Cherry Pop (US 2017)

The Gist:

A straight white man becomes a drag queen as it's his last chance to sing onstage. Comedic stuff not related to that happens. 

Comments:

Apparently straight white drag queen facing and overcoming prejudice from queer, mainly non-white drag queens is a queer movie subgenre. A somewhat boring one, for me at least, since "straight white dude enters queer people of color dominated space and overcomes prejudice to succeed" is not exactly a story I am personally interested in.

Main storyline aside, pretty much all there is to the movie is intentionally cheap n tacky jokes. Queens who hate each other, a queen with a mother in denial that her son Is gay, an ongoing thing about an older queen grieving her dead lover. Yes, that last bit counts as humor.

Truth is despite boring me a little, the movie is competent in telling it's jokes and succeeds in doing what it promises to do, providing an opportunity to see assorted RuPaul alumni and other more or less famous drag queens on screen. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No 

• Director: Assad Yacoub
• Writer: Nick Landa
• Actors: Lars Berge, Mayhem Miller, Detox, Tempest DuJour (if not obvious, drag names of the actors) 
• 79 min
• IMDB

Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate (US 2018)

The Gist:

In the previous Hurricane Bianca movie,  a teacher who had been fired for being gay got revenge on his nemesis Debbie, via his drag persona Bianca. This time around Debbie is back in town and comes up with her own overly complicated plot for revenge, sending Bianca to Russia where she will be sent to a gulag for the crime of being gay.

Comments: 

The movie is terrible. The first flick wasn't very good either, but it at least managed to hover on the edge between being bad and merely meh due to having an actual plot, almost having something to say about discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and a certain odd naive charm (mainly due to being new). 

Those mild positives are all missing here, leaving the sequel a mess of not particularly funny, obvious jokes and odd situations that throw out any idea of resembling reality. 

The movie has several throw away guest appearances (Wanda Sykes, Sally Jessie Raphael) and adds new RuPaul Drag Race queens to the mix, including Katya. I normally love Katya, but not so much here. Her normal style of stream of consciousness humor is only evident in outtakes shown during the credit sequence. During the actual movie she doesn't do very much despite being a relatively major character. 

Unless you have need to watch everything remotely Drag Race related, the movie is pretty much skippable.

Women: 

Yes 

People of Color: 

Yes

Gratuitous nudity: 

No 

• Director: Matt Kugelman
• Writer: Derek Hartley, Matt Kugelman
• Actors: Debra Ward, Richard Martinez, Brian McCook
• 85 minutes
• IMDB

Elijah's Ashes (US 2017)

The Gist:

In order to meet the demands of their father's will and not lose the family house, two brothers, one gay (but not too gay), and the other, a homophobic ass, must take their father’s ashes to be buried in another town, so drunken anger filled roadtrip ensues.

Comments (with spoilers because I can’t be bothered to generalize/hide boring plot points ) :

It seems there are lots of people who like this movie, finding it witty and fun. I found it ‘meh.’ Meaning that I didn't think the story was engaging or funny. An issue for a dark comedy. Thing is, if you can think of funny situations involving a road trip to transport ashes to a cemetery, you’re probably thinking of funnier things then happen here. It also doesn't help that the 'dark' aspect of comedy is thrown out at the very end for an attempted uplifting ending that doesn't entirely work and feels out of place. 

My main issue with the humor is the jerk homophobic brother is relentlessly so, so his dialogue is pretty much just an ongoing unstopping stream of bad gay jokes, mingled with misogynistic jokes. The character being an ass is not the issue. It's that the jokes go on and on to the point where the impact fades and he becomes not so much a shocking and outrageous terrible person as much as boring. 

The gay brother isn’t much more interesting. He’s played as the regular guy ‘straight man’ so to speak to the jerk brother’s crassness. His 'schtick' is that he’s dealing with internalized homophobia (spoiler) so has issues of his own to deal with. Something that could make him interesting, but doesn’t since the only thing done with this is have him try to sleep with a woman for some reason (another spoiler) and be withdrawn and dull. A detail which makes a recurring joke odd. Nearly every man they meet on the trip is not only gay but also  really ‘into’ the gay brother, which is not so much funny as unbelievable that anyone would be into such a sullen dud of man.

There is als a very problematic bit involving an overly long joke about a trans woman prostitute. Part of the "humor" is that everyone, jerk brother, gay brother and others, refer to her as “It.” So very funny... not. 

