Review the most recent film you've seen

[Tiuri]

The Christmas Setup
This really is your typical Christmas movie. City boy returns home for the holidays to his meddling but lovable mother, played by Fran Drescher. There's a female best friend (aka the fag hag), a supporting brother and a cute boy-next-door type as a love interest. In this "ground breaking" Lifetime movie (ground-breaking because the sole focus is a gay couple), the predictable script is saved by the actors. The romantic leads are a couple in real life and in this case their chemistry translated to the screen really well. I like Fran Drescher and she does a great job as the mom. There are some subtle nods to how far gay rights have come but nothing too political. As far as Christmas movies go, it was quite good and I enjoyed it.




Dashing Through December
This really is your typical Christmas movie. Cowboy turned city boy returns home for the holidays to his lovable mother, played by Andie MacDowell, to try and sell off the family home. There's a former girlfriend, now a good friend (aka the fag hag), a former best friend (who's in it for all of 20 seconds) and a rugged boy-next-door type who literally lives next door as a love interest. In this "ground breaking" movie (ground-breaking because the sole focus is a gay couple), the actors do their best to work with the predictable script. It misses some of the charm of the Christmas Setup because one of the leads starts off as a real dickhead and it takes most of the movie for him to change. For a Christmas movie this definitely lacks snow, there is some but not nearly enough.
This one was merely OK.

[Parsifal]

I watched The Irishman (Robert De Niro and Al Pacino), superlative performances by both of them (as expected).  The movie was engaging and spellbinding, but I gave it only 4/5 Netflix stars (for personal taste rather than quality).

Two films that I gave 5/5 stars:
A Dog's Purpose (2017) with Dennis Quaid, K.J. Apa, Peggy Lipton, ...
A Dog's Journey (2019 sequel) with Dennis Quaid, Henry Lau (), ...
with Josh Gad for Bailey the dog's voice over.
Both films are absolutely charming, about a dog's lives through multiple reincarnations, full of laughs, heartwarming moments, and some tears.
If you need some uplift during this pandemic, give these a try.
And Henry Lau (in the sequel) is fucking  

[jdcyl]

So, this is equality. Gays now get low budget Hallmark (greeting card) Christmas TV movies, too.

[Tiuri]

So, this is equality.  Gays now get low budget Hallmark (greeting card) Christmas TV movies, too.

Almost, in the actual Hallmark one, the focus is still on the straight couple while the gay couple is given quite a bit of screen time but is still clearly the secondary narrative. I know this because I watched:




The Christmas House
A real Hallmark Christmas movie featuring a gay couple, wonders never cease. As the trailer states, the movie has three interconnected storylines and the gay couple awaiting a final decision on their adoption is one of them. As mentioned, they do get a decent amount of screen time and are definitely portrayed in a positive light. Jonathan Bennet is gay in real life ( I don't know about the actor who played his husband). I felt that the third storyline, involving the parents, was unnecessary but all in all, the movie wasn't too bad.

[Kev]

So, this is equality.  Gays now get low budget Hallmark (greeting card) Christmas TV movies, too.

I'll take it. Equality comes in different measures.

[Heinrich]

Leave it to Hallmark to cast two actually gay men in gay roles first. I don't think Love, Victor has any actually gay leads whatsoever.

This is maybe more progress than you might think. If Hallmark shows it, it has to be palatable to your Fox News relatives. They even went slightly diverse with casting! I hate that I came here to be disappointed and am not.

[EthanE]

Leave it to Hallmark to cast two actually gay men in gay roles first. I don't think Love, Victor has any actually gay leads whatsoever.

This is maybe more progress than you might think. If Hallmark shows it, it has to be palatable to your Fox News relatives. They even went slightly diverse with casting! I hate that I came here to be disappointed and am not.

So no real life gay actors playing gay roles in Love, Victor or Love, Simon, or.....many other movies with gay roles.....what's the big deal?

Do you need to cast real doctors, policeman, lawyers in grey's anatomy, silent witness, etc. etc.?

[Heinrich]

It's a matter of representation. Certainly there are more gay actors out there who never get the breaks straight actors get to play gay characters. I like Love, Victor and the actors do a fine job and are extremely hot. But you're telling me no gay actors of that quality exist? You list professions, but would you call for white actors to play Black characters? Asian actors playing white characters?

But speaking of professions, actors typically consult with and spend months doing research if the character's job is important to the role. Charles Dance gutted a real stag for Game of Thrones after a butcher showed him how. Daniel Day-Lewis learned how to make dresses to portray Woodcock. Do straight actors start dating and hooking up with the same sex?

