När alla vet (1995)

16-year-old Sebastian (Hampus Björck) has good parents and a great circle of friends, is doing well in school, has good looks, and leads a happy life -- or at least that is what everyone thinks. Secretly, he has been brooding for some time over the fact that he is in love with his best friend, hunky Ulf (Nicolai Cleve Broch). One evening, after some playful frolicking around with Ulf, Sebastian kisses Ulf, who does not like it. Being sexually rejected in this way throws Sebastian into an even deeper depression about his sexuality. He refuses to discuss it with his parents and only after a long talk with a female friend of his, who is also in love with Ulf and guesses correctly what Sebastian's problem could be, he opens up to his family and friends, only to find that it is not problematic to them. Even the coming out to Ulf, which he anticipated to be very painful, turns out to be not so bad and takes a comical turn when Ulf admits to having had a homosexual experience himself some time ago. In the end, basically nothing has changed, except that Sebastian no longer has to live a secret life and can concentrate on being happy, having fun with his friends, and finding a real boyfriend.

Film critics usually dismiss "När alla vet" as escapist gay youth fare that does not address any deeper issues. However, the film is about the coming out process, which is not exactly easy. Hansi Mandoki, Petter Vennerød, and Svend Wam wrote the screenplay derived from Per Knutsen's novel "Svart Cayal". Svend Wam directed. The English title is "Sebastian". In Norwegian and Swedish with English subtitles.

Harry & Max (2004)

Harry (Bryce Johnson) is a 23 year-old former boy band idol who is helping his younger brother Max (Cole Williams), aged 16, follow in his footsteps. Although Harry is at the end of his career, Max is just starting his. Harry seems to be primarily heterosexual, whereas Max is primarily gay and has come to terms with his sexuality. They detour on their way to a Japanese concert tour for a long-promised camping adventure. Their trip begins on a note of camaraderie but quickly turns serious as old wounds resurface, forcing them to come to terms with their dysfunctional past: Harry's drinking problems, his disconnection from the family, and most of all his relationship with Max and the emotional dependency that keeps them from moving into adulthood. During the camping trip, matters are further complicated by the resumption of an incestuous affair between the brothers. The fallout from this further muddles both their lives, as they attempt to understand their feelings for each other and to protect each other in a world in which everybody, including their own mother (Michelle Phillips), seems to want to take advantage of them for financial gain.

This movie doesn't have very good production values. The camera is jerky, the sound is uneven, and the acting is not the best. Homosexual incestuous romantic scenes may make you cringe. Michael Tubbs composed the music, and Christopher Munch wrote the screenplay and directed.

In the Gloaming (1997)

Danny (Robert Sean Leonard), a gay man in his 20s with AIDS, returns to his suburban family to die. Always close to his mother Janet (Glenn Close), they share moments of openness that tend to shut out Danny's father Martin (David Strathairn) and his sister Anne (Bridget Fonda). They live a privileged upper-class existence in a grand house, but Martin is a stiff workaholic and Janet is a bored woman numbed by her insular life. Anne is a cold complaining yuppie with a razor sharp iciness. The emotionally repressed family allows years of pent-up tensions, resentment, and insecurities to explode to the surface. The film moves quickly through Danny's final months, which are monitored by live-in nurse Myrna (Whoopi Goldberg) in a small role that isn't much more than a cameo. This movie is not another attack on suburban life, but a look at an intensely loving relationship between Danny and his mother. They reminisce, cry, and make jokes, and Janet's renewed bond with Danny makes her realize what she's been missing.

The theme of the movie is that Janet comes to life as Danny dies. "Gloaming" is a Scottish term for the hazy, glowing time of day just as the sun begins to set. The title comes from the popular 1877 song "In the Gloaming" by Annie Fortescue Harrison and Meta Orred. This acclaimed made-for-cable drama marks the directorial debut of actor Christopher Reeve. It was filmed in Westchester, New York. Dave Grusin composed the music. Will Scheffer wrote the screenplay from Alice Elliott Dark's 1993 "New Yorker" short story.