All a long way to say I did not find the movie funny or interesting, so the best I can say about it is that the acting is adequate.

Women:

Yes

People of color:

An Asian bartender and an African-American pimp. Yes, the hooker has a black pimp... 

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Ryan Barton-Grimley
• Writer: Ryan Barton-Grimley
• Actors: Ari Scheider, Ryan Barton-Grimley
• Time: 87 minutes
• IMDB 

Gaydar (US 2002)

The Gist: 

Randy comes across the ultimate yard sale find, a “gaydar” gun that can tell if a person is gay or straight. Something that would come in handy in figuring out the facts about Jack, the cute man at work that everyone, gays and women alike, has a huge crush on. 

Comments:

A comedy short film where gaydar, the ability to tell if someone is gay or not, is not only real, it’s a goofy looking handheld appliance.  

There’s appearances by Charles Nelson Reilly and Jim J. Bullock, and the lead Terry Ray is amusing as our childish fey lead. In truth there’s not much to the story, just goofy silly fun.

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Larry LaFond
• Writers: Larry LaFond, Terry ray
• Actors: Terry Ray, Bryan Dattilo, Charles Nelson Reily 
• Short film
• 20 minutes
• IMDB

Homo Heights (US 1998)

The Gist:

Gay icon Malcolm (Quentin Crisp), beloved by all the people of Homo Heights (an apparent all queer city) is not so secretly a prisoner of Maria Callous (Stephen Sorrentino), drag queen leader of the gay mafia.  

Malcolm wants to leave, womanizer Clementine (Lea Delaria) wants her old girlfriend Stella back. Stella wants her new girlfriend Blanche to be less annoying. Nerdy reporter Tootsie wants a scoop. 

Comments:

This is an odd duck of a movie. It is a high camp comedy that despite the implications of those adjectives is not merely loud and obnoxious, but also at times fairly calm and subdued. 

Calm being the result of casting of Quentin Crisp, who was in his late eighties at the time, and filled his his scenes with softness and muted elegance as he more or less plays himself, quoting Oscar Wild and acting somewhat bemused by everything around him as his character waits calmly to leave the earthly plane behind. 

Despite sounding like an odd combo, some of the best scenes here involve Crisp and Delaria playing off each other. There seems to be a genuine fondness between them. Stephen Sorrentino as Maria Callous is also amusing as the drag queen mafiosa. 

There's not much to the story, at least to the main story of holding Malcom against his will. While there's a bit more to the Clementine romance subplot, actual plot seems besides the point here, which is letting Quentin Crisp just be his fey self, interspersed with humorous scenes of lesbian dramedy and gangster drag queens.

The movie is quirky and doesn't entirely work, bouncing back and forth from loud and wacky to smooth and creamy, and yet I'm really fond of it. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

A couple of drag queens 

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Sara Moore
• Writer: Sara Moore
• Actors: Quentin Crisp, Lea DeLaria, Stephen Sorrentino 
• 92 minutes
• IMDB

Bed Buddies (US 2016)

The Gist: 

Three best friends wake up from a night of drinking and realize they might have accidentally all slept with each other. 

Comments:

In this short film we have three men, best friends, waking up from a night of heavy drinking, to realize they’ve crossed the boundaries of friendship, so try to figure out what this means by talking about it. A lot. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing except that the dialogue drifts from things actual real people would say into monologues that while they sound deep and meaningful, also sound a bit fake.

While our boys tend to get a bit melodramatic about their situation, it is just sex after all, there is some merit to their freaking out over the possibility of screwing up their friendship. Unfortunately, the acting and writing dilutes this concern, so while the movie is cute and sexy, it feels like it could have been better.  

Women:

No

People of color:

One of a cast of four 

Gratuitous nudity:

Implied nudity along with implied sex 

• Director: Reid Waterer
• Writer: Reid Waterer
• Actors: Dylan Wayne Lawrence, Daniel Lipshutz, Enzo Nove
• T15 minutes
• Short film
• Color and Black & White
• IMDB

Walk a Mile in my Prada’s (US 2011)

The Gist: 

An obnoxious homophobe and a gay man switch sexual orientations due to “christmas magic,” teaching the former straight man a much needed lesson about not being an ass, and the former gay man an unneeded lesson about love. Will they be able to change back before the straight dude gets married or will the change be permanent? Why should the audience care?

