Branden Blinn's REMARKABLE SHADES OF GAY opens theatrically at New York's Cinema Village

The second movie attempting to ride the marketing coattails of 50 Shades of Grey (the first was the faith-based film Old Fashioned), REMARKABLE SHADES OF GAY -- a new "omnibus" movie offering nine short tales of gay and bi-sexual life from a filmmaker named Branden Blinn (aka William Branden Blinn), who directs each episode, often writes or co-writes it, and occasionally edits, and usually helps produce, as well -- takes us back to an earlier era of gay movies but does it using all the accouterments of modern filmmaking. These would include actors who can handle dialog well and moment-to-moment truth, the use of decent video equipment coupled to a sensibility that harks back to television sitcoms of an earlier day.

Mr. Blinn, pictured at left, loves happy endings, whatever the particular tale might cover -- from parenting and dying to the closet, threesomes and seducing would-be straight men. (Collectively, these tales would seem to indicate that there is hardly a straight man around who isn't champing at the bit for some good, hot cock. File under: happy endings at any cost.) So, don't come here hankering for real life. But if you're in the mood for feel-good fun featuring a whole lot of hunky guys (everyone in nearly every episode is good looking) involved in inventive but unbelievable situations, here's your movie. Despite its title, expect no bondage in the film, although, unlike 50 Shades...,  this one does features occasional full-frontal, and Mr. Blinn's final episode even takes in a couple of budding erections. So, yes, you'll probably want to stay through the end. Herewith, a short run-down on what to expect in each episode:

Thirteen or So Minutes involves two young men who claim to have been straight and who've suddenly enjoyed male-on-male sex for the first time. One wants to embrace this, the other, not so much. A little tsuris and a lot of talk ensues....

Chased introduces us to two (yes, presumably straight) friends who, as they leave a bar, get into a argument with another group of guys and must hightail it on the run. This evidently sets their testosterone to raging, and later they must come to terms with the consequences of their sudden -- and extremely unbelievable -- amour....

Never or Now offers a kind of gay homage to a certain famous scene from Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, as an old and dying man in a rest home/hospital, as soon as his wife leaves for a few hours, picks up the phone and hires a hustler to visit him. Cue loads of kindness, tinkly sentimental music, and your oh-so-typical hustler who doesn't even demand his money. Sweet -- and, gosh, such uber-realism!

Triple Standard tackles guys and sports, via a gay couple, one of whom refuses to come out of the closet and, further, gets overly macho and nasty when another male dares to joke about his sexual preference. So what's his poor lover to do. You'll find out. Hint: Things just might be OK....

Without a Mom offers up a gay couple who've raised a strapping and straight hunk of a son who is suddenly having girlfriend problems. Gosh, one of the dads wonders, maybe he shoulda had a mom instead? In a movie like this one? Don't bet on it.

Life lesson after life lesson -- gay variety -- is taught us during the course of this film, and many of these lessons seem to have to do with men who profess zero interest is sex with another male -- and then suddenly come around to seeing the light. So it is in Toeing the Line, in which, during the course of coffee in a local hangout, one hot guy comes on to another by letting it drop that, yes, he a has a very big dick. Size matters, and before you can say Show Me, Please, we're off and running. This one's nicely acted but features utterly improbable behavior taking place in a public coffee shop.

A la Carte takes on a threesome -- husband. wife and the twinkie whom hubby has brought home to screw them both. Age and intergenerational sex matter here more than size, but doncha know that everything gets resolved in lightning speed and to everyone's satisfaction.

Size matters again in Truth or Dare, as two boy/girl couples decide to play the titular game one evening. But funny how girl-on-girl action just doesn't seem to raise the collective temperature the way that boy-on-boy stuff suddenly does. This one may make you laugh, at least.

Mr. Blinn saves his hottest visuals for the closing story, in which ageism and infidelity rear their heads -- and have absolutely no negative effect whatsoever. The filmmaker's rose-colored glasses simply refuse to lose their hue, no matter what, and there is nothing life can throw at these participants that can't be managed with a good long kiss and some hot sex. If only. But I have to say that Blinn, shown below with a couple of his actors, makes it all seem like lots of fun. If you're in the right mood, you might be seduced, too.

Remarkable Shades of Gay -- self-distributed and running two hours and six minutes -- began its theatrical premiere yesterday, February 27, in New York City at the Cinema Village. But you can bet it'll be available eventually on DVD and to stream.

Read more »

Branden Blinn, coming-out movies, gay adoption, gay parenting, GLBT movies, intergenerational sex, REMARKABLE SHADES OF GAY, short films, threesomes,

Rate it :

Stephen Belber's MATCH gives Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard plum roles

Identity proves the pivot point in MATCH, the new film from Stephen Belber, who, back in 2009, gave us a very interesting, funny and charming rom-com entitled Management and also wrote the screenplay for Richard Linklater's Tape. One man's identity and why someone else might care about this are the questions that arise in the course of the film, written and directed by Belber and starring a very fine threesome: Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard, all working at close to the height of their not inconsiderable powers.

