Le Ciel sur la tête (2006)

Jérémy (Arnaud Binard) is a 30 year-old who has always excelled at everything and has just been promoted to an executive position at the bank where he works. His left wing petit bourgeois parents regard him as a golden child. They do not know that he is gay--in fact, the only member of the family that knows is his younger brother, Robin (Olivier Guéritée). One morning Jérémy stops at his parents' home for Sunday Brunch and tells them he is moving into a new house with his older, long-term boyfriend. Things heat up and Jérémy's folks who have always thought of themselves as liberals do not take the news well. Each of the parents accuses the other of knowing about their son and not telling.

They want to find out what caused Jérémy to be gay, and embark on a comical quest to find out what caused Jérémy's homosexuality. Rosine (Charlotte de Turckheim), Jeremy's mom, goes to a co-worker for advice and Guy (Bernard Le Coq), his dad, talks to his tennis buddies from whom he gets a few answers. New drama arises from the entire situation and the parents take out their frustrations on the younger son, who is hauled into the spotlight. Robin is elated as he is no longer the black sheep of the family. Will this family ever be the same after the shocking news?

The story is about a son coming out to his parents and them coping with it, with the focus more on the relationship of the parents. As the parents say, it could have been worse: Jérémy could have been in a car crash, have an orphan disease, cancer, or died in a terrorist attack. The parents' reaction to the fact their eldest and most beloved son is gay moves towards acceptance because they realize he is not so different. This quirky, delightful, and original TV movie features great performances and solid writing that avoids almost all the possible clichés of the genre. There is a little bit of everything: slapstick, comic situations, odd secondary characters, many unexpected but comical surprises, and quite original monologues and dialogues. Nicolas Mercier wrote the screenplay, and Régis Musset directed. In French with English Subtitles. The English title is "Times Have Been Better".

29th & Gay (2005)

James Sanchez (James Vásquez) is a 29 year-old gay man who feels he's reached a dead end in his life. Quiet, shy, balding, slightly paunchy, struggling to make it as an actor and find romance in Hollywood, he suffers an emotional crisis as he approaches his 30th birthday. His best friend Roxy (Nicole Marcks), an actress-turned-activist, struggles to show him there's life beyond the glitz of the disco ball, while his other friend Brandon (David McBean), one of those gay boys comfortable with his sexuality, works on getting James to at least talk to a boy. In his long journey through the film to find a boyfriend, he stumbles into many different guys. Most of them are from cheap sleazy gay bars. He attempts to find a man online, which leads him to Mike (Kurt Norby). They soon go on a date, which seems to be perfect, but James is never called back.

Throughout his relationship troubles, he also deals with his parents (Annie Hinton and James Synjyn) who try to be accepting, a lack of a job, a lack of inspiration for his talents as an actor, and his lack of confidence to approach the man he wants most: Andy (Mike Doyle) who is a server at a coffee house down the street. When around Andy, James loses control and becomes sloppy and ill at ease. After going through friendship troubles, depressing moments, and losing his apartment's electricity, he struggles his way back into life by getting an acting job and perhaps finding the man of his dreams. Feeling out of place in the world of circuit boys, caught between his Hispanic-American heritage and being gay, we watch James find his place in the world, realizing that life is in the journey, not the destination.

This sweet, charming, warm, and realistic romantic comedy is a small movie with a lot to say with wit and humor. The plot is nothing new, it's kind of an anti-"Queer As Folk", something that the average gay man can relate to. It's not without its faults, with the cute "street sign" introductions to each scene, frantic rewind flashbacks, and the MTV-style quick-cut film editing. But it delivers a good solid story with some stand-out acting without anyone getting naked. There is a hilarious scene between Sanchez and an HIV testing nurse (Kali Rocha). The DVD has deleted scenes, outtakes, trailers and a scene with two of the actors having their palms read by one of the extras. John Avila composed the music, James Vasquez wrote the screenplay, and Carrie Preston directed.

F. est un salaud (1998)

Clean-cut 16 year-old Beni (Vincent Branchet) is a Zurich high school student looking for a better life. That opportunity comes when he goes to a rock concert where he falls madly in love with Fögi (Frédéric Andrau), the handsome gay lead singer of "The Minks". The 26 year-old Fögi is also attracted to the cute youth. He hires him as a roadie and the two begin a wild sex affair that turns into love and devotion for Beni, but soon wears off for the jaded and bored Fögi. Beni is caught in a terrible situation where drug addiction comes into play. Beni, willing victim for his first love, is emotionally eaten alive by his slavish devotion, lust and eventual servitude to the increasingly indifferent Fögi.