Comments:

The movie is terrible, almost painful to watch at times. While it has some lower budget movie issues, the real problem is with the plot and how it’s handled. 

In order for “switching places” stories to work there needs to be a balance, a sense of symmetry between the “lessons learned,” wherein the switched people discover sympathy for the hardships the other person faces from life. 

There is no symmetry here. Straight dude was a homophobic asshole. Being “gay” for a few days teaches him to release the hate and be a decent human being. 

A symmetrical story would require the gay dude to be an equally massive jerk who is shocked to discover that it’s okay to be straight. A ludicrous lesson, so instead he finds out he loves his boyfriend, which he already knew. Because there's nothing to his story he only pops up occasionally in the movie for dumb pointless jokes about straight men. 

Dumb pointless jokes being another annoying thing about the movie. That switching orientations doesn’t merely mean being attracted to a different sex but rather fulfilling outdated stereotypes. Presumably jokes where the punch line is that straight men drink beer and love to leer at women's breasts, while gay men drink cosmos and know how to cook, were meant to be funny. They aren't. 

Despite whatever good intentions the creators may have had, the result is a "gay" movie that feels somewhat homophobic and insulting to the audience. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

Sort of 

• Director: Joey Sylvester
• Writer: Rick Karatas (aka Rick Sudi Karatas)
• Actors: Nathaniel Marston, Tom Archdeacon, Tom Arnold
• 87 minutes
• IMDB

Birthday Cake (U.S. 2013)

The Gist:

In Los Angeles, Studio City to be specific, two men who both work in the “Industry” (i.e., “Hollywood”), prepare to throw their baby daughter a birthday party. Because they live wacky hijink filled lives, the party will be swamped with wacky relatives, crazy friends, clowns, and a documentary film crew. 

Comments:

The conceit of the movie is that it is a documentary about two gay men and their family as they prepare to throw a birthday party for their baby daughter. What this means is we as viewer get treated to a series of fast comedic skits, all apparently improvised rather than tightly scripted. Unfortunately the quality of the skits/scenes vary from okay to meh to boring.  

The movie almost works when it doesn’t forcefully try to be funny, focusing instead on "honest" moments between the couple and daughter. Too bad that rather slim core of almost good is surrounded by numerous scenes of uninteresting “Industry” jokes and people aiming for wacky but hitting boring instead. 

The movie is a sequel to a short film Groom's Cake (which I haven't seen and have no comments about).  

Women: 

Yes

People of color: 

Some

Gratuitous nudity: 

No

• Director: Chad Darnell
• Writer: Chad Darnell
• Actors: Chad Darnell, Rib Hillis
• 85 min
• IMDB

Hurricane Bianca (U.S. 2016)

The Gist:
A science teacher moves from New York to Texas, where he almost immediately gets fired for being gay. He just as quickly gets himself rehired while dressed in drag pretending to be a woman in order to get revenge; oh, and also to manage to be the only teacher to get through to the worst kids in school.


Comments:
From what I’d heard about the movie from people who saw it in real life I was expecting it to be horrible, so I was surprised when it turned out to be just regular run of the mill independent-low-budget movie average level of bad.


A shame really, since there are interesting ideas here and it touches on trans issues as well as pointing out that the lack of LGBT rights in many states makes discrimination legal. Unfortunately, the writing, as well as lots of the acting skills, are not up to task of handling these subjects. Ultimately, the movie ends up a bit mediocre because it embraces far too many cheap movie clichés and stereotypes, seemingly unable to be, or perhaps not wanting to be, anything better than a generic throw away ‘flick.’


In the end the only reason to see it is if you’re a fan of Bianca and RuPaul’s Drag Race, since some of the contestants/queens make appearances here as well as some other known faces. Some such as Deborah Ward appear to be trying hard, but don’t have enough to work with to make the movie succeed. Others have no real acting skills, then there's William who seem to be sleepwalking through the movie. Finally we have Bianca, who actually isn't that bad. She's good enough that I’d like to see her, in or out of drag, trying out something better written than this.