It's In the Water (1996)

When an AIDS hospice opens up in Azalea Springs, Texas, the local homophobes over-react and polarize the community. The movie is about a lesbian and a gay man coming out to their socially prominent families in a small southern town. Alex Stratton (Keri Jo Chapman) is a married woman who begins to have second thoughts about her sexual orientation. She has not had sex with her husband in months, and doesn't even talk to him anymore. Alex infuriates her mother by volunteering at the AIDS hospice. There she meets and becomes romantically involved with Grace Miller (Teresa Garrett), an old school friend who has just left her husband. He is now in jail for beating her up because she was having an affair with another woman. While Alex's self discovery is rather quick due to the constraints of movie timing, it is well handled.

The main gay chararter is Mark (Derrick Sanders), who has known that he is gay ever since he was a teenager. At "homo-no-mo group", an organization that is supposed to turn its members into "ex-gays", he meets Thomas (Timothy Vahle), is immediately attracted to him, and starts pursuing a relationship. There is also a minor subplot involving a rumor that drinking the local water turns people gay. Other subplots follow the coming out story of a young newspaper boy who ends up in bed with a sexy Latino artist, and the death of the town's openly gay interior designer.

This sexy enjoyable over-the-top comedy masquerading as a Southern potboiler has a predictable plot. The acting is not the best but it's more believable than most movies. While the straight characters tend to be rather broadly drawn, "It's in the Water" is a gentle film with stereotypical characters that allows its message to be more universal. The DVD includes a commentary by the director and leading actresses, including a discussion of what it was like for two straight actresses to play their first lesbian love scene. It's one of the few recent films with both gay men and lesbian characters. Kelli Hurd wrote the screenplay and directed.

The Deep End (2002)

Margaret Hall (Tilda Swinton) lives a happy middle-class life in Tahoe City, California. Her husband is a pilot on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation. She is startled to discover that her son Beau (Jonathan Tucker), a high school senior, has been having a sexual affair with 30 year-old night club owner Darby Reese (Josh Lucas) in Reno, Nevada. The affair becomes apparent when a drunken Beau wrecks his car returning from Reno one night. The next day, Margaret visits Darby's nightclub, The Deep End, to demand that he stay away from her son. Darby offers to stay away for $5,000. Margaret attempts to discuss her son's gay orientation, but Beau refuses. They argue and Margaret forbids Beau to visit Reno again. That night, Darby secretly visits Beau and the two meet in the boat house. Beau confronts Darby about asking his mother for money. The two argue, eventually coming to blows. As Beau flees back to the house, Darby leans on a railing which collapses. Darby falls below, impaling himself on an anchor.

The next morning, Margaret discovers Darby's body on the beach. She deduces that Beau and Darby had an altercation which resulted in Darby's death. In a panic, Margaret decides to get rid of the body by dumping it in a cove. The body is soon discovered and the police investigate it as a homicide. Soon after, Alek "Al" Spera (Goran Visnjic) confronts and blackmails Margaret with a tape that Darby recorded of one of his sexual encounters with Beau. Alek demands $50,000 in 24 hours or he and his partner will turn the tape over to the police which would implicate Beau in Darby's murder. He says, "You have to get the money. Is that not clear enough?" Margaret tries everything to get the money, however she does not have enough time. Surprises keep coming and the plot thickens. The bad guys are caught by the end of the movie, but there are several flaws in the plot, including why the mother didn't just call the cops in the first place. If she thought her son had actually murdered the victim, why didn't she even mention it to him?

The theme, settings, plot, and dialogue are very good in this movie. It holds the viewer's attention and the emotions run high. It's a drama as well as a thriller, with twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. Peter Nashel composed the music. Scott McGehee and David Siegel directed and wrote the screenplay from Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's novel "The Blank Wall".

