Moonlight – the Mamba review
It’s among the most lauded films of the past year, with eight Oscar nominations under its belt. So, does Moonlight live up to the hype as a great queer film? What most surprised me when watching Moonlight is discovering that what lies at its heart is a discreet, delicate love story. It’s one that’s rarely told […]
Film Review: Carol
Todd Haynes adapts the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt for the big screen in the visually beautiful and meticulously directed Carol. The film features Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Blue Jasmine) and Oscar nominee Rooney Mara (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as unlikely lovers in 1952 New York. Similar to Haynes’ Far […]
Review: Lost in the White City
Co-directed by Tanner King Barklow (The Invisible War) and Israeli Gil Kofman, Lost in the White City is a fascinating film about a straight couple’s relationship which disintegrates during a Mediterranean summer in Tel Aviv. It stars rising indie actor Thomas Dekker as the hard drinking self-obsessed experimental film maker Kyle and Haley Bennett (The […]
Review: Saint Laurent
Director Bertand Bonello’s epic portrait of the life of influential fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is beautifully captured in his amazing biopic Saint Laurent, starring the gorgeous Gaspard Ulliel as the iconic and tortured designer. Belgian actor Jeremie Renier (In Bruges) also stars as the French industrialist Pierre Berge who, together with Saint Laurent, founded […]
Review: The Imitation Game
Based upon the 1983 book by Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma and brilliantly adapted into an insightful screenplay by Graham Moore, The Imitation Game is a superb and evocative historical drama about the breaking of the enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II. Norwegian director Morten Tyldum elegantly weaves a very touching […]
Film review – We all need a little “Pride”
Their protests were met with a scale of police brutality that their small villages and tight-knit communities had never before experienced. Injustice reigned. The days were literally dark (with utilities unpaid) and friends were few. Surprisingly enough, there was another group that could absolutely relate to these tribulations: gays and lesbians in 80’s London. With […]
FILM REVIEW: THE 10 YEAR PLAN
Hailing from the studios of Cinema175 in West Hollywood, writer/director J.C. Calciano, creator of previous festival favourites such as Is It Just Me?, eCupid and the sneaky hit YouTube web series, Steam Room Stories, brings us his latest cinematic shenanigans. Who doesn’t enjoy an entertaining Rom-Com every now and then? Something you can slip on, […]
FILM REVIEW: THE FALLS
Unlike Ang Lee’s Oscar winning 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, American director Jon Garcia’s film The Falls is not big budget, overlong or does not feature any major Hollywood stars. Instead, The Falls is a nuanced and superb analysis of how two young men find affection and sexual attraction for each other in the confines of a […]
REVIEW: BEHIND THE CANDELABRA
Michael Douglas and Matt Damon gleefully throw their heterosexuality to the wind as they take on the roles of showbiz lovers in the memorable Behind the Candelabra. The film is not so much about the life of the legendary high priest of piano camp Liberace (Douglas) as it is about the dysfunctional five year relationship […]
REVIEW: JIMMY IN PIENK
Being different has never felt so right in this passionate and heartfelt film. Jimmy in Pienk is a delightfully charming Afrikaans film that shows the true colours of the new South Africa. It tells the funny and touching story of Jimmy Bester, a rugged seventh generation mielie farmer who can give an accurate five-day weather […]