A concise synopsis of gay-themed movies and gay interest films. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Get a Life (2006)



















"All I want is a straight guy who will be gay just for me," says Jaime (Brian Campbell) to his abusive psychiatrist. This is a statement that propels the plot of a disenfranchised homosexual looking for himself. Jaime desperately searches his hometown of Chicago looking for love, acceptance, and happiness in some interesting and surprising places. Along the way, Jaime meets some fascinating and colorful people, in addition to many hot and sexy guys, both straight and gay, all leading to surprising insights into his own life.

In the seedy Ram Bookstore he meets student Monty (Michael Gonring), a troll-loving bisexual with a girl friend in Boston who says, "I thought I'd take a walk on the wild side for a few months and then go back to her and all this will become a distant memory." Monty becomes Jaime's guide and conscience in a journey through the maze of his broken life. After the bookstore gets busted Jaime ends up in the same cell with his enemy Hal Stevens (Peter Marinelli). The two hate each other because Hal used to steal all his tricks in the bookstore. But they become the closest of friends and decide that there is an alternative to gay life. Hal says somewhere there is a twilight zone of the sexual fringe and that's where they belong.

After a visit to Miss Galena Chanel (Tina Stefano), an expert in making gays popular, they try a variety of gimmicks. From circuit parties decked in zoot suits, to dressing up in drag and trying to pick up gas station attendants, and all the way to a classic betrayal by his new found friend, Jaime is left twice as vulnerable and lonely. Vulnerable enough for Ray Milano (Matt Edwards), a coworker and homophobe, to step in and ruin his life completely. Jaime gets what he wants, including a lover, but not before a spectacular revenge climaxing in a fight in which he beats up Ray in front of all the coworkers. "I am a lowdown c***sucker who just beat the crap out of you! What does it make you Ray?" he asks him, his voice trembling while pinning him down. In the end, Jaime discovers the one person he never thought he would: himself.

Viewers unanimously hate this film. One comments, "There is nothing at all believable or coherent about the narrative of this video...I suppose the tone is supposed to be comic, but most of the humor is so over-the-top as to be unfunny. The only exception is a brief jaunt as desperate drag queens that manages some humor. The acting is mostly poor, the script worse." Another wrote, "It's so bad it's not even campy or laughable. It's just lame. And the acting is awful! And the direction is terrible! Don't waste your time. Or money." Another: "It's not even worth the time to watch the movie. Cheap production. Bad script. Something that one won't even watch if you get paid for it." Here are two more: "This movie is like one of the worst B movies with amateurs trying to act which they can't if their life's depends on it," and "It's just a lame movie with really overly bad acting. I mean, bad acting is actually a compliment for this because the acting is so awful. And no one wants to watch trolls in sex clubs hitting on young boys. No one! So really...don't waste your time with this one." Nick Monson composed the original music, and Toby Ross wrote the screenplay and directed.

บิวตี้ฟูล บ๊อกเซอร์ (2003)



















Nong Toom (Asanee Suwan) is a terrific and talented Thai kick-boxer, a young man who is sensitive to the female side of his personality. As his mother says to her husband, "If my son turns out be a transvestite that is our karma. We must accept him for what he is." Born into a tough hard-working farm family in a small village, Toom was taught not to take any crap from anyone, even if it means using his fists to settle an argument. He embarks on his life with the psychological backing and support of his family, a life that places him in a kick-boxing match where he learns that he has a great talent for the sport. After a short stay at a monastery, he becomes a champion kick-boxer, mastering the masculine and lethal sport of Muay Thai.

Toom's gender bending becomes more and more apparent to his fans as his talent and stature rises in the Thai kick-boxing world. His fans take his wearing makeup and outlandish colored trunks as a gimmick, even when he takes to kissing his defeated opponents. But when Toom decides to pursue a surgical transformation some are outraged, but most see it as insulting and besmirching Thai manhood.

As he lives with his coach and other fighters, a situation that offers no privacy, Toom struggles with taunts that he is demeaning his sport, acting more as a clown, and becomes increasingly aware of people trying to manipulate him. Following a traumatic event in his life, Toom faces his greatest challenge yet, a high-profile fight with a much larger woman wrestler in Tokyo. Toom/Parinaya retires from boxing when he becomes more of a woman, a kathoey (male-to-female transgendered person). Her post-boxing career is acting and modelling.

Based on the true story of Thailand's famed transvestite kick-boxer Parinaya Charoemphol, "Beautiful Boxer" tells through flashbacks about her childhood and teen years before her sex change operation, when she was Nong Toom. This action drama is a touching, funny, ironic, graceful, gritty, and realistic high-concept movie. Shot in 9 provinces across Thailand and in Tokyo, the film also features a series of explosive matches where Nong Toom knocks out most of his opponents in Thailand and Japan. The fight sequences and location shots are beautifully photographed, with many special effects that add to the dramatic effect of the story. A fascinating transgender movie, it also contains lots of eye candy for gay males. It won numerous film festival awards, a GLAAD award, as well as a "best actor" award for Suwan from the Thai movie board. DVD extras include a "making of" featurette, info on the fight sequences, interviews, and a music video. Amornbhong Methakunavudh composed the original music. The screenplay was written by Desmond Sim and Ekachai Uekrongtham, who also directed. In Thai with English subtitles. The English title is "Beautiful Boxer".

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