The two stay together, but soon sink into alienation, drug addiction and self destruction. Sexual abuse follows as Fögi plays S & M games with Beni and eventually forces him into prostitution to finance his heroin habit. When "The Minks" start running out of gas, Fögi gets into conflicts with some other band members and decides to take a trip to Lebanon to get hashish for dealing. Beni feels lonely and lets himself be picked up by a psychiatrist. When Fögi returns, Beni is forgiven, but it gives Fögi an idea of how he can make money by renting out Beni. The teen must decide to venture into the dark inevitability with his love or jump off.

"F. est un salaud" chronicles the life span of a gay relationship and is quite complex. It captures the romantic, boldly explicit, honest details of two men inextricably intertwined to each other. The early sex scenes are tender and erotic without ever being pornographic, among the most sensual in a gay film. There's a lot of nudity and a lot of bed sex. One of the best scenes in the movie isn't in bed, isn't even overtly sexual, and both men are fully clothed. They're outside, walking together on a hill, enjoying a beautiful afternoon, just sharing their delight in being together. But their joy is drug-enhanced. The two leads deliver great performances, and all the supporting performers are good too, particularly Urs Peter Halter as Fögi's sweet bandmate Töbe, who may be in love with Fögi also.

This compelling Swiss film is electrifying, tender, gentle, and beautiful. Viewers comments are uniformly very favorable, such as, "I realized about halfway through that I was watching one of the greatest love stories ever filmed," and "I've never seen a better performance by any actor in any movie, ever." Rainer Lingk composed the original music. There are also songs from The Velvet Underground and Patti Smith. Marcel Gisler and Rudolf Nadler wrote the screenplay based on Martin Frank's novel. Marcel Gisler directed. In French with English subtitles. The English title is "Fögi is a Bastard".

Los Novios búlgaros (2003)

Gay Madrid lawyer Daniel (Fernando Guillén Cuervo) is a 40 year-old wealthy, spoiled, and attractive businessman who falls for 23 year-old Kyril (Dritan Biba), a hunky, muscular, sexy Bulgarian. Daniel frequents the Madrid party scene surrounding himself with a bunch of gay men who constantly camp it up, swoon over the Bulgarian hunks, and talk about their latest boyfriends. Kyril is looking for a wealthy sugar daddy, someone who will give him money and presents, and also "fix his papers" so that he can stay in Spain. He targets Daniel and after a night of hot sweaty sex, Daniel becomes hooked regardless of the fact that Kyril has a fiancée. None of Kyril's shortcomings seem to bother Daniel, who invites the Bulgarian into his life, and quickly becomes entangled in his new lover's shady business dealings.

Kyril is obviously hiding something. And Daniel begins to get suspicious when Kyril keeps asking for more money. Soon Daniel is forced to have surreptitious dealings with Eastern European mobsters and is asked to store a suspicious-looking black bag in his apartment. Daniel's emotionally masochistic tendencies become even more outlandish when he allows Kyril's beautiful fiancée Kalina (Anita Sinkovic) to stay, and even accompanies them to Sofia for their wedding while also paying for their trip.

Daniel's obsession with Kyril lands him in all sorts of trouble. Throughout the film he ruminates on the price that one must pay for love. He's part hard-core masochist and part impossible romantic, in love with a man who is a selfish opportunist merely out to make a quick buck by any means, including robbery and smuggling. But the twist is that Daniel is not the exploited, subjugated victim. He willingly chases after other boys, recklessly aids and abets his live-in stud, and even admits to his friends and the viewers that he does it because he can afford it.

This Spanish comedic thriller is seductive, mysterious and surprisingly funny, featuring the Bulgarian mob, bundles of money, and a chunk of uranium. The performances are excellent and totally believable. Romantic and sexual encounters between Daniel and Kyril--which include full frontal nudity--are more realistic than American films, gay or straight. The movie cleverly examines the interplay of sex, power and money with a breezy, almost comical attitude without being overly preachy. There's also social detail, which shows the relationship between the Spanish and the Eastern European immigrants. Dritan Biba as Kyril has sexual charisma and magnetism that helps viewers understand why Daniel becomes enamored with him. Antonio Meliveo composed the music. Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Antonio Hens, and Eloy de la Iglesia wrote the screenplay based on a novel by Eduardo Mendicutti. Eloy de la Iglesia directed. In Spanish with English subtitles. The English title is "Bulgarian Lovers".

