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 that you may have missed – ALL available to watch INSTANTLY!

 

Benjamin
British comedian Simon Amstell wrote and directed this charmingly offbeat gay romantic comedy about a filmmaker juggling the excitement of his upcoming film premiere with the fear and awkwardness of a burgeoning romance. Always ready with a self-defensive quip, indie film director Benjamin (Colin Morgan) nervously prepares for the premiere of his sophomore feature when he meets and falls for hard for Noah (Phenix Brossard), a young French musician. Will Benjamin’s insecurities and anxieties get in the way of success and happiness? Will his film be a critics-savaging disaster and he, a one-hit wonder? Benjamin is a charming, laugh-out-loud look at one man’s land mined road to success and love.

 

The Last Straight Man
Lewis (Mark Cirillo) is a closeted gay man throwing a bachelor party for his straight best friend and secret crush, Cooper (Scott Sell). Unexpectedly, the two men end up in bed together during the night. After this initial uncontrollable urge of drunken sex together, the two men decide to meet in the same hotel suite on the same night each year to hook up – and catch up. Written and directed by Mark Bessenger (Bite Marks, Confessions), The Last Straight Man is a sexy and bittersweet exploration of a secret relationship as it evolves over the course of twelve years. We see four additional nights that depict how these two men grow and how their friendship – and deep affection – changes.

 

Between Love & Goodbye
Kyle and Marcel (Simon Miller and Justin Tensen) fell deeply in love at first sight. Marcel, who is from France, marries his lesbian friend Sarah (Jane Elliott) so that he can stay in the United States with Kyle. Enter Kyle’s sister, April (Rob Harmon), a former prostitute who needs a place to crash. Taking a quick disliking to Marcel, April methodically drips poison into their happiness. But where Marcel sees a conniving woman with a not-so-hidden agenda, Kyle only sees his sister in need. The perfect couple soon falls headlong into possessiveness, jealousy and rage – trapped in the tangled emotions found in that space between love and goodbye. Can their love survive the pressure?

 

Seek
Evan (Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski) is a hot, young, gay newspaper writer who has just recently had his heart broken. Attempting to shake off his melancholy, he takes on an assignment profiling Hunter (Ryan Fisher), an alluring up-and-coming young gay club promoter. Around the guys are a host of other twenty-something urbanites, all longing for the same thing – approval. Whether it’s by the in-crowd, the hottie across the bar or in the industry in which they work, all of them are striving for something greater, failing to appreciate the beauty of what they already have. Written and directed by Eric Henry, Seek explores fresh territory in gay cinema – and is all the more tender and heart-wrenching for it.

 

Body Electric
The summer is coming and Elias (Kelner Macêdo) has been dreaming of the sea a lot. In his daily life, he’s a bit “at sea” as well. In the garment factory where he works, his responsibilities seem to be consistently increasing. He’s drowning in responsibilities. After one more night working overtime, Elias and his employees decide to go out and have some beer together. Though he knows it’s not advisable to mix his work life and his social life, this night proves to be exactly what Elias needs. Suddenly, new encounters and desires open up to his horizons. Though it is light on plot, Body Electric is a smart, warmhearted character study about breaking free from expectations and finding your place in the world.

The Films of Casper Andreas

Selected as one of the 100 most influential and newsworthy LGBTQ+ people by Out Magazine, Casper Andreas is an accomplished actor, writer, film director and producer. In 2020, he was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards for producing Wild Nights with Emily, Madeleine Olnek’s comedic biopic about Emily Dickinson starring Molly Shannon. Also in 2020, Casper premiered his 10th feature film as a producer, the Swedish relationship drama Are We Lost Forever, directed by David Färdmar.

Prior to all this, Casper wrote, produced and directed numerous multi-award winning features through his production and distribution company Embrem Entertainment. Floating effortlessly between comedy, drama, romance and thrillers, he’s an incredibly versatile filmmaker with a bunch of gay cinema crowd-pleasers under his belt. We’re spotlighting six below.

Flatbush Luck and Kiss Me, Kill Me are available currently at TLAgay. His films Between Love and Goodbye, The Big Gay Musical, Going Down in La-La Land and Violet Tendencies are available to pre-order now and will be released on DVD starting February 9th.

 

Between Love and Goodbye
Kyle and Marcel (Simon Miller and Justin Tensen) are in love at first sight. Marcel, who is from France, marries his lesbian friend Sarah (Jane Elliott) so that he can stay in the United States with Kyle. Enter Kyle’s sister, April (Rob Harmon), a former prostitute who needs a place to crash. Taking a quick disliking to Marcel, April methodically drips poison into their happiness. The perfect couple falls headlong into possessiveness, jealousy and rage; trapped in the tangled emotions found in that space between love and goodbye.

The Big Gay Musical
Starring in the Off-Broadway musical comedy Adam and Steve: Just the Way God Made ‘Em, aspiring actors Paul and Eddie (Daniel Robinson and Joey Dudding) find their complicated lives mirroring their onstage characters. Through rousing musical numbers that feature scantily-clad, tap-dancing angels, a clever retelling of Genesis, creepy televangelists and a camp that attempts to turn gay kids straight, everyone realizes that life gets better once they accept who they really are: just the way God made ’em!

Flatbush Luck
Flatbush Luck tells the story of two hunky cousins from Flatbush, Brooklyn. Former Wall Street hotshot Jimmy (Tanner Novlan) and his buttoned-up cousin Max (Robby Stahl) work as phone repairmen. One day they stumble across insider trading tips and start tapping a phone line to get even more. But when stock tips turn to murder plots, the hapless men are unable to go to the police and soon find themselves in over their heads and flat out of luck. An impending wedding and sexual confusion round out the plot in this romantic comedy crime caper.

Going Down in La-La Land
Young, handsome and ambitious, Adam (Matthew Ludwinski) arrives from New York with dreams of becoming a star. Soon, Adam finds himself dealing with down-and-out directors, washed up starlets, closeted celebrities and meth addicts as he starts to lose himself in an underworld of gay porn and prostitution. Going Down in La-La Land is a candid, sexy, outrageously funny look as what an actor can – and will – do to survive in Hollywood.

Kiss Me, Kill Me
Dusty (Van Hansis) blacks out while confronting his cheating boyfriend Stephen (Gale Harold). When Dusty comes to, he finds that Stephen has been murdered… and now he’s the prime suspect. But West Hollywood is filled with other possible perpetrators: an unstable lawyer, a couples’ therapist, a jealous ex, a sketchy best friend, a resentful lesbian couple, and a drag queen hypnotist. Now Dusty must put all the pieces together to figure out what really happened – even if it means he’s guilty of murder.

Violet Tendencies
In this charming romantic comedy, Violet (Mindy Cohn), finds that her love life is one big belly flop. Realizing she’s at a certain age and still single, Violet starts to wonder if her close attachments to her gay best friends, and their packed social life, are preventing her from finding a real relationship. Seeking out a straight male version of herself – the mythical “fag stag” – Violet strikes out on a hilarious quest to change the woman she is. Chasing love and lust at all costs, she may find them both in the most unlikely of places.