Simon (Netherlands 2004)

The Gist:

Shy gay dental student Camiel is drawn into the life of outgoing, outrageous, libertine straight man Simon, at least until they have a falling out that is. They meet again years later and Camiel is once again pulled into Simon's life and circle of friends, except this time things are more serious. 

Comments:

First off, despite being included in various lists of "gay movies," it is not a gay themed movie. 

It does not have a 'gay protagonist' per say as much as it has a protagonist who just happens to be gay. His being being a somewhat introverted person who is more an observer of life than participant is far more important to the story than his sexual orientation. 

So, not a gay movie. What it is though is a pretty good story about living life and facing death. It's worth watching, though with a caveat, or rather a warning, that charismatic Simon who serves as our lesson giver and guide to fully embracing life and facing death is a drug dealing, egotistical, misogynistic ass. One with a "heart of gold," but still an unmitigated ass. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

Topless women 

• Director: Eddy Terstall
• Writer: Eddy Terstall
• Actors: Cees Geel, Marcel Hensema
• 102 min
• Dutch, English, German, Thai
• IMDB

Romeos (Romeos ...Anders Als du Denkst!) (Germany 2011)

The Gist: 

Lukas, a young German transsexual man in the processes of transitioning has been, much to his annoyance, assigned to female housing during his civil service. 

Luckily, a friend from his home town, Ine, is already there, and through her he meets a new group of largely gay and lesbian friends including Fabio, the closeted "Alpha Gay" of the group. There is an instant bond between the two, and as their connection deepens, Lukas must deal with the risks and consequences of coming out to Fabio. 

Comments:

The movie is really good and is an interesting view of a man transitioning. 

It ends up being a celebration of "maleness," both physical and emotional, not only in Lukas exhilarating in the changes his body is going through, but also in every scene between Lukas and Fabio acting super cocky with each other in the way that young men sometimes do when they're burning with so much excess energy they have no idea what to do with themselves. 

The movie practically sweats testosterone. 

Part of that maleness and change though is that Lukas is at times self absorbed to the point of being a jerk to his friends and family (so it kind of just desserts that he falls for the only character even more self absorbed than he is).

Women: 

Several

People of color:

Some

Gratuitous Nudity:

Some bare butts and bare breasts

• Director: Sabine Bernardi
• Writer: Sabine Bernardi
• Actors: Rick Okon, Maximilian Befort
• 94 min
• German
• IMDB 

Morgan (U.S. 2012)

The Gist:

A young man, Morgan, returns home after recovering from a bike racing accident that left him a paraplegic. Depressed and with no real direction in life, he meets Dean and the two soon fall in love, starting a relationship that is soon put to the test when Morgan decides to enter the wheelchair category of the race that crippled him. 

Comments:

I did a cursory look at the movie's IMDB page and it seems that many people hate it as being poorly made and unbelievable. 

I'm in the minority it seems, because I liked it. Although even in liking it, I'm fully aware that quality wise it's just okay, and content wise it's totally a sappy "lifetime" TV movie of a person overcoming an obstacle while wallowing in melodrama. Although in this case instead of an angst filled woman, we have an angst filled, not particularly stereotypical gay man. 

If adequately done "overcoming personal challenge" movies are your thing, it may be worth a watch. If not, then the entire movie will annoy. 

Women:

Mother and best friend

People of color: 

One best friend 

Gratuitous nudity:

A quick bare butt shot

• Director: Michael D. Akers
• Writers: Michael D. Akers, Sandon Berg
• Actors: Leo Minaya, Jack Kesy
• 89 min
• IMDB

Saltwater (U.S. 2012)

The Gist:

Will has left the Navy for civilian life and has temporarily moved in with his friend Rich until he gets settled. Rich immediately sets out to get Will a boyfriend, choosing a extremely tall Australian named Josh (who is played by a famous former rugby player). They have an immediate connection, but after a bad first date, will they ever get the timing right to be more than just almost friends?

Comments with major spoilers, obvious and not:

First off, the movie is terrible. It's more than just bad acting, bad music, or what distractingly appears to be a single house doubling as almost every location, from restaurant to lawyers office. The major problem is perhaps the basic premise of the story, that these two men belong together. 