Mr. Belber, shown at right, is a writer who's very clever with dialog, as a look at his resume will demonstrate. Here his screenplay, extremely dialog-heavy, is also adapted from his original play and is full of exposition done smartly and for a very good reason. The film's beginning is all about a graduate student (Ms Gugino) and her interview with a famous dancer, choreographer and teacher (Mr. Stewart), abetted by the student's not particularly helpful husband (Mr. Lillard). A lot of history is covered quickly and smartly, with Stewart playing the ever-so-slightly preening celebrity, enjoying a new moment or two in the sun, as he regales his listeners with stories of his life and career.

It is not long before we realize that the agenda here is something other than the stated one, and from there onwards the movie -- highly enjoyable from its outset -- becomes even more so, as well as exciting and surprising.  This is a role different from anything Stewart, shown above and below, has previously tackled (in my memory, at least), and it requires him to run the kind of gamut of emotions we're not used to seeing from this actor. He nails every nook and cranny.

Ms Gugino, below, comes through beautifully, too. Always a gifted actress, as well as a beauty, she brings a special vulnerability to her role that becomes more endearing and moving as the movie rolls along.

Mr. Lillard (below, left) is probably the biggest surprise here. Too often relegated to bozo roles earlier in his career, he comes into his own quite beautifully as the hubby with issues too heavy for him to handle. He's angry, closed off, and frightened of his own strength, which he's beginning to use in ways not at all wise.

Match is a kind of chamber piece; we see a few other performers along the way but it's these three who count for everything, and they play off each other beautifully. I would think this movie must have been a joy to film; it certainly is one to view.

The movie -- from IFC Films and running 92 minutes -- opens this Wednesday here in New York City at, I suspect, the IFC Center; in Los Angeles look for it at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 and Music Hall 3. If you're located elsewhere than on either coast, fear not, for the film makes it VOD debut simultaneously with its theatrical opening. 

Read more »

bi-sexuality, choreography, dancers, identity, MATCH, out of the past, plays-to-films, Stephen Belber, threesomes,

Rate it :

A play becomes a movie as Kristjan Thor/Ashlin Halfnight's DIVING NORMAL hits Arena Cinema

I don't think you'd guess that DIVING NORMAL -- the new film directed by Kristjan Thor with a screenplay from Ashlin Halflight -- began life as a legitimate theater piece, so opened up and out is the finished movie, which now takes place inside, outside, and all around the town. The film does not seem stagebound in the least. However, given what we see and hear from this screenplay, I am not certain that the original theater piece was all that good. Two of the three lead performances go some distance in making the film watchable, despite a story and screenplay that seems heavily manufactured (and not all that believable, in any case) in order to reach, by hook or by crook, its mostly feel-good conclusion.

Co-producers Scotty Crowe (above, right) and Philipp Karner (above, left) also co-star as respective best friends, Gordon and Fulton, who end up attracted to the same beautiful girl, Dana (Susie Abromeit, below). The difference between them is that Gordon appears to have something like Asperger's Syndrome (he has a lot of trouble being "normal"), while Fulton is an A-1 player (this guy's trouble has to do with failing to be forthright where women are concerned). How and why Gordon and Fulton ever became such good friends would seem to contradict reality as most of us know it.

There is also, initially, what appears to be a physical attraction to Fulton on the part of Gordon, but this is not developed much past the need for maybe just friendship. Instead we get reams of angst and a backstory for poor Dana that could choke the proverbial horse.

When you have a group this problemed, it can be tiring, not to mention the near-constant need to put into play one's suspension of disbelief, as one of another of our threesome does something dumb once again. Along the way we get yet another of those ridiculous proposals/declarations of love in a public place -- this time a restaurant -- along with a couple of odd and violent scenes, to the point where we begin rolling our eyes.

Which is too bad, since the three leads are attractive and talented, particularly Mr. Crowe and Ms Abromeit. The former excels at appearing just a little short of normal while maintaining our empathy and understanding; the latter is just beautiful and real enough to make us wish her character were not so weighted down with every problem imaginable. Mr. Karner, stuck with the shallow cad role, does what he can.

Still, I was moved by the movie's ending, even if I didn't much believe anything that had come before. Director Thor, shown at right, does a decent job of  bringing the whole thing together and pacing it to ensure our continued interest. Diving Normal (the title has to do with Gordon's diving lessons at the local swimming pool) -- from Devolver Films and running 92 minutes -- opens this Saturday, January 10, for a week-long run in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood. On January 13 it hits cable VOD, and on January 27 digital VOD. 

