Just Can't Get Enough (2001)

The movie opens with former Broadway choreographer Nick DeNoia (Peter Nevargic) getting shot in his office. Most of the story takes place in the early 1980s during the glory days of the Chippendales night club, owned by sleazy businessman Steve Banerjee (Shelley Malil), a rich immigrant from a high-caste Indian family who opened a male strip-club in a quasi-industrial area of Los Angeles. He successfully glamorized the male-stripper concept that captured the fantasies of American women everywhere. Innocent college graduate Chad Patterson (Johnathan Aube) gets a job at the club to make some extra money, but is corrupted by the money and lifestyle. Then DeNoia gets involved in a blackmail scandal and Banerjee gets illegal ideas of his own.

Based on fact, the film shows the grudge between Banerjee and Denoia. Once Denoia gets wise to Banerjee's shady dealings he quickly blackmails the club owner into signing away the touring rights to the show. But when it comes to underhanded manipulations, Banerjee proves Denoia's equal. Fuelled by paranoia and jealousy, Banerjee arranges DeNoia's murder, a crime he might have got away with if the FBI hadn't learned of his subsequent plot to assassinate the businessmen behind a rival male dance troupe to eliminate his only competition.

This true-crime drama features an eccentric cast of characters whose lives are powered by the incessant beat of 1980's synth-rock and disco music, all of which takes place against the backdrop of a stage-show in which some of America's most beautiful men strip down in front of crowds of horny women. But Chippendales' dance routines are not sexy, with too many crowd shots and not enough footage of the strippers themselves. Anyone hoping to gain some understanding of their appeal, or just to gawk at some mouth-watering beefcake, will be quite disappointed. The entire film has unexpectedly dark humor and a sense of irony, with a script that isn't very tight, and it sometimes goes off on tangents that add little to the film. But the actors are good, though fairly one-dimensional, with most of the Chippendales themselves portrayed as self-destructive drug addicts, or shallow sex-obsessed fools who take advantage of the most attractive women in their audiences. Basically, the increasingly convoluted nature of the conspiracies and counter-conspiracies make for a fascinating ride. Straight-to-video filmmaker David Payne wrote and directed "Just Can't Get Enough: The True Story of the Chippendales' Murders".

Straightman (2000)

Best friends and neighbors David Leibowitz (Ben Berkowitz) and Jack Webster (Ben Redgrave) move in together after being dumped by their girlfriends. David is a 26 year-old Jewish comedy club worker in Chicago who is a loud, opinionated, overweight, likable womanizer, whereas Jack is a a quietly thoughtful beefy construction worker who loses his girlfriend Maxine Miller (Butch Jerinic) because she bores him. David loses Rebecca McManus (Rachel Tomlinson) when he asks for his apartment key back. While David is looking forward to living the free and single life with his buddy, Jack spends his time contemplating when and how to tell his best friend and others that he is actually gay. Finally, Jack comes out to David and things begin to change within the boundaries of their friendship. This takes the friendship on some interesting turns especially when Jack has numerous anonymous gay affairs. David cracks fag jokes and continues womanizing, but the two friends discover that they need each other despite their differences. The film ends awkwardly with David leaving Chicago, and Jack remaining behind.

In this earnest and gritty coming out of the closet comedy drama, two different but similar men deal with a major change in their friendship. While the plot is thin at times, the film really is more of a character study between two friends as they come to terms with growing and changing. It's an intense, authentic, honest, sharp, and humorous film that works on an emotional level. The understated and knowing movie also deals with men who are very blue collar, refreshingly distant from the unbelievably gorgeous bourgeois characters in most gay-themed films. "Straightman" is a low budget production with some minor sound and lighting problems. Much of the dialogue seems improvised, and it works well in this character-driven tale. Both leads are excellent in their roles. This film was written and directed by its starring actors, Ben Berkowitz and Ben Redgrave.