Women:
Yes


People of Color:
Two, including Bianca


Gratuitous nudity:
Yeah

• Director: Matt Kugelman
• Writer: Matt Kugleman
• Actors: Roy Haylock, Lola Botha, Wiliam Belli, D.J. 'Shangela' Pierce, Deborah Ward
• 84 min
• IMDB

If Dad Only Knew (Original title: Outing Riley) (U.S. 2004)

The Gist:

Bobby, an Irish Catholic "straight acting" closeted gay dude who lies about being straight to the point he even has a "beard" (a fake girlfriend), decides to come out to his brothers after their father dies. They don't believe him.

Comments: 

This movie is proof that gay sensibility exists, because it totally lacks one. A roundabout way of saying that the creators are straight and it shows. Not because Bobby is a "straight acting" bro who is so straight acting that he likes looking at naked women. Rather it's because of what works vs what doesn't work in the movie. Bobby and his brothers being privileged over aged frat boys is more than believable. What doesn't work is pretty much anything about "the gay." Except for one thing that is. The eldest brother, a catholic priest having issues with Bobby being gay, does make sense. 

There is no rule that a straight person cannot make a "gay movie," but if you are going to make something outside of your first hand experience and knowledge, it would help if you learned about the subject and didn't approach it half heartedly. In this case one aspect of half heartedly means topless women treated as sex objects, presumably there to compensate for this being a gay flick. Thing is, with that word "gay" you'd expect men to also be sex objects, at least when gay Bobby is involved. They're not. The only time men's bodies are acknowledged, it's for comedy. 

Given the large focus on Bobby's family coming to terms with his being gay, this is arguably not a gay story for actual gays, but rather a 'regular' movie with a gay storyline for 'straight' audiences. But even if this is the case, they've gone overboard in making it 'palatable' so we are now actually catering to bro dudes. 

Another problem is Bobby's habit of breaking the fourth wall and talking to the camera. It fails not only because it's not interesting, but also because of the way it's done, framed as "I wish my life were a movie" so his monologues could be him acknowledging this is just a movie, or it could just be that he has an overactive imagination. Like the gay aspects of the movie, it feels like they didn't fully commit to the idea. 

Ignoring the how's of what is being told, what is being told is a simple coming out story where the protagonist's family has issues with acceptance. The 'wrinkle' being that his family doesn't believe him at first because he's "normal." The problem here is that having a 'regular dude' gay lead is not as unusual as the the people involved making the movie seem to think it is. 

The acting and production are acceptable resulting in a movie that is 'whatever.'

In the end I guess my primary issue is that despite supposedly being a gay coming out story, it's actually a straight teen sex comedy. Only with thirty and forty something year-old adults who act like teenagers, no sex, a lead who is gay, but not too gay, and with lady boobs tossed in to make up for that miniscule amount of gay. Not really a combination of words I'm interested in. 

Women: 
The protagonist's plot-moving-forward sister and his fake girlfriend.

People of color:
"In story" everyone in Chicago is white.  During a breaking the fourth wall sequence however, one of the crew members is African American. 

Gratuitous nudity: 
Yes. Topless women and a couple of male butts, though as mentioned in the comments, in this movie women are meant to be ogled, while men's bodies are things to laugh at.

• Director: Pete Jones
• Writer: Pete Jones
• Actors: Pete Jones, Nathan Fillion, Stoney Westmoreland, Julie Pearl
• 99 min
• Note: I found no explanation for the title change from 'Outing' to 'Knowing.' Admittedly I did not spend much time looking for an answer. Presumably the newer title, being more 'heartfelt' would attract more viewers, as well as being less obviously "gay"
• IMDB

The Coffee Shop (U.S. 2014)

The Gist:

Various mostly, though not entirely, related events take place at a gay coffee house: a bisexual man has dating problems, a young woman comes out to her mom, a gay male employee acts slutty, the drag queen coffee shop owner needs to find a new employee, vampires stop by for a drink, etc..

Comments:

I've found very little information about the movie, so I don't have an explanation for why it is so odd. Is it a movie intended to be a series of shorts using the same setting to pull them all together? A compilation of various episodes of a web series? A film school project with other short stories added to bump up the time to full movie length? 

Whatever the answer, the result is a movie that doesn't work. None of the shorts are particularly interesting, well acted, or funny. It is also borderline offensive, or at the very least annoying in dealing with bisexuality. The expected standard when you have your main characters telling offensive phobic jokes is to take a position that they're wrong. Something that doesn't happen here. Jokes are made about the bi dude, and nothing is said or done to show this is wrong. So by implication bisexuality really is wrong?

