Bi/Poly/Other Movie/Books Review and Journal
Posts tagged het
TV – Rose By Any Other Name… (Episode 1.03)
Dec 23rd
It’s a new web series produced by Fencesitter Films:
Synopsis: About a lesbian who falls in love with a man and must deal with the fallout.
Watch Here:
Popularity: 1% [?]
TV – Rose By Any Other Name… (Episode 1.02)
Oct 24th
It’s a new web series produced by Fencesitter Films:
Synopsis: About a lesbian who falls in love with a man and must deal with the fallout.
Watch Here:
Popularity: 1% [?]
TV – Rose By Any Other Name… (Episode 1.01)
Oct 18th
It’s a new web series produced by Fencesitter Films:
Synopsis: About a lesbian who falls in love with a man and must deal with the fallout.
Watch Here:
Popularity: 1% [?]
MReview: Shortbus
Sep 22nd
Shortbus 2006 (Unrated Edition)
M/F – M/M – M/M/M – F/F
Synopsis: [IMDB] Numerous New York City-dwellers come to the exclusive club Shortbus to work out problems in their sexual relationships. Rob and Sophia are a happily married couple, except for the fact that she has never experienced sexual climax. This irony follows her to work, because she is a couples counselor who frequently has to deal with the sexual issues other couples have. Two of her patients are Jamie and James, a gay couple who have been monogamous for five years and counting. James wants to bring other men in to the relationship, and his own history with depression may hint at an ulterior motive. Ceth (Pronounced like Seth) may be the perfect addition to their family, but Caleb, a voyeur from across the street, may have his own ideas about that. Sophia visits Severin, a dominatrix with secrets of her own to reveal.
Review: Sorry this is super short but I wrote this long piece a while ago and lost it and I’m not looking to rewrite again, and this is going by memory.
There are explicit sexual situations but seriously, it’s not about sex. Get past the first ten minutes and the sex will become background, seriously. I was amazed that while the sex did advance certain things in the film it was almost invisible to the way the character’s plots interacted with each other.
It is about the sex therapist who never had an orgasm. The actress who plays her is so believable and earnest as her journey interconnects with everyone. It feels like she’s Alice going through the city full of adventures and strange unique people to find home (her self fulfillment). Others teach by her giving advice or a simple shoulder to cry on. We meet the other people and their dynamics: directly knowing her or connection to her. Their stories are just as unique and interesting to watch. All the characters are relatable and likable, even the ones you don’t care for but it is an interesting look at the character’s dealing with others, their own lives and how they love each other. Music soundtrack is a great bonus.
Trailer:
Popularity: 1% [?]
MReview: .45
Sep 2nd
.45 (2006)
M/F – F/F
Synopsis:
[Cinemablend] The movie first introduces us to Kat (Milla Jovovich), who lives in a shoddy New York apartment with her aggressive boyfriend Big Al (Angus Macfadyen). A very dominant character and respected gun dealer, Big Al is convinced he reigns over the entire neighborhood. When Kat decides to get into the gun business herself and starts selling weapons behind Al’s back, his jealousy tosses him into an explosion of rage that leads to a gruesome rape. With the help of a devoted social worker (Aisha Tyler) and her bisexual friend Vic (Sarah Strange), Kat finally finds the necessary courage to engage in a vicious act of revenge that could free her from Al once and for all.
Short Version: A story of how obsession, addiction and abuse leads a young woman (Jovovich) to execute an elaborate plan of revenge.
Review:
I don’t get bored with Milla Jovovich movies, this movie I can watch more than once but twice? That’s where it gets a little muddled. Watching it for the first time (this was after not looking at any movies with bi/poly attachments, so this group including this movie is from the batch I saw prior to vacation.) I was looking for different things for the blog like any bi behaviors and Milla (Kat) does exhibit them (I will say all the females in this movie) so I wondered in what context and it’s in her relationships; the bastard of a boyfriend, her female best friend who lust after her, the boyfriend’s friend and his rival who lust after her and the social worker who gets closer to her than the others. (In all these relationships she responds to all, some more strongly than others for her ends.)
On the second run I just watched and it plays as a simple deception movie. Once you figure out where the characters stand with main character Kat (Jovovich). She is a woman desperate to leave an abusive relationship but doesn’t know how. Or does she? Because as the story progress you already picked up one the facts is that she “relying on the kindness of strangers” or should I say “relying on the kindness of friends” a little to well. Almost manipulatively well….
Anyway, I stayed until the end even when I figured out the twist and all her deceptions fell into place there really was only two people who felt betrayed by her; one who deserved it and one who didn’t. All in all, rent if you can find it.
Trailer:
Popularity: 1% [?]
MTrailer: Steam
Apr 1st
Steam (2009)
I heard about this movie last year checking out FSF and if I get a chance to see it here in CT as I’m not planning to go to NY any time soon, I’ll write a review for it later.
Synopsis:
[Yahoo Movies] At the local gym steam room three very different women escape from their troubles and find ways to overcome their personal struggles. Laurie, who is still allowing herself to be manipulated by her ex-husband, is suddenly pursued by her son’s much younger football coach. Elizabeth, a freshman at Rutgers University, struggles to free herself from her parents controlling grip as she slowly comes to terms with her sexuality through a crush on a politically active female student. Doris, who has lost her husband a year ago, can no longer find much to live for. Since her husband’s death she has given up all the joys they enjoyed together, most notably her love for singing. The women find who they are through their romances, getting the strength they need to overcome whatever is holding them back.
Trailer:
Popularity: 13% [?]
