This Weekend’s VOD Favorites
The Gay Cinema Video On Demand experience at TLAgay.com has your entertainment needs covered! We’re always working to expand 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.
Taekwondo
You can almost smell the sweat coming off the screen in this excruciatingly hot new film. In a beautiful country house in a chic suburb of Buenos Aires, Fernando (Lucas Papa) and his buddies are having a “boys only” weekend. Disconnected from the outside world, they do little more than bask in the hot sun, play in the swimming pool, smoke pot and drink – naked or half- naked pretty much the entire time. Fernando decides to invite a newcomer, Germán (Gabriel Epstein), a close friend from his Taekwondo class. Germán is quickly welcomed into the group. Fernando doesn’t realize, though, that Germán is attracted to men. Little by little, the two dudes get more intimate and the simmering sexual tension hits a boiling point. Assembling one of the hottest casts in gay movie history, prolific queer director Marco Berger (Absent, Hawaii, Sexual Tension: Volatile) has outdone himself. You won’t be able to take your eyes off the screen.
Finding Me
Independent African-American gay cinema is too often (quite sadly and often infuriatingly) hard to come by, which makes us treasure Finding Me (along with the follow-ups Finding Me: Truth and Finding Me: The Series) even more. Faybien Allan (RayMartell Moore) is young and stylish, appearing with hip friends at NYC’s trendiest spots. But beneath the sparkle of his nightlife and stunning good looks is a man buckling under his father’s homophobia. Full of self-loathing and desperate for direction, he meanders through life until meeting Lonnie (Derrick L. Briggs), a confident activist with a flirtatious smile. Despite obvious chemistry and fireworks in bed, Faybien’s insecurities have him looking for the door. Can a budding romance and a few good friends keep him from making the biggest mistake of his life? Follow all the adventures of Faybien and his friends at TLAgay.
Fujimi Orchestra: Cold Front Conductor
Yuki Morimura (Shôta Takasaki) is by all accounts a disappointment. The only thing the substitute teacher has going for him is that he is the concertmaster of an amateur orchestra. To the shock of the Orchestra, music prodigy Kei Tonoin (Yûsuke Arai) has been recruited to be their first true conductor. Kei graduated from a prestigious music university abroad and his arrogant totalitarian attitude drives Yuki crazy. Worse, he threatens the potential relationship Yuki seeks with a girl from the orchestra. In abrupt anger, Yuki abandons the group in the middle of rehearsal. Kei does not take this lightly as he has long been secretly lusting over Yuki. That night, Kei’s rage and passion combine to change Yuki’s life forever. In a battle for dominance, neither man is willing to admit their faults or face the truth, building to one shocking ending. Based on a popular anime novel in Japan, Fujimi Orchestra: Cold Front Conductor is a rare import, now available to stream in the United States at TLAgay.
Anotherworld
Writer-director Fabiomassimo Lozzi presents a gripping drama about the current state of Italy’s gay culture by weaving together a tapestry of intimate monologues. Conceived as a vision of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, Anotherworld is an unusual, deeply experimental narrative that touches on the joys, heartaches, and political struggles that all gay men – whether old or young, from big cities or small towns – must face in the modern world. Much of the dialogue is derived from true-life interviews with gay men, imbuing the film with authenticity and timeliness. Even in the film’s darkest moments – those depicting violence and self-loathing – viewers will discover a haunting beauty and an honesty that is at times brutal.
India Blues
Paced, deliberately, at slooooowwwwly and carefully as possible, director George Markakis’ India Blues (also known as India Blues: Eight Feelings) tells an edgy, bold and passionate love story about two young men (played with little to no inhibition by Yiannis Kolios and Christoph Forny) who are sometimes afraid of the deep intimacy their love for one another creates. 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. Warning: this film features graphic, unsimulated sex scenes.