Their first date ends abruptly when the two fight about DADT (Don't Ask Don't Tell), the then contemporary, now old policy of letting queer members of the military serve if they lied about not being straight.  An argument that is never resolved. This is followed by scene after scene of misunderstandings, mistiming, and hurt feelings, all working to show that they can barely manage to even be acquaintances let alone friends or even boyfriends.

It takes a totally out of left field death and it's resulting drama to finally push the story towards the expected sappy ending conclusion. Although even in that happy ending there is a huge amount of hand waving away of problems, by just telling the audience in monologue that Will "chose to be happy," which apparently means that none of the multiple issues keeping them apart mattered enough to show them dealing with them on screen.

Women: 

A few, though only one really really counts as an actual character

People of color:

One minor role

Gratuitous nudity

No

• Director: Charlie Vaughn
• Writer: Ronnie Kerr
• Actors: Ronnie Kerr, Ian Roberts, Bruce L. Hart
• 81 min
• IMDB

The Skinny (U.S. 2012)

The Gist:

Best friends from college, three gay men and a lesbian, get together for New York gay pride weekend. One discovers something about his boyfriend, two can't get laid, one can't ever stop having sex, and the last, a virgin, is desperately in love with his oversexed friend. Drugs, liquor, lies, and drama ensues. 

Comments:

I had a little bit of difficulty connecting to the characters because they are all essentially trust fund kids. They come from monied families where getting a condo or a year long European trip as a graduation present is expected and normal. With two exceptions that is, one of the young men isn't merely exceedingly well off, he's just out and out mega-rich, while another is "living on public assistance" ghetto projects poor. There are no middle class African-Americans in the story. None of the major characters at least. 

The other connection difficulty was of characterization. One of the guys is shown as super innocent to the point of willful dis-knowledge to way the world works, which makes him a bit too unrealistic to be believable, although super innocent is at least a more interesting trait than the main protagonist's defining characteristic, that he's perfect. 

Structure wise, it sort of feels like several episodes of a TV or web series strung together rather than a singular movie. 

Which all sounds like I didn't like it, which isn't true. Production and acting are good and while the story goes a little too melodrama for my personal taste, overall it's a good movie. 

Women:

Two

People of color: 

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

Yes

• Director: Patrik-Ian Polk
• Writer: Patrik-Ian Polk
• Actors: Jussie Smollett, Anthony Burrell, Blake Young-Fountain, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Jennia Fredrique
• 103 min
• IMDB

The Perfect Wedding (U.S. 2012)

The Gist:

A young woman comes home for the holidays to plan her upcoming wedding. She would rather it be small, but her mother is looking to make it a huge gala of an event. If that weren't enough, there are other issues going on, her father is ill, and her brother is an alcoholic, slowly rebuilding his life after he caused it to fall apart. More so, her close friend who also happens to be her brother's ex-boyfriend is coming to help plan the wedding, and in order not to seem pathetically single, the ex-boyfriend has convinced a former boyfriend to come along to pretend to be his new boyfriend. Unfortunately the alcoholic gay brother and the ex-boyfriend's pretend new boyfriend (who is in fact his former boyfriend) share an instant connection, and if not yet apparent, the gay alcoholic brother and the boyfriend shenanigans is the actual "A" storyline going on here. 

Comments:

There are regular run of the mill "dramedy" movies and then there are "Hallmark cable" style ones, where everything is amped to 11 and it's filled to overflowing with mild-ish melodrama, angst, illness, amusing hijinks, and the triumph of love over all. 

This is the latter, and would fit right in a marathon of TV movies about overcoming obstacles to achieve romance during the holidays. 

If you hate cable-style light dramedy pics, it's obviously not worth watching, although in its favor, it's a very well made example of one, and it is a nice sign of change that being gay just an accepted fact of life and is not the source of any of the angst or illness or drama, other than the angst of romance that is. 

Women: 

Yes

People of color:

The adopted sister

Gratuitous nudity:

Shirtless scenes, but no actual nudity

• Director: Scott Gabriel
• Writers: Ed Gaffney, Suzanne Brockmann, Jason T. Gaffney
• Actors: Paul Fowler, Gavin Greene
• 82 min
• IMDB