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,

Lady Bird (2017)

Set in Sacramento, the movie has very interesting and realistic characters and an intriguing story. Particularly the relationship between the protogonist and her mom is well done and nuanced.

.. Minor spoilers ..

Minor gay interest film. One of Christine "Lady Bird" love interests is a closeted gay boy that leads her on.

At one point in the film, she picks up a porn magazine of boys and we actually see erections. (No sex acts though.)

One reason it is R rated, plus some depictions of heterosexual sex.

Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

A lot of research went into this book. Isaacson became famous as the biographer of Steve Jobs. I am a bit of a Steve Jobs detractor. He had his good points, but seemed like an all around a**hole.

Leonardo Da Vinci, on the other hand, seems a less greedy for attention genius.

The book describes his various interests including his detailed study of vision which related strongly to his painting; one thing among many for which he is famous. A very intuitive person and yet he performed experiments to try to better prove his theories. He wrote a fair amount of notes, but published little.

He's a very interesting character, and the book provides a very worthwhile investigation of his talents and interesting personality.

Five Dances (2015) rating: 9/10

The modern dances in this movie are just astounding and beautiful. And the main actor is fairly stunning, has a great body and not a bad face. The movie is great to see just for the dancing alone. But also, there is a fine plot with gay interest and a sex scene, and a little love story. There is also just friendship, the tough boss, and family struggles.

Jess & James (2015) rating: 8/10

There is also a three way sexual encounter in this film (it is very dark and can't see it), but the story and characters at least here are very well developed as compared to "The Third One". I liked the characters, they are different and unique, though the two short/dark haired actors cannot be easily told apart physically. They almost seem like brothers (they are not in the story). Still, one nice thing is that there is the feeling of a real love story here. No messed up characters or sociopaths. It does make the movie less dramatic though, with less real conflict. Nevertheless, there is the un-accepting family dynamic. And in the case of all of the three main characters, the desire to remove themselves from very unappealing home situations and create something like a new family situation.

The Third One (2014) rating: 5/10

Poor to non-existent plot, this movie only gets a reasonable rating from others I think because of the 3-way non-explicit sex scene. The only character building is like one dinner they have before the 3-way encounter. It is kind of an advertisement for non-monogamous paired relationships which I think is ok, and not necessarily a bad thing to think about or consider.

Floating (1997) rating: 7/10

The story manages to finesse the gay friend, but the main character is slightly ambiguous. I thought it strange that Van didn't seem too excited when seeing his girlfriend, so I thought he might be latent gay or bi-, but that could be misdirection.

Being lazy and not summarizing the plot, but others have done:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139216/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

Naz & Maalik (2015) rating: 8/10

Two young Muslim boys/men in Brooklyn make their way through life. They are friends and secret lovers. But the police/FBI find them as possible sources of information. Their interactions with law enforcement starts out innocent, but then becomes fraught with danger and suspicion.

Excellently acted by the two charismatic and attractive leads. The script is well done.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3385334

Xenia (2014) rating: 7/10

A young, eccentric Eastern European gay guy's mother dies, and he finds his way to meet his straight older brother in Athens. They have crazy adventures together to find their long lost father. On the way, they meet with their gay uncle who tells what he knows of their missing, but rich and famous father.

Like You Mean It (2015) rating: 6/10

A film about a cold sociopath/psychopath actor in a relationship with a nice guy singer. The sociopath should just tell the nice guy it's over, but he doesn't. He really doesn't seem to care. They go to therapy, but there is no relationship to salvage. The nice guy is kind of cute, I think this is why the film gets a 6 and not lower.

Dreams of Strangers (2015) rating: 5/10

Looks like about 15 minutes of content expanded to a 75 minute film. The 15 minutes of content are acted alright, but the script is nothingness as far as content.

The companion film on the DVD, Polaroid, is actually the right length, but also contains roughly nothing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4456774

Vera (TV Series)

I found the early shows of the British made (mostly) murder mystery series exceptionally well done and interesting. Perhaps not as good as Cumberbatch's Sherlock, but actually not very far behind.

Vera is an older and single detective chief inspector (DCI) is accompanied by younger and generally good looking Sargent in the series. In the end, the crime is always solved, but of course there is always a twist which keeps you guessing. Usually I find my self guessing wrong...

Carol (2015), rating: 8/10

I didn't know the story that the film is based on is from Patricia Highsmith. It is in fact her second novel; the one she wrote just before "The Talented Mr. Ripley".

The film shows a lesbian love story, wonderfully acted by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as leads.  Cate's character is in a loveless marriage with a wealthy man, but has a young daughter, who the becomes the object of custody fight. Viewing the love start and build, at first sight, in the shop where Rooney's character works, is spellbinding.

The custody fight gets more heated and threatens the new relationship. The screenplay is very well done and camerawork is excellent.