J'ai rêvé sous l'eau (2008)

Aspiring musician Antonin (Hubert Benhamdine) is a young man on a quest for love in northern Paris and its adjoining suburbs. A university drop-out, he lives with his mother in poverty. He plays guitar in a band, and has an unrequited crush on the sexy band leader and his best friend Alex (Franck Victor). When Alex dies of a heroin overdose in his arms one night, Antonin is stricken over his loss, and recklessly descends into the seedy, nocturnal world of Paris at night. Urban and nocturnal by nature, he embraces the vibrant energy of the city which leads to some rough, carnal, and violent experiences. He enjoys public gay sex and prostitution as a rent boy.

Seeking consolation for his heartache but indulging only in self-destruction, his life might yet be saved by a beautiful stranger named Juliette (Caroline Ducey), a vivacious beauty with a secret. She needs help even more than he does, and Antonin has a second chance to save the life of someone he loves. He finds tenderness, support and loyalty when he least expects it, showing him humanity and the ability to give a helping hand to another. The film has a "happy ending" which somehow inspires depression.

In this poignant romantic drama, replete with brute emotion and raw lust, a young man travels through the dark heart of Parisian nightlife and the extremes of self-destruction. It tells the story of a bisexual man starving for love who becomes a male prostitute. The film is challenging but the viewer is rewarded with excellent performances, stunning imagery and cinematography, and sexy scenes which are are passionless, explicit, and unsimulated. Dark lighting, underground clubs and grimy alleyways all serve to complement the film's bleak ambiance, which offers little hope for redemption. The most memorable performance is given by Hubert Benhamdine who shows the mental torment suffered by Antonin after Alex's death. After the first half of the movie, it becomes quite slow-moving following the entrance of Juliette. Moreover, "J'ai rêvé sous l'eau" offers little thematically that is new or original, and Benhamdine looks a little too old for the role. Muriel Moreno composed the music score, and Hormoz scripted and directed. In French with English subtitles. The English title is "I Dreamt Under (the) Water".

Bathhouse (2005)

The story revolves around the lives of men who frequent the seedy bathhouse "Klub Hombre" in Manila, the Philippines, where it operates discreetly underground because of frequent raids and arrests by the police. Gay men meet there to relax, unwind, and enjoy sexual contact in the back room. Rico (Ray An Dulay) is a very young nerdy student who is just discovering his sexuality and exploring new worlds as a young homosexual. He has fallen for someone he met on the internet and decides to meet him in person. However, when Rico sings a song he has just composed for his new love, the guy is turned off and leaves him.

Chris (Jet Alcantara) is a veteran hunk at the bathhouse who is bored with the entire scene. Like most men there, he has shared his body with as many men as possible. The director then cuts away from the story to show us how these people meet in real life: through the internet, at the park, cell phones, ads, and so on. Chris has a taste for newbies or freshly out gays. When Rico comes into his life, he sees the potential for a mentor-student relationship, until everything gets too intimate. This mismatched affair sends Rico into a downward spiral through the dingy walls of the bathhouse and through various groups of gays, bi-sexuals and transvestites, and transforms him into just another bitter bitch. He leaves his parents, does not have a job, has sex with every man he meets at the bathhouse--and he manages to do this without spending any money or get a disease. Not a very realistic scenario.

This steamy thriller is about the ideals of a young gay man in love and the practicality of a mature gay man about to retire from a life of cruising. It exposes the cruel world of gays socializing within the dark dingy walls of a bathhouse. The acting is inadequate to good, the dialogue is usually poor, and most of the scenes inside the bathhouse are so dark that one cannot see much of what is happening. But it is an interesting picture of Manila and does show gay life there. The film was helped financially by the Aids Counsel in the Philippines without credit. Jet Alcantara wrote the screenplay, and Crisaldo Pablo directed. In Tagalog with English subtitles.

The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror (2007)

Helen (Mari Marks) and Luella (Georgia Jean) are a God-fearing mother and daughter who run a charming Bed and Breakfast Inn. On the eve of the biggest gay party weekend of the year, the "Blue Party" in the desert, and having not made advance reservations, five couples have to make accommodations far from the city. There are the performers Dom (Vinny Markus) and Alex (Michael Soldier); the sophisticated "lipsticks" Deborah (Shannon Lee) and Gabby (Denise Heller); the upscale guppies Mike (Derek Long) and Eric (Robert Borzych) and their fag-hag friend Lizette (Lisa Block-Wieser). Also checking in are folk singer Starr (Hilary Schwartz) and tomboy Brenda (Allie Rivenbark), and lastly sugar daddy Rodney (Jim Polivka) and personal trainer Todd (James Tolins).