The best thing about the movie is that not everyone in it is a young gay white man, so it almost resembles the real world. Unfortunately, other than that, everything else is pretty much wrong. 

Women: Yes 

People of color: Some

Gratuitous Nudity: No 

• Director: A. J. Mattioli
• Writer: Many people 
• Actors: Blanche Baker, Keith Collins, Edvin Ortega, Julia Weldon
• 90 min
• IMDB

Boystown (Chuecatown)(Spain 2007)

The Gist:
In a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Madrid, a real estate agent deals with the lack of available properties, and an overabundance of elderly people, by killing old women thus freeing up their apartments for him to sell to trendy yuppie gay couples. As old ladies are dying left and right, a gay couple, the ‘wrong’ type of gay that is (uncouth blue collar bears), attempt to deal with problems in their relationship as the overbearing terrible mother of one the men attempts to break them up.

Also two police detectives, one of whom happens to be the overbearing terrible mother of the other, are on the case to solve the murders.

Comments:
The movie is a murderous farce where gentrification is literal murder. There are also subplots involving a bear couple consisting of two goofy men, the terrible mother of one of the men, and the two cops who are also a terrible mother and her son. A bizarre mix and tumble of adjectives that should have resulted in me loving the movie. Instead I merely think it’s okay.

A minority opinion, since from what I found online, most people love it, but for whatever reason it didn’t really grab my interest. Rosa Maria Sardà of All About My Mother does a great job as the crazy mother half of the police detectives, and I did perk up when I saw Spanish performer La Prohibida briefly singing in the background of a scene set in a gay bar.  But for the most part I was mildly disinterested. Even the final chase scene, which takes place in a bathhouse filled with assorted near naked Spaniards didn’t really perk my interest.

My meh attitude towards the movie aside, the movie is arguably good. It’s funny, well-acted, and does a good job of being wacky crazy. I just didn't care.

Women:
Yes

People of color:
No

Gratuitous nudity:
Some quick butt shots

• Director: Juan Flahn
• Writer: Felix Sabroso, Rafa
• Actors: Pepon Nieto, Carlos Fuentes, Pabo Puyol, Rosa Maria Sardà 
• 101 min
• Spanish
• IMDB

Men to Kiss (Männer zum Knutschen) (Germany 2012)

The Gist:

Ernst and Tobi are the classic opposites attract couple. Ernst being a bit of a square while Tobi is a wild free spirit. All is well (more or less) In their lives, until Ernst's best friend Uta moves back to Germany, and she and Tobi immediately hate each other. Crazy plots, wacky hijinks, and (comedic?) threats of death to defeat their "enemy" and "win" Ernst for themselves ensue.  

Comments: 

This movie is a sequel of sorts to another one I've discussed here, Alex and Leo. "Of sorts" because the leads of the other romantic comedy, the somewhat boring and not entirely believable as a couple, Alex and Leo, have broken up and are only very minor characters here, having been replaced as the focus of story by their best friend Tobi and his new boyfriend Ernst. The two new men are also not entirely believable as a couple, though at least they have the benefit of not being boring. 

In the previous movie, Tobi was an campy queen whose major character trait was that he was  flamboyant and mean. This time around however his personality has been slimmed down, losing being an asshole in favor of merely being outrageous. 

Other differences between this movie and previous one is that this story is more interesting and marginally better. Which is not really praise since that means that instead of bad, it's only okay. It starts off well enough, amusing and engaging, but the frankly weak story very quickly runs out of steam. The insane antics as Tobi and Uta work to get rid of their opponent should be funny and keep the story engaging, but instead it started feeling like work to sit through it instead of entertainment. 

Women: 

Yes

People of color: 

One 

Gratuitous nudity: 

Some

• Director: Robert Hasfogel
• Writers: Juergen Hirsch, Andre Scheider
• Actors: Frank Christian Marx, Udo Lutz, Alexandra Starnitzki 
• 83 min 
• Note: Dialogue is in German with occasional lines in English
• IMDB 

I Want To Get Married (U.S. 2011)

The Gist:

It's six days before the 2008 presidential elections. In California this includes voting on Prop 8 which will decide the fate of marriage equality in the state. Against that backdrop we have a nerdy man who despite being successful in business, friends, and home, is unsuccessful in love and so decides he wants to get married. 

