engaging.

The film isn't gimmicky, but it is heavily stylized. Tan uses the usual independent filmmaker's bag of tricks, like jump-cuts, characters speaking directly into the camera, fractured timelines, and crazy transitions. But he also fills the screen with t...Read the entire review

Movie:
Young Gods is an engaging and effective Finnish movie about the hard lessons learned by a group of young men.

The film has a salacious tag line; it is about a group of young men who decide to videotape their various sexual encounters with women and then show them off to one another. But that hook is merely a facade to a good solid drama that manages to stay entertaining and relevant without being didactic.

18-year-old Taavi (Jussi Nikkila) videotapes everything in his life ever since the untimely - and gruesome - death of this parents. One night he invites his friends to a mansion party. That night he secretly tapes his guests in their drunken state having sex or laying around partly undressed. The next day they watch the tape and come up with the idea to film their sexual encounters with women.

But right from the start they realize it won't be all fun and games. The vario...Read the entire review

The film:
In the once glorious union of Soviet states chaos has taken over. Deep into the far East Kazakhstan has gained its independence but instead of economic prosperity and political stability the country is swamped by criminal elements and homeless beggars trying to make ends meet.

The infrastructure of the state is nearly non-existent: cars are barely seen running, electricity is often down, fresh water and medical supplies are a rare commodity. Yet, for fifteen-year old Mustafa, or as his friends call him Schizo (short for Schizophrenic) life still has a lot to offer.

When Schizo befriends his mother's lover (Eduard Tabyschev) everything changes in a matter of days. He quickly enters the underground world of illegal boxing where men would ...Read the entire review

The Film:

Directed by Benoit Graffin, co-written by Andre Techine (Alice et Martin, Les Egares), a director I have a tremendous amount of respect for, and based on the short novel by Paul Bowles (The Sheltering Sky) Beach Café is a film that transports its viewers to modern day Morocco and rather successfully follows the brief friendship between two men.

Director Benoit Graffin, who was also the co-writer of the script to Beach Café, is rather unknown to North American audiences. His only other project that will soon see the light of day in America is the Cesar nominated comedy Apre-Vous for which Graffin also co-wrote the script. In addition, Graffin directed the well-received 1999 bitter-sweet love story Le New Yorker...Read the entire review

The Movie:
But Forever in My Mind is an Italian coming-of-age teen drama that reminds us how incredibly different life is outside our country. This sure isn't American Pie.

Silvio and his other high school buddies have typical adolescent issues of puberty—parent troubles, bullies, girls, and the desire to lose their virginity. But when Silvio kisses a student named Valentina in a closet at school, word soon gets out…to the entire school, including Valentina's jealous boyfriend. But all this is just kids' stuff compared to the sometimes violent student rebellion taking place at Silvio's school.

From the perspective of anyone who grew up on funny or bittersweet films of teen turmoil, this will immediately draw you in, because it starts off feeling like one of those. But it takes matters much more seriously, not reveling in teen sexploitation goodness. While it does delve i...Read the entire review

The Movie:
The Accidental Hero is a poignant—if slightly depressing—French language film that benefits from a short running time.

Tom, a young teen, can't seem to find any happiness in his life. He is constantly at the throat of his mother, a flight attendant who is rarely around. Tom believes she drove away the father he never met, and resents her for it. When the two are in a horrible car accident, Tom is okay, but his mother wakes up with no recollection of who she is—or who her son is. Tom is placed in a group home, under the guardianship of a tough disciplinarian Tom sees sort of as a father figure. It is up to Tom alone to get his life—and his mother's—back on track.

This is one of those films that gives you a glimpse into a world of misfortune, and rather than taking the easy route and cutting the characters some slack, keeps piling on the heartache. Even so, with ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
At last, someone wholeheartedly takes on the lives of a whole group of bi-sexual individuals. And, like its title, this French film takes the perspective To The Extreme.

The Story:
Thomas is a well-off party boy. He's bisexual, and although he's with an older woman with a son named Gregory, he's still getting it on the side, most notably from a sexy young blond man named Vincent. Therefore, he won't commit to his girlfriend like she wants, or move in and be surrogate father to her son. But then, she dies in an accident. He doesn't want to raise the boy. But then he does. But then he discovers he can't get custody of the boy, who ends up in an orphanage. He tries everything he can think of to win custody, and eventually, it looks like the only solution is to break the boy out of his "prison."