What should have been the biggest gay party weekend of the year quickly turns into a nightmare. In the middle of the desert, off the main highway, The Sahara Salvation Inn, "A small slice of paradise here in the desert", is not the "gay friendly" Inn advertised. One by one, many of the guests turn up missing or dead, most of them victims of the dagger-wielding right-wing homophobic lunatic Helen, who prays in front of a candlelit altar covered with photos of Republican party leaders.

This is a campy horror film played strictly for laughs, a parody of sex comedies, with lots of blood and gore (strawberry preserves, according to the extras), overacting, and trite dialogue. Its theme song is "Watch Out for the Straights". The actors obviously had fun doing it, which makes it fun to watch their amateurish performances. Guests are a funny collection of stereotypes, including the current "Mr. Leather" (Jaymes Thompson). It's not great filmmaking, but it is hysterical pure fun with no pretensions. Reviewers have written, "It's so bad, it's great!" DVD extras are plentiful, including a short film about going to "the folks' house" for Christmas, a director commentary, outtakes, a music video of the theme, a making-of short, and trailers. Ted Masur composed the incidental music, and Jaymes Thompson scripted and directed.

藍宇 (2001)

Set in Beijing in 1988, middle-aged Chen Handong (Jun Hu) is a successful businessman, the eldest son of a senior government bureaucrat. He heads a fast-growing trading company and plays as hard as he works. Few know that Handong's tastes run more to boys than girls. Lan Yu (Liu Ye) is a country boy, newly arrived in Beijing to study architecture. Like most students, he is short of money and willing to try anything to earn some. Liu Zheng (Huatong Li) suggests that he could prostitute himself for one night to a gay pool-hall and bar owner. But Handong happens to be in the pool hall that evening, and he nixes the deal. He takes Lan Yu home himself and gives the young man what turns out to be a life-changing sexual initiation.

Handong and Lan Yu meet often, and the boy is soon very secure in his love for the man. While Lan Yu falls in love, Handong tries his best to avoid emotional attachment, showering Lan Yu with expensive gifts. However, as the years go by, Handong realizes that he cannot live without Lan Yu. Handong wants a play-mate, not a lifelong companion, and warns Lan Yu that they will eventually break up. Lan Yu is undeterred, until the night he catches Handong with another boy.

They meet again on the night of June 4th, 1989 . Handong goes looking for Lan Yu, worried that he might have been caught up in the army's murderous sweep through Tiannmen Square. He gives Lan Yu his most lavish gifts yet--a newly built villa on the outskirts of Beijing and a car--and they begin living together as a couple. However, Handong again shies away from his feelings for the boy. He begins a whirlwind romance with Lin Jingping (Jin Su), a professional translator who has helped his company in trade negotiations with Russians, and marries her. Lan Yu moves away and Handong loses contact with him. Before long, Handong is divorced.

He runs into Lan Yu by chance at the airport one day, and an invitation to try Lan Yu's home cooking leads to a resumption of their relationship. At last Handong learns to feel and show commitment to his lover--just when his company comes under investigation for smuggling and illegal fund-raising. Handong is facing long-term imprisonment, possibly worse, but to the delight of his sister Yonghong (Fang Lu) and her husband Daning (Yongning Zhang), he is bailed out by Lan Yu. The boy sells the villa and the car and pools the proceeds with his own savings--yielding enough to get Handong out of trouble. Finally, Handong and Lan Yu can be happy together. But fate can play cruel tricks.

"Lan Yu" is a beautifully filmed, impressionistic look at a human dilemma: not recognizing what you really want until it's too late. Based on a very popular 1997 "E-novel" known as the "Beijing Story" by an anonymous internet author, it was filmed in Beijing without government permission, and uses the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 and the shady dealings of the country's business elite as central plot devices. Casting is ideal, and the sex scenes are presented with honesty, sensuality, and without ambiguity. But it's sexual and political frankness have made it virtually unreleasable in China. The story is rather melodramatic and the ending is too abrupt. However, it received rave reviews, internet comments are uniformly favorable, and it won some awards. Yadong Zhang composed the incidental music, Jimmy Ngai wrote the screenplay, and Stanley Kwan directed. In Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.