Innocent (2005)

Eric (Timothy Lee) is an innocent and shy teen from Hong Kong, whose family emigrates to Toronto primarily for financial reasons, but also because they didn't like his friends back home. He tries to adapt to the new Canadian culture and the very different approach to education, while dealing with his homosexual crushes on his hunky cousin (despite the fact the cousin has a girlfriend), a classmate, a band member, and eventually an illegal immigrant who is working at his family's restaurant. Eric also meets a much older man, with whom he has an affair, but the man's former boyfriend returns and he bows out. His parents are superficial and lack affection for each other. Family life is not stable, his father and mother eventually separate, after keeping Eric and his sister in the dark about what was going on. All the deception he experiences at home causes him to be deceptive about his true feelings with others, distancing him from his family and causing him disappointment and pain. But he tries to be happy and the prevailing tone of "Innocent" is hopeful rather than depressing. The ending is abrupt and ambiguous as the film slows and stops without resolution.

This movie is relevant on many levels addressing the issues of family bonding after migration to another country, sexual coming of age of a young man without support systems, mixing of cultures at polar opposites, and coping in a strange land without adequate preparation. It handles the sexual encounters Eric has with taste, yet still captures the erotic tension of a young gay man's journey of self discovery. Kevin Poon composed the original music, and the film was written and directed by Simon Chung, his first feature length motion picture. DVD extras include two earlier gay-themed shorts by Chung, commentary by him and Timothy Lee, a photo gallery, and trailers.

Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster (2002)

Based on a 1960s Dutch television series, this delightful musical comedy chronicles the lives of a group of tenants in a guesthouse filled with eccentrics. The movie's plot involves at least three romances, a threatened eviction, a series of robberies, and a pill that change personalities from bad to good. One romantic interlude includes a muscular thief in his underwear singing on the rooftop to his pet pigeons. All the inhabitants of the guesthouse are very cheerful and good-hearted people whose open communal lifestyle is contrasted with the life of the nasty and complaining neighbour Mr. Boordevool (Paul Kooij). He has spent ages looking for a way to close the guesthouse. One day a girl from the the guesthouse meets young hunky Gerrit (Waldemar Torenstra), a bleached-blond burglar with a heart of gold. Sister Klivia (Loes Luca) lets Gerrit stay even though he is a thief. Mr. Boordevool thinks this is his chance to have his neighbours evicted. When a flamboyantly gay hairdresser opens up a shop across the street, the plot takes a number of queer twists as both Boordevool and the neighborhood begin to change. The gay plot may be small, but the gay sensibility is overwhelming in this campy motion picture.

"Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster" is a colorful 1960s movie world where the streets are filled with singing and dancing, carnivals come to town, and everyone's problem is the mean old nasty neighbor. It's hilarious camp fun and unusual in that it doesn't take itself seriously. Raymund van Santen composed the original music. Harry Bannink, Frank Houtappels, and Pieter Kramer wrote the screenplay from the story by Annie M. G. Schmidt. Pieter Kramer directed. The English title is "Yes Nurse, No Nurse". In Dutch, with English subtitles.

Jerker (1991)

In 1985 young gay Bert (Tom Wagner) in San Francisco receives a call from a complete stranger in the middle of the night who engages in explicit sex talk. The men have phone sex over the next few months with Bert never knowing who the caller is. He calls himself J. R. (Joseph Stachura) and is a partially paralyzed Vietnam veteran who saw Bert at a party and was attracted to him, then found his phone number. “Jerker” unfolds in a series of 20 phone calls. At first the men only engage in sex game playing, but after several months Bert becomes serious when he discovers that a lover and frequent sexual partner is dying of AIDS. The phone relationship suddenly becomes deeper and more intense, developing into a profound if isolated intimacy. It soon becomes apparent that Bert also has the disease. Before going on a business trip to New York, J. R. talks with Bert and becomes concerned with how he sounds. After returning from the trip J. R. calls for several weeks, then he realizes that Bert has died.