TV – Family (Web Episode 1.03)
Mar 30th
Episode #3 “The Famous Jim” Meet Gemma’s new lover, the bicyclist, Jim.
Watch Here:
Popularity: 10% [?]
MReview: Head In The Clouds
Mar 29th
Head in the Clouds (2004)
M/F F/F M/F/F
Synopsis:
[Netflix] John Duigan helmed this sexy film starring Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron as Gilda, a flighty-but-charming socialite who finds her true match in Guy (Stuart Townsend), an intellectual Irishman who wants to battle in the Spanish Civil War — and who convinces Mia (Penelope Cruz), Gilda’s confidante, to do the same. But Gilda has other plans that may, in the end, endanger her life more than supporting the war.
Review:
Sorry this isn’t my best in grammar but this is the third time I am trying to write this review because I kept losing the drafts so I am not in the mood to write this over again.
I found this a surprising movie to watch about a temporary triad because it takes place during WWII and because I wasn’t expecting it as I rarely if at all. (Though I should of seen how Gilda acting with her uni boyfriend, which seems to be an open relationship.) I haven’t watched Charlize Theron in a movie but she is known as a good actress (Monster) and the rest of the cast including the man in her life Guy played by Stuart Townsend and the woman Mia played by Penelope Cruz (she was the initial reason I watched the film). It starts pre-WWII and the Spanish Civil War is the big thing which Gilda wants absolutely nothing to do with since Guy and Mia for personal reason wishes to go and volunteer to help the cause which leaves Gilda alone but when WWII arrives, Gilda is with a German solider but at a point of reckoning Guy and the audience is shown another side of Gilda, to which earlier in the film we get glimpses of.
Why did I start in the middle of the movie? Half laziness, part I don’t want to rewrite again. However I think the bulk of story and my opinion starts to mesh for me is in the middle. Before the war Guy and Gilda is what you expect of the late twenties/early thirties characters, well Gilda anyway who still has her family’s money and her daddy complex issues but if I seem nonchalant about these early 30 or so minutes I am not, because even though this movie is through Guy’s point of view, it is really about our girl Gilda and how she changed this man’s life.
You should understand the first 30 minutes of the film is preparing you not for Guy or even Mia character to evolve but is giving you the reasoning and eventual formation of Gilda’s logic until the last minutes of the film where you get to follow along with Guy as he maybe understands Gilda and her love for him.
There are other characters in the movie that are interesting but really who are fulfilling roles that are necessary to get the movie going including Gilda’s college man who at the end gives Guy an important message. Gilda’s father who gives her character some depth to her emotional state.
Remember when I said “temporary triad”, well it’s war so I suggest you prepare yourself that people will die.
Collection: Yes.
Trailer:
Popularity: 10% [?]
MReview: Inside I’m Dancing
Mar 19th
Inside I’m Dancing / Rory O’Shea Was Here (2004)
M/F
Synopsis:
[IMDB] When the kinetic Rory moves into his room in the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, his effect on the home is immediate. Most telling is his friendship with Michael, a young man with cerebral palsy and nearly unintelligible speech. Somehow, Rory understands Michael, and encourages him to experience life outside the confines of home.
Review:
Not the movie I was planning to write about since I wondering about the summer blockbuster and frankly other things got in the way that I ended up writing this and with the week I had I needed something like this.
This movie is freakishly uplifting as well as sad as hell, I kind of knew what would happen towards the end I was still crying my eyes out anyway. Michael is a disabled man with cerebral palsy which makes it hard for anybody to understand what he is saying. He has live in a home for the disabled all his life until one day a crazy loud mouth quadriplegic Rory enters the home and his life. This was one of the movies I saw before I had to stop for a while and I thought I couldn’t love James McAvoy in anything but he had me enjoying every minute and this doesn’t take away the main character of Micheal played by Steven Robertson, he played his part so well I thought he had cerebral palsy. I would so recommend this if you want a feel good movie.
Oh yeah, keep a hankie nearby.
Trailer:
Popularity: 8% [?]
MReview: Velvet Goldmine
Jan 27th
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
M/M M/F
Synopsis:
[Netflix] Ten years after British glam-rocker Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) fakes his assassination onstage and disappears from view, tabloid journalist Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale) is dispatched to deconstruct the legend of the bisexual pop star. In the process of interviewing Slade’s cohorts and colleagues, Stuart gradually strips away the veneer of makeup and glitz, revealing the empty core of both the man and the music.
Review:
I enjoyed it, even when I wondered why I was watching it. Glam Rock isn’t my thing so I attached myself to the things I did like and all the actors is what kept me interested. I mean this movie had Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and all of them in undress and at certain times touching each other… well that alone made my day. Yeah, and the songs were good.
It actually had a good twist towards the end even though by this time I wasn’t really interested like Arthur’s publisher what happened to Brian Slade. The parts I did enjoy were how teenager Arthur connected to Brain Slade or should I say the glam rocker’s persona. Slade wasn’t afraid of being himself and saying he was bisexual. (You could see how powerful a media personality can influence on how, whether good or bad on mass; this connection can be important to a young person trying to find their way.) However in truth, the real Brian Slade wouldn’t be considered a good reference for anyone’s looking up to and I think what I did like is the adult Arthur’s discovery of that as well.
Secondly, I like the fact that was the most time I heard the word bisexual in all connotations in a movie. Not liking was probably the behavior associated with it. I don’t mind the bad stuff mixed with the good because it is what it is. The good was what I said before but it seemed overtaken with the bad. Or maybe I don’t know what I am talking about and just say it was the 70’s.
Do rent or buy it, either way watch it and you like it.
Trailer:
Popularity: 7% [?]
