With the launch of the brand-new TLAgay.com, the Gay Cinema Video On Demand experience we have been offering for a long, long time was upgraded and improved. We have expanded (and continue to expand) our selection of new and old gay-themed movies available for your viewing pleasure. Here’s just five of our current favorites, from various years, that you may have missed – ALL available to watch INSTANTLY! These aren’t our TOP 5, by any means – just a handful of flicks we want to highlight.
India Blues (c) I Have My Art Productions
2013, Germany
India Blues is an edgy, bold and passionate love story between two young men who are sometimes afraid to love each other. Through exploring their experiences – both the trivial and important moments – in real time (their first kiss, their first sexual encounter, their awkward silences, their last hug), we are submerged in their universe of love and the feelings that come with it. Pain, lust, happiness, jealousy, attraction, peacefulness, love and anger are shown to us in eight out-of-order segments – chapters in the coming together and the tearing apart of two very different people. Though it’s not for all tastes, this unusually patient, decidedly avant garde film aims to offer the most realistic depiction possible of a gay relationship – through all of its emotional stages – on film. There’s a lot of depth and intelligence even in the film’s slowest, most trivial moments and the two largely unknown lead actors (Christoph Forny and Yiannis Kolios) give incredibly brave performances, showing their characters’ vulnerability in totally subtle ways. Their ‘on the floor’ sex scene is not to be missed!
Land of Storms (c) TLA Releasing
2014, Hungary & Germany
Szabi (Andras Suto) is a young Hungarian guy who busts his ass on a German soccer team. After a fight with his best friend Bernard (Sebastian Urzendowsky), Szabi decides to return to Hungary to fix up a countryside home he inherited. There, he meets Aron (Adam Varga) and a mutual attraction ensues. But when news of their love affair spreads around their homophobic small town, the boys find themselves in great danger. To make matters worse, Bernard also shows up and a turbulent love triangle develops. With exceptional performances and evocative visuals, Land of Storms is a deeply affecting drama. It’s also practically dripping with homoeroticism! The soccer uniforms that they wear at the beginning of the movie alone made us break a sweat!
Men for Sale (c) Breaking Glass Pictures
2008, Canada
Men For Sale, from award winning director Rodrique Jean, is a mesmerizing look into the lives of those who work the male sex trade industry on the streets of Montreal. This is a frank and fascinating documentary that chronicles a year in the lives of 11 men – most of them in their early 20s – as they attempt to explain how they all arrived at the same profession. With a humanistic eye, the film uncovers the vulnerabilities of its subjects as they struggle to affirm their masculinity and make sense of their conflicting sexual practices. Some of them envision themselves escaping the sex trade industry, while others feel like prisoners in a vicious cycle of drug use and prostitution. Artfully weaving together piercing confessionals and scenes of Montreal’s nighttime cityscape, Jean creates a dreamlike vision of a rarely-glimpsed world – one that often goes unnoticed even when in plain sight.
Theft (c) Water Bearer Films
2007, United States
Liberty Hills was the most conservative village in America, till they got through with it! Sweet, sexy and naive Guy (Matthew Burnett) never dreamed he would fall in love with an unrepentant criminal (Patrick Henderson) and their passion would ignite the fire that burns down the local evangelical church in this rambunctious and controversial satire about gay men living in small town America. Featuring the hot disco music of Hedda Layne, a cast of hunky leather men, and a preacher that would put Tammy Faye Baker to shame (even in her 1980s heyday), Theft is a rollicking good time that might even make you stand up and cheer! It also doesn’t hurt that the two lead actors are positively adorable.
Withered in a Blooming Season (c) Water Bearer Films
2006, China
Leaning on Fassbinder and Jean Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles for inspiration, Withered in a Blooming Season is a film about a twin brother and sister who are a little too close for comfort – and it follows how they decide to spend the rest of their lives. When Feng (the brother) finds out that his sister Wen is pregnant, he talks his gay friend, Le Le into accepting the baby as his own. In the end, Feng and Le Le discover what everyone else knew all along, they are perfect for each other. In Mandarin with English subtitles, the film is a unique and under-seen melodrama that ends up depicting a one-of-a-kind family utopia.