Also his mother leaves his father, the nerdy guy has to decide if he wants to betray his community to make money, and a drag queen (playing a woman?) repeatedly sings a terrible song.

Comments:

Some movies are so bad that they swing around the scale back into being good or at least worth watching. This is not an example of that. It's just bad. 

The most obvious of the issues is Matthew Montgomery's acting. I normally like him, but here he either decided or was directed to play his socially inept nerd role with spastic tics, OCD quirks, and barely comprehensible mumbling that makes Jerry Lewis at his most exaggerated seem subdued. His acting is so bizarre that it nearly distracts from the movies other problems. Nearly but not quite. 

His character of a highly awkward adult who can barely speak is somehow also supposed to be a dynamic successful business owner which strains credibility. Aside from his contradictory character, the other roles are so thin as to barely exist. His story and that of his parents (conservative wife leaves her husband and ends up stuck in a casino becoming friends with a singer that coincidentally her gay son adores) are so disparate they don't really work together. The movie can't seem to decide what it wants to be. The songs, or rather the singular song that's repeated over and over again, is terrible. 

The very basic idea of a small portion of the movie, a person has to decide what is more important: money or integrity should have been enough for a good story, but with all the problems going on it never had a chance. 

Women:

Yes

People of Color:

Yes, by way of a single minor Chinese character that is arguably racist. Embarrassingly so. 

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: William Clift
• Writer: William Clift
• Actors: Matthew Montgomery, Rebecca Wright, Mathew Martin 
• 107 min
• IMDB

First Period (U.S. 2013)

The Gist: 

A girl set on having a great 16th birthday party next weekend is faced with a problem. Her family has just moved into town and she doesn't know anyone yet, so she only has five school days to become popular at high school. A prospect that Heather, the current reigning most popular girl in school is not exactly thrilled with. 

Comments: 

The movie is a farce of 80's high school comedies with the protagonist and her new best friend, the school's 'freak' girl both being played by men. There's also the school's mean girls who are both named Heather, pretty much all the speaking roles played by people who haven't been teenagers in quite some time, insane teachers, lots of 80's "valley talk," the near lack of adult roles, the near lack of actual classes, and other high school movie cliches amped up and played for laughs. 

While there are some problems and minor issues, the movie more or less succeeds at being a camp high school farce. Thing is I didn't particularly like it. A case where my tastes don't align with the majority, because poking around online it looks like that for the most part people enjoy the movie and think it's really funny, cute and engaging, while I was largely indifferent to it. 

My lack of enjoyment aside, if you're into high school movie farces, or like campy, wacky movies with male actors playing women, then it may be worth checking out. 

Women: 

Yes 

People of Color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Charlie Vaughn
• Writer: Brandon Alexander III
• Actors: Brandon Alexander III, Dudley Beene
• 100 min
• Note: While there are some gay characters in the movie, it's the adult male actors playing teenage girls camp aspect that gets it included in lists of LGBT movies. 
• IMDB

Rhythm and Blues (U.K. 2000)

The Gist:

In London, an attractive man named John befriends a skinhead, Byron, and though Byron in extremely swift order: is convinced he should be become a hustler; joins a gay male escort service; and is chosen for hire by an older, eccentric, rich American called Bad Daddy for a night of debauchery. As all this is going on a mysterious serial killer hustler, "The Rent Boy Ripper," is murdering his clients.

Comments:

First off, the movie is largely bad. It's a gay, hustler, murder thriller, comedy; and it doesn't particularly "do" any of those adjectives very well. 

There are occasional humorous moments, but overall the movie is not that funny. The thriller / mystery part of the story alternates between being mildly interesting and boring. The acting ranges from bad to adequate, which is not helped by occasionally confusing dialogue. That last bit is in reference to dialogue / editing, as the movie has people occasionally referencing conservations that only take place in deleted scenes. 

Negatives aside, the movie has an odd charm to it, a sort of low budget, sad, Britishness to it that made me not mind how bad it was. Then again maybe I didn't mind that the movie sucked because I think Paul Blackthorne (John) is hot. 