All the Queens Men (2001)

During World War II the British army is attempting to retrieve an Enigma machine from Germany. Having failed in previous attempts they decide to send four men undercover to the factory that makes the devices, located in Berlin. Unfortunately the factory is run entirely by women, and they only have men to send.

American army officer O'Rourke (Matt LeBlanc) leads a mismatched team of British Special Services in disguise as women to infiltrate the factory and bring back the decoding device that will end the war. O'Rourke joins British transvestite Tony Parker (Eddie Izzard), genius Johnno (David Birken) and the reluctant Archie (James Cosmo) to infiltrate the factory dressed as women. The team, with the exception of Tony who is a drag performer, must learn the basic skills for completing their mission--like walking in high heels and applying lipstick.

Dropped in the wrong area, the team must first try to find their bearings. Aided by Romy (Nicolette Krebitz), a sympathizer of their cause, they find their way to the factory. The American and his team stumble through the German factory in full drag, barely escaping the clutches of German soldiers, while attempting to complete their important mission. They manage to retrieve the Enigma machine, against the expectations of the British army. Arriving home they find that they were tricked. The British government already had the device but wanted to make the Germans think they were still after it.

This WWII spy movie can't seem to decide what it is. Is it a comedy, drama or espionage film? There's not much humor except for guys wearing dresses. It's like an extended sitcom that picks up nicely at the end and redeems itself a little. The story is fairly simple, with stereotypical wooden characters there to make a point. Matt LeBlanc in the leading role is disappointing, although the supporting cast props him up well, especially Eddie Izzard. Nicolette Krebitz is beautiful to look at and gives a good performance. The voice-over explanation before the film starts is useless, and there are no subtitles during the German language portions of the film. What's frustrating is there are many opportunities for sub-plots that would add to the story but they are not used much, except for the one involving Tony Parker's German male lover. There are some moments of cleverness but the film is quite static and somewhat boring. However, some viewers enjoy this movie. Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Robert Folk, and Michael Lloyd composed the music score. David Schneider wrote the screenplay from a story by Digby Wolfe, Joseph Manduke, and June Roberts. Stefan Ruzowitzky directed.

46億年の恋 (2006)

Jun Ariyoshi (Ryuhei Matsuda), who works at a gay bar, is sexually assulted by a customer, goes into a frenzy and kills the man. While being transported to a juvenile detention facility, Jun meets another young man Shiro Kazuki (Masanobu Ando), an impressive handsome youth with curious tattoos. The story follows the emotional homoerotic relationship between these two juvenile prisoners. Shiro displays his brute force from the beginning and the timid Jun is attracted to Shiro's intensity and strength. Jun is the only person Shiro opens up to as they accept each other for who they are.

Near the beginning of the film a guard witnesses a murder. One of the young men strangles another prisoner in a common area. As the victim takes his last breath, the assailant cries, "It's Jun". Tears flow down the face of the young man who turns to the guard. It is Jun. The man lying dead on the floor is Shiro. We realize that what seems to be an act of homicide is a consequence of a much more complex past, which is revealed in a story that meanders from the present to the past, and back, to possible futures. A series of flashbacks and fragments of Jun and Shiro's memories are mixed with their yearnings, anxieties and tensions in the world they are imprisoned in. In the end, two detectives solve the murder of Shiro, but the real resolution remains unspoken and hidden in Jun and Shiro's relationship.

Director Miike Takashi offers no easy way to understand his two protagonists, yet a few times he hints that child abuse may be the real crime to condemn. The prison, shown in a brownish yellow atmosphere, is literally the centre stage of this mystery, since many of the scenes strongly resemble a theater play. But the prison also offers a strong metaphor of our modern life, as Miike reminds us in the final scenes. Everyone is a prisoner of everyday life. Miike considers "Big Bang Love: A Juvenile Love Story of 4600 Million Years" his masterpiece, and it is certainly his most intellectually and aesthetically challenging film. Sexual tensions and explosive violence drive the story which delivers some weird and fascinating visuals. Masa Nakamura wrote the screenplay based on the novel "Shônen A erejî" by Ikki Kajiwara and Hisao Maki. "46-okunen no koi" translates as "The Love of 4600 Million Years". In Japanese with English subtitles. The English titles are "Big Bang Love, Juvenile A" and "4.6 Billion Years of Love".

Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

Set in Portland, Oregon in 1971, Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon) is a 26 year-old ringleader of a "family" of drug addicts who travel across the American Pacific Northwest supporting their habit by robbing pharmacies and hospital drug cabinets in search of Valium, Dilaudid and other narcotics to pop, shoot and snort. With his frustrated wife Dianne (Kelly Lynch), his loyal easygoing partner Rick (James Le Gros), and Rick's juvenile girlfriend Nadine (Heather Graham), Bob plots ingenious heists and spends the rest of his time sitting around the house getting high.

When the heat becomes too intense in Portland, the quartet hits the road for small-town drug stores and hospitals, but when their luck runs out it does so in grand fashion. A highlight of the film is an appearance by recovering addict Tom (William S. Burroughs), a defrocked priest who lectures Bob on the dangers of temptation, adding some penetrating social commentary towards the end. After a tragedy strikes the "family" Bob decides to try to "go straight," but finds that there is more to extricating himself from the drug user's lifestyle than just giving up drugs. His inner war with fear and dark forces eventually compels him to enter a methadone treatment program, then find a regular job, even though he knows it means breaking up the "family".

The movie definitely captures the 1970s era well with its acting, dialogue and wardrobe. Performances by Dillon and the others are very good. The mood of this crime drama is generally uncomfortable, however some comic relief is added throughout in the dialogue and trippy visual imagery. Some of the pranks they pull on detective Gentry (James Remar) whom they are eluding are quite humorous. Elliot Goldenthal composed the movie score. Gus Van Sant and Daniel Yost wrote the screenplay derived from James Fogle's book of the same title. Openly gay Gus Van Sant directed. It was his breakthrough picture, very well-received critically.

El Sacerdote (1978)

Padre Miguel (Simón Andreu) is a 36 year-old priest, handsome, athletic, expressive, sweet, and virile. His eyes express a certain shyness, and he is sad about his sexuality as he struggles against his own conscience. Daily he is reminded of his lustful needs, which range from a young boy to a married village beauty. The continuing presence in his confessional of Irene (Esperanza Roy), a woman about 30 years old, very beautiful, with an expression of meditation hiding her passionate nature undermines his faith and religious convictions. His continuing doubts and weaknesses along with memories of a difficult childhood lead to a torn and cruel inevitability.

"El Sacerdote" is very enlightening about the sexual conflicts which arise in an environment of imposed celibacy. It is obvious that the modern Catholic church includes many priests who do not remain celibate, and their sexuality if ignored or abused will cause serious problems for the community. Without getting to those dire consequences, Padre Miguel recognizes his own apparent obsession with sex, and turns to his superiors for help. The efforts to change him, to affirm the counter-instinctual ban on sex, lead through a tour of his childhood and the foundation of his life. Sexuality is normal for a man, and so it becomes a contest of mind over matter. The priest discovers that one cannot deny the body, home of desire, just as we do not deny mind, home of the spirit. His tragedy is a giant finger pointing at the church, accusing it of being forever stuck in the kindergarten of spirituality, deprived of the wisdom that would come from a sexually mature world view.

This controversial account of a priest experiencing mid-life depression from an obsession with sexual fantasies leads him to make a tough decision: should he renounce his calling or stay and battle the demons of the flesh that may destroy him? It's a touching film, with brief nude scenes and violent depictions of the torturous lengths a man will go to find peace with himself and his God. Director Eloy de la Iglesia said that he talks "about the world of which the majority of filmmakers do not care to speak, the marginal world...I am the one who always wants to make the films that are not supposed to be made. I'm the one interested in the subjects that everyone else has agreed not to talk about." Carmelo Bernaola composed the music score, and Enrique Barreiro wrote the screenplay. In Spanish with English subtitles. The English title is "The Priest".