But that's not the only plot line. Thomas is non-committal with his bo...Read the entire review

The Movie:
El Mar is a Spanish film that considers what might happen to the psyches of three young children—a girl, and two boys, one of whom is gay—during a period of war, and how this traumatic experience could affect their adult socialization.

The Story:
During the Spanish Civil War, young Ramallo, Tur, and the tagalong girl, Francesca, witness horrible atrocities including the loss of parents. This leads to Ramallo doing something horrific to another child while Tur and Francesca look on in horror. But his two friends (both of whom have childhood crushes on him) help him cover up the nasty deed.

Flash ahead to at least a decade later. Ramallo, now in his early 20s, comes to a sanatorium for those suffering from tuberculosis. To his surprise, his old friend Tur is already there, sick as well, and even Francesca is around, working as a nun. Now, it is Ramallo who ha...Read the entire review

The Movie:
What's a father—as in PRIEST—to do when he finds out he has a 14-year-old son? French film The Holy Child considers the possibilities with light-heartedness and tongue-in-cheek humor.

The Story:
Father Marc Aubray (Lambert Wilson) is a hero in his community. He still lives with his mother, and extols the virtues of virginity. He has written books on the need for celibacy until marriage. He does the talk show rounds. He teaches seminars to his teen parishioners about remaining chaste as he has his entire life. So it becomes a real "nuisance" when 14-year-old Dimitri (Adrien Aumont) shows up at his church steps claiming to be his son. The priest tries to deny it, but Dimitri has a picture showing a young Marc with his mother (who is now in jail for selling fake Mother Mary lamps that cry "miracle" tears). Dimitri may seem to be blackmailing Marc when he threate...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Transfixed is a French/Belgian film that dares to do what no other thriller has done before—make a transsexual the heroine.

The Story:
Transsexual Bo Ancelin (Robinson Stévenin) works as a stage performer in a nightclub. She also has a number of transgendered friends who either work in the nightclub or on the street. And it's the ones who work on the street who are being killed left and right. A serial killer is freezing the victims bodies and then mutilating them over a course of days before dumping the bodies in what amounts to the gutter.

Bo also has other problems. She is supposed to take the witness stand against her father, a prominent doctor being accused of pedophilia. But the law fears no one will believe she was molested by him when she was a little boy because of her current lot in life. Then there's Johnny (Stéphane Metzger) an incredibly dark a...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Key West: City of Colors is an up close and personal documentary that takes us to the all-inclusive utopia to meet the residents and share in a landmark historical event.

The Story:
More than being a documentary about the people of Key West, this short film is also a history lesson in gay pride, introducing us to Gilbert Baker, the man who created the first rainbow flag back in 1978. As the residents of Key West discuss the diversity of their safe haven from the rest of the world, we also meet Gilbert as he and many more sew the largest rainbow flag on record to mark the 25th anniversary of his original creation. The final goal is to make a flag long enough to stretch across the island, touching the water from the gulf to the Atlantic. It will take hundreds of Key West residents to carry the 8,000 foot flag across the island to celebrate the worth of all humanit...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Same Sex Parents is a French Canadian film that tackles the question "What is it like to be the teenaged child of gay parents?" The result is an incredibly honest, heartfelt film that deals with the relationships of lesbians, gay men, and heterosexual teens.

The Story:
The cover of this DVD box is a bit misleading. I went in thinking I was going to watch a film about two teenaged lesbian lovers, one of whom somehow gets pregnant. That's not the plot of the film at all, and although that would have been quite a story, this one is just as powerful. Read on.

Teenager Olympe finds herself once again in a new school (her mother moves around a lot) and although she has a close female best friend and an adorable boyfriend, she is being tormented by a girl in school who keeps claiming her mother is a "sexual pervert."

Turns out Olympe's mother is a lesbian—and her...Read the entire review

The Movie:
We Need a Vacation is a quirky French film about two young boys living in the ghetto who decide they need to take a summer vacation. And they'll break the rules if need be to just make their escape. But don't misinterpret this as a movie for young audiences. This one has some deeper meaning and mature moments.

The Story:
This road trip flick focuses on two young boys from the ghetto who are envious of their rich classmates when summer hits and everyone begins going on vacation. So the two shrewd friends try any way they can to go on their own trip. They go to the airport and tell the airline clerk that their parents were illegal black aliens from Africa who left without them (even though only one of the boys is African-American!), and they need to be flown to Africa right away. They stow away in a family's camper in order to get to the beach—but when they disco...Read the entire review