Regardless of how prurient thoughts affected my judgement, the movie is not worth watching. Unless you're into comedic hustler thrillers that aren't particularly humorous, thrilling, or good that is. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

No

Gratuitous nudity:

Women, yes. 
Men, teasingly nearly, but no actual nudity 

• Director: Stephen Lenhoff
• Writer: Michael Jones
• Actors: Angus MacInnes, Ian Henderson, Paul Blackthorne
• 98 min
• IMDB

Love's Coming (ใช่รักหรือเปล่า)(Thailand 2014)

The Gist:

Four teenage boys, Zee, Arm, Pid, and Gump are best friends, and things are great, except that Gump hasn't been around lately because he is always too busy tutoring his neighbor Nai. Because of this sudden prioritizing of his hot male neighbor over his friends, Zee begins to wonder if Gump is gay, so he gets the group, and a gay 'uncle' (who prefers to be called Aunt Alexandra), to come up with a series of overly complicated plans to find out the truth about Gump and Nai.

Comments:

It's a largely cute movie with a plot that doesn't make too much sense because instead of a series of ever more elaborate traps and goofy shenanigans to get Gump to come out of the closet, they could have simply just asked him at the beginning of the story if he was in love with Nai or not. Then again that would have made for a very short movie. As is, this is wacky teen comedy so some silliness is to be expected. Also, these are teenage boys, more so straight teenage boys, and teenage boys are known for doing stupid things, so this is less of an issue here as compared to other movies where everything could have been resolved in ten minutes had people just actually talked to each other like real adults instead of movie adults. 

Which leads us to 'Aunt Alexandra.' He's very much a movie version a person, more so a movie version of a camp gay man. Luckily he's written just slightly deep enough to be more than just someone to be laughed at. You get to sympathize with him as well. 

While he isn't really an issue for me, there are some problematic "comedic" scenes. The most glaring being when, as part of the "is he or isn't he" hijinks, the straight teen boys find themselves at a pool with some speedo wearing gay guys showing off their bodies. The boys reaction to the sight of non-hetero men wanting to be objectified is to freak out and get physically ill. Gay panic is funny you all. Yes. Sarcasm. 

Despite this and some other clunker scenes, for the most part the movie is harmless fluff, and mostly positive as it becomes clear that the boys care about their friend Gump and will support him whatever the truth turns out to be. 

Women: 

Mothers, and a girlfriend, so yes

People of Color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No. Though there are lots of shots of shirtless and swimsuited Thai guys if you're into that. 

• Director: Naphat Chaithiangthum
• Writer: Naphat Chaithiangthum
• Actors: Korn Khunaitpapisiri, Suraphat Kirivichien, Norrapat Sakulsong, Chanon Santinatornkul, Suttinut Uengtrakul
• 108 min
• Thai
• IMDB 

The Foxy Merkins (U.S. 2013)

The Gist:

A young naive gay kid, new to hustling, is shown the ropes by a more experienced hustler and they make a connection, becoming friends and more, despite the more experienced hustler being, or at claiming to be, straight, as they do what they can to survive the tough life on the streets. 

Now take the cliche filled hustler movie you've pictured in your head and turn into a comedy with adult women in place of skinny gay twinks. 

Comments:

The movie was made by the same people who did Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same. This time instead of low budget, extremely quirky and decidedly odd comedy riffing on bad 50's sci-fi movies, we have  a low budget, extremely quirky and decidedly odd comedy riffing on hustler movies. 

The two leads have great chemistry together, and overall it's a funny movie, though given the subject matter it helps if you're familiar with the genre, specifically Midnight Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho. Many of the jokes and situations only really make sense if you are familiar with the source material, otherwise the requisite "search to find my lost mother" or the required "men are incapable of loving another man" speech are not so much funny as just confusing. Although in case with the reversed genders it's now "women can't love other women," which comes off as very strange and nonsensical, and presumably is part of the intent and source of much of the humor. Other jokes, such as having the clothing store Talberts be THE place for lesbian prostitutes to hang out at are a bit more straightforward.

While I enjoyed it, it's not exactly a great movie. It does have a lot of issues. Not all the jokes are funny, some, such as the harassing cops sequence go on for too long; and there is no real plot, just our leads drifting in a vaguely Private Idaho direction with occasional Midnight Cowboy imagery. The basic idea of the movie is a problem as well, as unlike the Science Fiction of Codependent Lesbian Space Alien, not everyone has seen hustler movies which limits its audience to a large extent. 

So while I liked it, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. At least not without a lot of caveats. That you be a fan of quirky low budget movies. That you can easily ignore the lack of plot. That you know your hustler movies. But mainly that you have a very odd-ball sense of humor, because this is no where near 'normal' comedy territory.