Read more »

addiction, Ashlin Halfnight, DIVING NORMAL, Kristjan Thor, problemed people, rom-com-dramedy, threesomes,

Rate it :

DVDebut: From TLA, two new gay movies, SNAILS IN THE RAIN and THE THIRD ONE

You can always count on TLA for a constant flow of GLBT films. The quality may vary (a lot) but the movies just keep on comin'. Last month saw the appearance of a couple of new-to-DVD releases that just might be worth your time.  SNAILS IN THE RAIN, a rather silly and not particularly appealing title explained only by the final scene of the movie (and even then it's mostly a big "huh?"), takes place in Israel back in the late 1980s and is all about homosexual panic on the part of its protagonist, a young hunk of a linguistics student on the verge of obtaining a much-wanted scholarship and living happily, or so it would seem, with his beautiful girlfriend.

THE THIRD ONE (El tercero), from the looks of its cover art and subject matter (a gay threesome), seems initially like the typical low-end GLBT title meant mostly to turn on its viewers. Instead, it's genuine surprise and a keeper, too: a movie that takes its characters more seriously than its sex (though both here are pretty damn good), pulls us in by virtue of interesting storytelling, writing and performances, and leaves us on as high and thoughtful a note as it does its youngest protagonist, a student who becomes involved with an older gay couple.

The meat of this short (71-minute) movie, written and directed with style, flair and suirprise by Rodrigo Guerrero, occurs over one evening and into the following morning. Earlier, the older couple (Franco and Hernán) has interacted with young Fede over the internet and invited him for dinner and... whatever.

The scene over dinner is actually the high point of the movie because it so beautifully and believably reveals character, motivation, back-story, the works. The filmmaker shoots most of it from the POV of Fede (a lovely job from Emiliano Dionisi, above, center) as he watches for clues about the life of gay adults (at 22, he's around half the age of his hosts). For their part, the older couple (played by Nicolás Armengol, above, left, and Carlos Echevarría, right) offer Fede everything they can -- from food to information to sex. These are, all three, good men, trying to negotiate their lives with decency and caring. Consequently, spending time with them is a pleasure.

Orson Welles is said to have told us that if you want a happy ending, this all depends on where you stop your film. Guerrero smartly ends his the morning after a lovely, productive, highly sexual night in which all three men have experienced pleasure and caring, each for the other two. Whatever is to come will no doubt be fraught with some change and disappointment. But for now, a new world has opened up for these guys.

In casting his film, Guerrero insists on men who are certainly attractive but not model-pretty with gym-toned bodies. This adds enormously to the movie's believability. The Third One -- from Argentina and in Spanish with English subtitles -- is available now on DVD from TLA, for purchase or rental. Oddly enough, the movie contains some very brief hardcore scenes (of other actors, not its main cast) during the initial web chat that begins the film, as a kind of object lesson, I guess, in what young Fede wants or can expect. This also frees the three leads to perform as genuinely and enjoyably as they want or can, since no full frontal views of these three men are to be seen in the actual film.

Snails in the Rain is another matter entirely. Though its story is a good deal darker than that of The Third One -- its young protagonist begins receiving daily  "I love you" letters (below) from an anonymous admirer, and soon his whole identity, personality and life is thrown for a loop -- its ability to handle this subject seriously is questionable. Beginning with the casting and use of leading man (Yoav Reuveni), with his model-pretty face and body-beautiful good looks, we're in "movie" reality.

Further, director and co-writer (with Yossi Avni Levy) Yariv Mozer keeps sticking that body -- as unclothed as possible (save any full-frontal shots) at almost all times -- in front of us to drool over. And drool we do. Mr. Reuveni is sho' 'nuf one hot guy.

As the letters pile up and the character's desire for a little homosexual fun clashes with his utter panic, we get one after another flashback to former times, in which something almost happened (above), or a scene in current times (like the one below) in which something almost does. Meanwhile, his poor girlfriend gets the brunt of his forbidden desires -- nicely in a bathtub or nastily, from behind over a kitchen table.

Character, however, is something that really doesn't surface here. Instead we get the physical incarnation, nifty as this is, but little emotion or depth other than that same old fear that keeps surfacing. Over and over and over. The question of who is sending the letters is fairly easy to guess and eventually comes out -- to a bit of suspense but little real effect.

Snails in the Rain -- in Hebrew with English subtitles and running 85 minutes -- is available now from TLA for sale or rental.

Read more »

Argentine film, gay cinema, GLBT movies, homosexual panic, Israeli cinema, Rodrigo Guerrero, SNAILS IN THE RAIN, THE THIRD ONE, threesomes, Yariv Mozer,

Rate it :