In other news, I watched Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Very disappointing.

[EthanE]

It's a matter of representation. Certainly there are more gay actors out there who never get the breaks straight actors get to play gay characters. I like Love, Victor and the actors do a fine job and are extremely hot. But you're telling me no gay actors of that quality exist? You list professions, but would you call for white actors to play Black characters? Asian actors playing white characters?

But speaking of professions, actors typically consult with and spend months doing research if the character's job is important to the role. Charles Dance gutted a real stag for Game of Thrones after a butcher showed him how. Daniel Day-Lewis learned how to make dresses to portray Woodcock. Do straight actors start dating and hooking up with the same sex?

In other news, I watched Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Very disappointing.

so, by the same token, gay actors should not play straight roles then.

[Heinrich]

Gay actors often don't have a choice. Work, or wait for a gay role.

[Parsifal]

Isn't the whole art of acting about "being" the particular character which in 99.99% of the cases is not who you are anyway?  (I didn't say 100% because many say that James Dean wasn't acting in his three latest films, that was HIM.)

Is what it took for Robert De Nero to be a gangster hitman in The Irishman any different than what it takes a straight actor to act as a gay character or for a gay actor to act as a straight character?

I find the discussion to be irrelevant.

[Heinrich]

And it's gonna close this thread down. I'm definitely done fighting. There's a huge discussion to be had about all of it but I'm pissing in the wind here and I don't like water sports.

[EthanE]

Isn't the whole art of acting about "being" the particular character which in 99.99% of the cases is not who you are anyway?  (I didn't say 100% because many say that James Dean wasn't acting in his three latest films, that was HIM.)

Is what it took for Robert De Nero to be a gangster hitman in The Irishman any different than what it takes a straight actor to act as a gay character or for a gay actor to act as a straight character?

I find the discussion to be irrelevant.

very well said

[heric8256]

Liked Nightflyers: Season One, nice visuals hope season two is as good or better would be a plus. Didn't like the editing sometimes . You could get lost between the episodes a little.

__________

[Tiuri]

Make the Yuletide Gay
Not a Hallmark Christmas movie featuring gay leads, but more of an indie movie with a gay couple in the lead. It's from 2009, which is not that old, but somehow it feels quite dated and I don't exactly know why. It's obviously not a big-budget movie but the actors do a great job. The two leads are adorable and the parents at which we get to spend this Christmas are hilarious.

[Tiuri]

The Happiest Season
Don't think only male couples get Christmas movies, noooo, lesbians too. It's too bad that I am completely biased but I'm simply not a big Kristen Stewart fan. As far as I'm concerned she has two facial expressions, her default distraught face and her semi-smiley one, indicating happiness. But I already said I'm biased. Otherwise the movie was not bad. The storyline was good, the sibling rivalry seemed realistic, the parents trying to set-up their daughter with her ex-boyfriend, all made for some entertaining scenes.
According to many YouTube comments on the trailer, Kristen never acted more naturally and apparently the height difference between the two leads is a big deal.

[9in]

Just finished watching The Muppet Christmas Carol - a hard hitting all singing and dancing documentary on life in Margaret Thatcher's britain, or something. My dad tells me the times were bleak but I was struck by the brightly coloured puppets and can't help but think that it was cheerier than I've been led to believe.

Michael Caine as usual was Michael Caine, his natural urge to punish us all with his right wing views were tempered by the disabled Tiny Tim whose problems must have stemmed from the removal of school milk I'd heard to much about.

Overall I give it 4.8753333 out of 5, I can't help think that it would have benefitted from direction by Ken Loach and have been up there with I Daniel Blake.

[ladsnet]

Just watched the George C Scott one.
OK.. but nothing compares to the Muppets

[Tiuri]

Bill & Ted Face the Music
This was definitely not "most excellent". It was, in fact, a mess. It had none of the charm of the original despite copying parts of the original's storyline. The characters were not real characters but rather caricatures of their originals.

[EthanE]

Your Name Engraved Herein @ Netflix



It is the highest grossing LGBTQ movie in Taiwan and it's now available on Netflix.

It's a story of two boys falling in love in a time when gays are bullied and beaten at school. The backdrop is when Taiwan is under turmoil after the martial law is lifted.

The movie was beautifully shot by director Patrick Liu. The movie was partly based on his own story. The acting by Edward Chen & Jing-Hua Tseng was superb. Edward was nominated as the best newcomer in the The 57th Golden Horse Award.

Having seen so many Western & European LGBTQ movies, it's a breath of fresh air to have a change in scenery.