This hard to find film of a play by Robert Chesley uses strong graphic sexual language at first, then shifts to intensely emotional dialogue when the specter of AIDS suddenly comes into their lives. Tom Wagner as the attractive, sexually promiscuous Bert, and Joseph Stachura as the calm, assured J. R. give very fine performances in this filmed play. It is intelligently staged and produced, but it's very low budget and home videoish. Mark Thompson, senior editor of the Advocate wrote, "Robert Chesley was one of the most significant gay playwrights of his time. ‘Jerker’ remains to this day one of the most important pieces of gay theater ever created." Film critic Dan Sullivan wrote: "I’ve never seen a play that went from the near-pornographic to the tragic, but ‘Jerker’ achieves it." What does "Jerker" mean? It has the sexual connotation of masturbation, but it is also quite deliberately a tear-jerker. Music was composed by Michael Angelo. The screenplay was written by Hugh Harrison, and he also directed

Lie Down with Dogs (1995)

Recent college graduate Tommie (Wally White) is a young gay in NYC with a dead-end job handing out fliers in Times Square. At the beginning of a fateful summer he has a chance encounter with a friend who tells him that he's headed to Provincetown, Massachusetts for a long weekend. Tommie makes his own trek to Provincetown, where he goes on a long quest for Mr. Right, even though he has no money and holds his breath each time he uses his American Express card. Over the course of the summer, Tommie looks for a work as a house boy at various inns, works several jobs, benefits from the kindness of a stranger, and gets involved with a series of men.

Working as a houseboy, Tommy encounters many characters as he navigates the carefree gay community, betrayed by employers and friends alike, and always coming up short in friendship and in love. He does find lots of casual sex, but is devastated when his favorite dream guy dumps him after a one-night-stand. Tom (Randy Becker) is a con artist who takes advantage of the good-natured Tommy, and Ben (Darren Dryden) is the superficial and unattainable object of Tommy's affection. Tommy takes a bike tour through the nature trails with Ben. One of his new best friends is an alcoholic who does not help him when he is sick, Tom is a dangerous combination of beauty and stupidity, and we are supposed to root for shallow, self-centered Tommy at the end when Ben starts a relationship with another man.

This independent feature film is surprisingly well made for a low-budget effort. It's an offbeat diversion and a slice of life not often seen on the screen, notable for its whimsical lack of substance, its self-effacing sense of humor, and choppy editing. Some viewers enjoy "the fresh and wickedly funny humor", whereas many viewers dislike it. One wrote, "This is gay filmmaking at it's shabbiest and most incompetent. Every moment of this film is a nightmare of mind and nerves." Another wrote, "This film is not an honest portrayal of Provincetown...the movie is a slanderous portrayal of gay life." Wally White must take full responsibility. He not only stars in this film, but he wrote, produced, and directed it. He frequently pauses throughout the film to address the audience directly. Douglas J. Cuomo composed the music.

The Line of Beauty (2006)

Set during the 1980s, this is a story of love, class, sex and money. Young gay Nick Guest (Dan Stevens) an Oxford University graduate student moves in with the rich conservative family of his best straight friend Tobias "Toby" Fedden (Oliver Coleman). He becomes part of the family and also part of the gay scene. Nick has his first romance with black council worker Leo Charles (Don Gilet), and a later relationship with Wani Ouradi (Alex Wyndham), the son of a rich Lebanese businessman. There is an unbelievable party scene at the Feddens where Nick persuades Margaret Thatcher to dance with him, much to the delight of the crowds. The film shows Nick's euphoria of falling in love to the tragedy of AIDS. Framed by the two general elections which returned Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government to power, the film unfurls through four extraordinary years of change and tragedy. The ending is abrupt.

This three-part mini-series for BBC Two was broadcast in 2006. It's a sophisticated social analysis, not a funny, typical gay story. Sex and drugs mix, love ends by social pressure and ignorance and everything begins to be overshadowed by HIV. It is sad to watch and most of the characters are unsympathic and unlikeable. Nothing that seems perfect in the beginning stays that way, rather the reverse. "The Line of Beauty" is a 2004 Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst. It was adapted by Hollinghurst and Andrew Davies. Original music was composed by Martin Phipps. Saul Dibb directed. The title has many meanings, ranging from Nick's company name Ogee taken from the sinuous double curve cited by Hogarth, to a line of cocaine, to a man's lower back.