Reine Geschmacksache (2007)

Bored teenager Karsten Zenker (Florian Bartholomai) plans a wild summer in Spain celebrating his graduation, but his traveling salesman father Wolfgang (Edgar Selge), insists he stay behind and help him with his dreary job supplying dowdy clothes to local fashion outlets for women aged 35 and older. Wolfgang lost his driving license for speeding and demands that Karsten act as his chauffeur. While peddling clothes for women around town, they meet rival workaholic salesman Steven Brookmüller (Roman Knizka). He plans to undercut Wolfgang's prices and steal all his customers with a range of upmarket garments.

A competition begins, but Wolfgang is going bankrupt and his wife Erika (Franziska Walser) discovers her husband's financial mismanagement. Add to this the interference of Brigitta (Traute Höss), Erika's Bavarian busybody friend. Things heat up when closeted Karsten falls in love with good-looking Steven, and the feeling is mutual. The end denouement between father and son is nearly perfect. It is a memorably happy moment, even topping Erika's wonderful final scene with Karsten ("I know--I understand--I accept"). What more could any gay boy ask for?

This light-hearted piece of entertainment sets out to be a comedy of manners. The many relationships between the characters provide their own quirky sub-plots. It's all fairly predictable in the romantic-comedy sense, and considerable suspension of disbelief is required. Why would Karsten put up with his father's treatment of him? Nevertheless, the acting is decent, especially the minor characters such as Erika and Brigitta. If you are looking for light, unchallenging entertainment, with a small dose of sentimentality, "Reine Geschmacksache" will fill the bill. "Reine Geschmacksache" translates as "clearly a matter of taste/preference", and as the Romans said, "You cannot argue over matters of preference." Martina Eisenreich composed the music, and the screenplay was written by Tom Streuber and Ingo Rasper, who also directed. In German with English subtitles. The English title is "Fashion Victims".

20 Centímetros (2005)

The film's title refers to the length of the penis on Marieta/Adolfo (Mónica Cervera), a transvestite prostitute in Madrid saving money for a sex change operation. While Marieta’s life is miserable, during her dreams she escapes into flamboyant musical numbers in which she's the singing and dancing star. Prostitutes in Madrid don't get paid that much, so she's having difficulty raising the money for the surgery. To make things worse, she's also a narcoleptic, dozing off to star in her very own dreamed-up Technicolor musical spectaculars.

Marieta lives in a run-down apartment complex with her best friend Tomás (Miguel O'Dogherty). Whenever she builds up her savings, Tomás finds ways to spend, lose, or cost her those funds. Most of the building is inhabited by women who shout obscenities to each other through the stairwells, but Marieta finds comfort in her friend Berta (Concha Galán), who's involved in unspecified shady dealings, and won't tell Marieta what they are. While Berta is at work, Marieta looks after Berta's son Paulito (Richard Shaw).

Marieta takes a job as a railroad station cleaner, but falls alseep on the job and is fired. But in the meantime she thinks she's found love in hunky fruit packer Raúl (Pablo Puyol), with whom she embarks on an intense sexual relationship. Unfortunately for Marieta, there's one problem--he loves her 8 inch appendage, so Marieta is placed in a position of whether to choose true love over her life long dream of becoming a woman.

While "20 Centímetros" is baudy and irreverent in spots and provides the occasional laugh, there's not much of a plot and most of the film aimlessly wanders through Marietta's life. She screams at Tomás and endures his insults, she talks with the other girls she works with about her surgery, has a couple of steamy encounters with Raúl, and bides her time until she can afford the operation.

The dance numbers aren't very good. Some dancers are good, but the chorography is not, and because Cervera can't sing that well, she and the musical numbers grow tiresome and slow down the pacing which stops the story from progressing as quickly as it should. On the positive side, the film shows the gritty street-wise existence of prostitutes, along with their hopes, dreams and disappointments.

This brash, lively mixture of dark comedy, light drama and musical performance is quirky, meandering, and odd. However we know from the outset that Marieta is being played by a woman, spoiling the authenticity. Ricardo de Gracia composed the incidental music. The other music is mostly Spanish and American pop songs. Ramón Salazar wrote the screenplay and directed. In Spanish with English subtitles. The English title is "20 Centimetres".

