Flee (2021) 8/10

This almost entirely animated drama provides a novel and near perfect medium for a documentary of one Afghan young boy's escape from Afghanistan with his family to a corrupt and unfriendly Russia overstaying on their visa. And then what happens when they seek to leave Russia. At the same time the film shows the protagonist's struggle with his sexuality while being a refugee and being separated from his family.

 

Cicada (2021) 8/10

A white bisexual New Yorker falls in love at first sight with a black gay dude that he sees at a bookstore's sidewalk display, flipping through a picture book. He makes quick and unambiguous advances and is not rebuffed. Meanwhile both his past troubles as well as his new boyfriend's past troubles simmer and start to come to fore and affect their relationship. 

Bowen Yang has fun (but very short) cameos as supportive gay friend.

Despite running through some controversial racial issues, the movie handles these well.

Moffie (2019) 8/10

An introverted, but pretty protagonist leads the list of positives for this movie about recruits to the South African army during the time of apartheid. The boot camp is full of what we would call today toxic masculinity. Later there are moments of camaraderie, but what terror happens to secretly gay soldiers becomes a focus for the closeted protagonist as he finds himself in a relationship with another similar soldier.

I got a bit confused with who was who as soldiers looked a bit alike. Still the movie is a good watch. It is adapted from a book. It might be worth a read, too.

And then we danced (2019) rating: 9/10

A modern film about the country of Georgia, but about the traditional dance form and the young men and women training to be dancers of that form. 

There is embedded a gay romance.

Story is well done though in some ways not very novel for folks in the US, but groundbreaking for that country.

End of the Century (2019) rating: 9/10

Beautiful shots of the city of Barcelona. The first few minutes could serve for Board of Tourism. One lone traveler seems to be taking in the city alone. Another man catches his eye from the balcony of his Airbnb. He later sees the same man again at the beach. It seems serendipitous, but they don't connect. 

The story moves on from there. 

The two leads are attractive. 

You might be surprised that it was filmed in the course of less than two weeks, and that it is the director's first feature length film.

In a way it is an investigation of alternate universes.

The Cakemaker (2017) rating: 8/10

Taking place in Berlin and Jerusalem, the movie finds the protagonist silently grieving his lover who was killed in an accident. He is a baker that runs his own shop and seems to love what he does.
He strangely wants to see and even get to know this family of his lover that he was sharing time with. This tricky part of the story is deftly handled.
The lead actor does a great job with the somewhat introverted role displaying many emotions on his face while the protagonist is alone, but concealing them completely or partially otherwise. Overall well done with a fine music score also.

New Delhi, India

The metro provides great people watching opportunities. The unbelievably thin Indian guys can be exceedingly pretty. Indians have that confusing (to a gay person) hand holding and friendly male on male touching. I have to assume it is all hetero, but from a relatively macho western perspective, it is awesomely sensitive and kind of romantic.

You get regular pat downs on the metro and entering hotels or museums. It is sort of pleasant for gay men. The security guys give you an little push on the back afterwards to encourage you to be on your way. For a western person, I was touched way more than I was used to, including the jostling on the crowded metro.

For practicalities, the one thing I don't like in India are the taxi, especially the auto-rickshaws. They'll rip off the tourists. Very annoying. Uber on the other hand, is a godsend.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) rating: 9/10

At some point, Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, unwillingly gets his hair cut, by some hairdresser to the gladiators, a cameo part played by Thor comic originator, Stan Lee. Looking a bit spiky and uneven, the haircut brings out Chris's stunning visage. After this point, I found the movie became infinitely more interesting.

At 1hr 2 minutes in and after the fight between Thor and the Hulk, there is another moment of extreme thirst with Hemsworth shirtless and having unbelievable abs definition,