PIGLFF 2008, Part 2

Here are the first 5 (Well 6) reviews:

I was with the Gay Luck Club boys for a meeting discussing the logistics of hosting a pool party around mid August and I got to talk to the guys about the film festival. Every year there seems to have a particular hidden theme to the festival. One year there's like 7 Asian lesbian films, another year there seems to have an overwhelming number of Middle Eastern gay films. The difference could be from the film society getting in touch of a different distributor or maybe the interest of the organization or the contact person has changed, or maybe is the market or the film trend or the society in general has changed and different topics sprout out or maybe with age, my interests or the things that I notice or care about has changed.

This year so far I have noticed a few themes. Married Men and Momma's Boys.



The first movie I saw was Mulligans starring the handsome Charlie David. It's about a college boy Chase who's spending the summer at his best friend and his family's lakeside house. The family is a bit golf-obsessed and the youngsters are to work at the nearby golf course for extra cash. During their time together, Chase came out to his best friend Tyler. While Tyler is struggling to see how he should react, his dad Nathan told Chase that he too is gay. He's married only because he was too young and he got his wife pregnant. While they shared a few stolen moments together, they were seen kissing by his wife and problems ensued.

The movie is no way unpleasant, all the guys in there are all lookers and Thea Gill from Queer as Folks plays the compulsive, repressive mom who strive to portray the perfect family. The only complaint I have about the casting is that Thea Gill looks too young to be Tyler mom or maybe Tyler looks too young to be Thea's son? In a deja vu moment, there was a conversation in the movie that sounds eerily like the one in the dream I had. "You knew I was gay all along? Then why did you marry me?" "I thought you would forget about that and commit to your family..."

The only thing that I found weird is the ending, there are something out of sequence or not quite make sense. The father said goodbye to his wife, his son and his daughter. Went out to the garage and said goodbye to his daughter again. Drove to the golf course and said goodbye to his son again (???) His son drove the same car and said goodbye to his bestfriend and walked home. His dad drove the same car into the sunset (???) I'm a bit confused. Plus, my friend who met Charlie David told me that he has quite the attitude. C-



Well the same relationship sentiments got carried onto a movie that I just saw this afternoon about Jack Wrangler. Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon is a semi-autobiography about Jack Wrangler, an inspired actor who eventually became the biggest gay/straight male porn star in the 70s. Jack grew up as an artistic type which his father disapproved. Jack grew up to be an aspired theatre actor and producer, eventually has his heart broken by a guy and inspired him to bulk up to be a player. He eventually get to be a stripper and became a big hit as a porn actor. Due to the bigger budgets and better production of straight porn and since Jack really wants to be an actor, so he start performing in straight porn movies. Jack wasn't repulsed by having sex with women and that brought him tremendous success.

Later in life, he met a women 20 years her elder (mommy issues?) and fell in love with her personality. Although he self-identifies as gay, he appreciated his wife Margaret Whiting for her talent, her humor and her companionship. Against all cynicism and fighting his own urge to have sex with men, they lived together for 15 years before getting married in 1994. (WTF?)

Excuse me not to understand why an openly (not closeted) gay man (not bisexual) can not only tolerate sex with the opposite sex but also marrying a woman. Being as cynical as I am, I thought it was because Margaret Whiting was loaded. But since they have been together for nearly 30 years, I guess there must be something more to it. I guess we do come in all sorts. The documentary was pretty well made but although Jack is indeed quite hot when he was young, I'm quite, quite disturbed by his life choices maybe it makes more sense in the sexual revolutionary period that is the 70s. It's a D+ not because of the production value, it's just because I can't quite wrap my head around this one. Jack did try to spend most of his life to make his father proud even after he died, whatever that means. D+



Another married man comes in the form of Scott Thompson in the surprisingly star-studded Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild. It's one of the brainless humorous movie that we all love to see every once in a while. (Honestly, there is no intelligent in this whatsoever.) The movie take place in Fort Lauderdale, it's kinda like Psycho Beach Party but a lot gayer. Well, there's no murder mysteries or pretend surfing sequence but it feels pretty much the same. A lot of gay sex teenage humor, some shocking body part shots every here and there the star-studded cameos include RuPaul, Lady Bunny, Amanda LePore (which I learned to appreciate), Colton Ford, Michael Lucas, Perez Hilton and Scott Thompson. It's funny, I had a good time but I can't help but agree with the other viewer who I overheard. "But it's the stuff you hate yourself for laughing at though." C



Boystown (or Chuecatown) is about a real estate agent (played by Pablo Puyol) trying to turn a neighborhood into the latest greatest trendy gay neighborhood by... killing old ladies and remodeling their house and selling them to gay couples. Two cute bears live right next to one of such old ladies which left Ray (the hunkier bear played by Carlos Fuentes) her apartment in her will after she died. Despite being offered a great sum of money and them being poor, Ray has decided to put his horrid mother there instead. While his bitchy mom is trying every trick in her book to break up the bear couple because Ray's husband Leo is not rich enough for her son, the real estate agent is still out there killing old ladies and have select the mother to be his next target.

The movie is interesting and funny at times but nothing too stellar. It's pleasant but at the end it was a bit strange as Leo escaped the killer and ran into a bathhouse. Why would you get into a bathhouse even take off your clothes when someone is trying to kill you? I've heard Madrid has a lot of hunky bears, maybe instead of going to San Fran, I should jump over there and see what's up. C+



The last two films came in a pair, well not exactly a pair but it's one short film called King Size and a quintuplet of short films from Girls Will Be Girls. King Size is a French movie about a polyamory relationship. Cute, and they jump in and out of song and dance sequences. It describes how friends get jealous and family don't except the increasingly offensive life choices. It's only an hour long, people laugh because it kinda weird how all the sudden the songs just starts and can I offer and observation that although they called it king size but the bed there's in look more like a queen? B-

I'm not really exaggerating about this, but I don't remember the last time I've had that much fun in the movies than watching Girls Will Be Girls. It is some short films produced during the writer strike. It's completely hilarious, if I haven't had gone to the bathroom beforehand, I would have peed my pants. I was glad that I didn't go around digging for iPhones with the other guys and watched these shorts instead. It's definitely obsession worthy. After seeing it I found online that they have had a movie out, I'm definitely going to get it online and I really hope Logo pick them up. It could make their channel really popular. All these shorts are actually available online, and I'll post them on here later. A-




Oh and Happy Bastille Day!