Poltergay (2006)

Young lovers Marc Modena (Clovis Cornillac) and Emma (Julie Depardieu) move into a magnificent old mansion that has been uninhabited for thirty years, unaware that the basement used to be a gay underground disco cave in the 1970's. During a freak electrical fault during a foam machine party, 5 gays perished in a fire that destroyed the club. The bodies were never found and their ghosts now haunt the house. But only certain people can see them, including Marc but not Emma. Cracks start to appear in their relationship as Emma watches the man she loves become increasingly obsessed by visions of naked men in 70s disco gear dancing to Boney M. Marc looses his job and Emma thinks that he might be gay and sends him to a psychologist for a diagnosis and cure. Finally Emma grows tired of his ghost stories and moves out. The ghosts, touched by Marc's problems, unite with Marc and do everything in their power to help him get his girl back.

This light and campy comedy horror movie is outrageous, but has a continuous undertow of homophobia. It might be OK if you're straight, you might even find it funny. If you're gay, prepare to be irritated or even offended. Don't expect the gay characters to be presented as valid people, just stereotypes some may find more offensive than funny. However, many gays enjoy this flick because it does have an amusing gay-themed scenario. Towards the end it gets a little confusing. The film was released on 25 October 2006 (one week before Halloween). Grégory Louis and The Supermen Lovers composed the music. Héctor Cabello Reyes and Éric Lavaine wrote the script based on an idea by Reyes. Éric Lavaine directed. In French with English subtitles.

A Very British Sex Scandal (2007)

Peter Wildeblood (Martin Hutson) is a diplomatic correspondent for the Daily Mail newspaper. He is a closet homosexual and like most gay men in the 1950s, lives in secret because homosexuality is against the law. In 1950s England about 1,000 gay men were being jailed each year for engaging in sexual activity. One evening Wildeblood meets Edward McNally (Sam Heughan), who is on leave from the air force and the pair embark on an affair together. However, a weekend visit to the estate of Lord Edward Montagu (Orlando Wells), a 28-year-old aristocratic socialite, eventually leads to a scandal which rocked Britain and led to a reconsideration of, and the eventual decriminilization of homosexuality.

In January 1954, Lord Montagu and his friend Peter Wildeblood were arrested after a concerted effort by the police to ensnare them for homosexual offences. The subsequent case scandalised high society, electrified the nation, and changed the course of British history. Appalled by the severity of the sentence, and the fact that two men were pressured into turning Queen's evidence, it became clear that the law was out of step with public opinion. Something had to give and that something was the law itself. The trial, the most overtly homosexual one since that of Oscar Wilde, set in motion a sequence of events that culminated in the campaign for sexual equality.

Mixing drama with documentary testimony, this moving film re-lives the extraordinary events of the trial and paints a vivid picture of what it was like to be gay in 1950s Britain. With contributions from people including Lord Montagu and veteran gay rights campaigners Allan Horsfall and Michael Brown, they vividly recall what it was like to live through an era in which homosexuals were in constant fear of assault, entrapment, blackmail, and a lengthy term of imprisonment. Horsfall and Brown describe the reality of gay life in Britain, telling of "chain prosecutions" and police harassment, vibrant underground social scenes and medical attempts to "cure" their "disease". And they discuss the implications of the trial and its role as a pivotal turning point in gay history.

A public backlash prompted the government to look into matters relating to Consenting Adults in the form of the Wolfenden Committee, one that Wildeblood himself would later stand before and quote the title of his ground-breaking book "Against the Law". The film dramatizes the meetings of the Wolfenden Committee whose landmark recommendations led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain in 1967 with The Sexual Offences Act.

The docu-drama is a little clunky in places, yet the mix of real-life testimony with dramatized moments shows how this marked the change of social attitudes in Britain. Lord Montagu always denied the charges for which he was convicted, and describes Wildeblood as a rather amusing person, someone he greatly admired in having spoken the truth. Yet in being out and proud in a court of law at this time, Wildeblood by admitting he was a homosexual, did so in the certain knowledge that he would be convicted. There is no denying the quality of this production, or the commitment to it by writer and director Patrick Reams, but you cannot help but feel that Peter Wildeblood deserved a sexier sex scandal than that presented in this made-for-TV docu-drama. No acts of "gross indecency" are to be found in this very reserved depiction of sex in the 1950s produced by Blast! Films for Channel 4 TV Corporation.

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.