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes 

Gratuitous nudity:

Yes

• Director: Madeleine Olnek
• Writers: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Madeline Olnek
• Actors: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan
• 81 min
• IMDB

Go Go G-Boys (Dang Wo Men Tong Zai Yi Qi) (Taiwan 2006)

The Gist:

Hong decides to pretend to be gay and join the "gays only" G-Boys contest, hoping to use the winnings to pay off his ever increasing credit card debt incurred by his shopaholic girlfriend. His best friend Shin joins the contest because being gay he is of course hopelessly in love with Hong and will do anything for him, since that's exactly what the gays do; martyr themselves whenever possible for straight dudes. 

As this is going on other things are happening. Minor unimportant stuff like a crazy man threatening to bomb the contest. 

Comments:

I spent a few minutes looking around online for information about the movie and didn't find too much, and no actual professional reviews. What I did find were people commenting how funny the movie was, how sexy the actors were, and how much they loved finally finding a non-depressing gay movie with a happy ending.

I guess I'm a stick in the mud because while admittedly the leads are cute, I thought the movie was bad. 

The story is flat and considering it is a romantic comedy it is not that funny, despite all the crazy, wild antics going on. Perhaps worse, the romance you are supposed to be rooting for, given it involves a gay guy dead set on being a victim in his desire to have a tragic unrequited love for his idiot straight friend, is problematic at best. 

On the plus side, a subplot about a young guy finding love and having to come out to his father because he joined the contest was sort of sweet, even if it made no sense (it didn't occur to the young man that joining an all gay contest would tip his father that he was gay).

While the movie spends far too much time making dumb gay jokes, once it settles down and begins to focus on the contest, it actually treats the contestants as "normal" characters instead of gay caricatures. Well, almost at least.  

So I guess depending on viewpoint it's either a fun non-depressing movie or it's not really worth watching. 

Women:

One

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No, though there are several men in skimpy swimsuit scenes. 

• Director: Jong-jong Yu
• Writer: not listed 
• Actors: TAE, Chen-Kang Tang, Yu Fa Yang 
• 90 min
• Cantonese
• IMDB 

West Hollywood Motel (U.S. 2013)

The Gist: 

A young gay couple with issues of compatibility, a lesbian couple whose issue is that things are not as "hot" in bed as they used to be, two young men with numerous issues who've just met, and a middle aged straight couple who gain an issue when the wife suddenly grows a penis, are all staying at the same motel as a not very good at his job of being an omniscient narrator tells us about how they deal with their problems. 

Comments, with minor spoilers: 

This is a very odd movie. It feels like an amateur student film in some respects, but well, these days things like film development errors do not exist unless intended to. Which leads me suspect that it's all intentional. But does that mean using then quickly abandoning the idea of the narrator as soon as the characters were introduced was a narrative choice as well? Spoiler, the narrator disappears fairly quickly. Does it also mean that the establishing shots mixing up Hollywood and West Hollywood is also intentional? Spoiler, Hollywood and West Hollywood are two different places. 

Aiming to recreate the feel of a weird decaying educational film is a valid aesthetic goal I guess, but it is strange when as viewer you can't tell if something is a mistake, or if it is just someone trying to skillfully and intentionally make it appear as if it were a mistake. In the end the way the story is told is distracting enough that I think it impedes the movie more than helps it. 

Compared to the storytelling esthetics, the four stories, even the odder ones, are fairly straight forward. The two 'reality-flexible' stories, of the penis growing wife and of the incompatible gay couple (that turns into a meta commentary about love as presented in gay romance movies) are the better of the stories. The lesbian affair one should have been interesting but falls flat for some reason. 

Oddly, or not, the least interesting of the four tales was the one with the most gay "eye candy," the story of the two, cute, young, Latino men. Least interesting, because their tale never gets much further past the very basic premise of "two attractive men end up sharing a hotel room because they are broke and... stuff." 

It's not a must see kind of movie, but if you're in a mood for quirky this would fit the bill. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Matt Riddlehoover
• Writers: Matt Riddlehoover, Ethan James
• Actors: Matt Riddlehoover, Andrew Callahan, Amy Kelly, Phil Leirness, Cesar D' La Torre, Starina Johnson, Heather Horton, Luis Lucas
• 78 min
• IMDB