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.
2012, United States
An eye-opening gem of a short film collection, Fourplay offers up four short stories both hilarious and emotionally powerful. Each of the individual films follow seemingly ordinary characters who find themselves thrust into some very unusual sexual situations. In Skokie, a closeted woman’s crush on her minister’s wife erupts during a weekend of dog-sitting. In Austin, a young couple discovers a kinky way to keep their relationship alive. In Tampa, a man with an extremely small penis finds his nirvana in a public restroom. And in San Francisco, a cross-dressing sex-worker faces a challenging assignment with a elderly quadriplegic man. Fourplay handles a wide variety of extremely taboo subjects with great sensitivity and depicts sex acts as potentially cathartic moments in our lives. It’s also riotously funny and deeply heartfelt.
2011, United States
The Love Patient tells the often raucous tale of what one man will do to gain back his ex. Paul (Benjamin Lutz) is a cocky, fast-talking, hard-living, self-centered hunk and ad executive who thinks he may have lost a good thing when sensitive hunk Brad (John Werskey) drops him and begins dating another man. Not used to losing and determined to regain his love, Paul announces to all that he has cancer, a sad situation which is sure to have Brad running back to him. But the plan he concocts spirals out-of-control when Paul’s family spring into action by moving into his apartment and making it a near-hospice. With distraught parents and a skeptical sister hovering around, any chance of reigniting the romance with his ex becomes remote. A plan B is needed! Populated by outrageous characters, The Love Patient is a fun, entertaining, wacky and darkly hilarious romantic comedy.
2005, Thailand
Adapted from the American novel “Rainbow Boys” by Alex Sanchez (and released in some countries under the title Rainbow Boys: The Movie), this Thai coming-of-age tale is chock full of cute young guys! Nat (Pimphong Isarasena Na Ayutthaya) the official school “gayboy” is in love with his best friend Tat (played by an actor credited only as “Jackie“). Tat is in love with school basketball hunk Ek (Palat Ananwattanasiri), and Ek is supposedly in love with his girlfriend Da (Wijitra Wijitwonagon). Unfortunately Nat’s love is unconsummated and Da finds herself without Ek as he struggles to come to terms with growing desires for men. Meanwhile, Ek and Tat form a bond that carefully steers towards a relationship, despite the complications thrown in by the homophobic school bullies and their disgruntled uncomprehending parents. Right by Me is a unique import that hits all the right rom-com beats.
2016, Cuba
In 1983 Andres (Eduardo Martinez), a non-compliant gay writer, resides in the rural mountain region of Eastern Cuba, having been blacklisted by the government for “ideological problems.” After a major event occurs, the government decides someone reliable must be appointed to watch over him and make sure he does not make any political statements. Santa (Lola Amores), a country girl who works on a farm, is assigned to the task. For three days in a row Santa sits in front of Andres’ hut and keeps watch over him. Santa and Andres are as close as it gets to being true opposites, and they’re not meant to like each other. However, they soon find that they have more things in common than they expected. A hit at film festivals across the globe, The Hollywood Reporter called Santa & Andres “achingly beautiful.”
2006, United States
Set in Maine and inspired by his own teen years, provocative indie filmmaker Todd Verow tells a story of gay lust in high school between Joe (Brad Hallowell), a (clearly autobiographical) theater geek, and his best buddy, Andrew (Gregory J. Lucas), a football star. Joe has been edging his way out of the closet for some time, but Andrew is still resolutely having sex with women. They both have girlfriends, but the charade is wearing thin. Unhappy at home, Joe moves in with an older gay man and becomes his caretaker and artist’s model. The boys continue to play hetero in public until the girlfriends decide to get these two boys to start playing with each other. The scene in which the boys first make love, while the girlfriends peer around the wall, is pretty damn memorable. As their relationship develops, they explore the local gay scene where old issues begin to surface. A unique, wildly prolific filmmaker who is never afraid to experiment, Todd Verow offered one of his most straight-forward stories with Vacationland… and it’s worth revisiting.