DVD REVIEWS

SUMMERTIME Starring Jessica Rothe, Taylor Frey and Joseph Haro Directed by Gabriele Muccino This is one of those easy-going movies you watch on a Saturday night on Netflix when you don’t want to go out. An Italian couple (who aren’t necessarily involved) visits a gay couple in San Francisco. A friendship starts which none of them expected. What is so refreshing about this romance is that there are no big issues that are addressed with exclamation marks. The film also doesn’t walk a cliché-ridden path, is characterised by good acting from four charming actors, great scenery (it was one of the first American films to be filmed in Cuba) and an ordinary story. It gets a little long-winded towards the end though.

GOD’S OWN COUNTRY Starring Josh O’Connor and Alex Secareanu Directed by Francis Lee Together with Call Me By Your Name, this may be one of the best films ever in the LGBT-genre. It is tender, almost wordless, gut wrenchingly emotional without getting sentimental and soulsearchingly good and directed with great sensitivity. A young Yorkshire sheep farmer (the brilliant Josh O’Connor) needs help on his remote sheep farm. Support arrives in the complex, handsome form of a Romanian migrant worker, played by Alex Secareanu. They fall in love in a modern gay version of Wuthering Heights. It’s been called the British Brokeback Mountain, but is better than that. It is nuanced, doesn’t deal with the usual issues of gay identity, neither is it about homophobic prejudice. It is original, touching and a brilliant, balanced evocation of gay love.

MY FRIEND DAHMER Starring Joss Lynch and Alex Wolff Directed by Marc Meyers He came so close to death yet was perhaps saved by an unconscious decision to leave the notorious Jefferey Dahmer’s house. This rather cold yet disturbingly realistic film is based on the recollections of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s best friend, John Backdef. We see Dahmer as a strange nerdish psychopath who didn’t fit in at school and was fascinated by handsome men, dead animals and exploring the inside of corpses. He started his vicious killing spree shortly after matric. Fans of the handsome Joss Lynch might find him unrecognisably good as the young Dahmer, and we witness how the killer inside him was formed and finally started living out his fantasies. A tough but rewarding biography.

BOYS ON FILM 17: LOVE IS THE DRUG Starring Sebastian Deery and Ezra Fienemans Directed by André D. Chambers, Brendon McDonnall and Dawid Ullgren Have you always had a fantasy of getting involved with a handsome handyman who fixes more than a few loose screws? How does idealised sex on a beach sound? Readers may, by this time, be used to the experimentation of various cinematic techniques, nudity, how far LGBT-cinema’s limits can be pushed, and provocative experimentation. Since its inception, this series has become more and more daring and there is constant renewal with every new compilation of stories. This one is no exception. One of these directors may one day be responsible for the new Call Me By Your Name of which there is now a sequel in the works, if you are interested...

I AM MICHAEL Starring James Franco and Zachary Quinto Directed by Justin Kelly This one is quite taxing and, frankly, a difficult sit. It is based on the true story of Michael Glatze (James Franco) who has an intimate relationship with his boyfriend Bennett (Zachary Quinto) in several happy, often explicit scenes. But one day Michael begins to doubt his own sexuality upon meeting a beautiful girl (Emma Roberts from Nerve) and identifies himself as heterosexual eventually. Bennett is devastated and cannot understand that sexuality can change. This at times awkward and often preachy film explores Michael’s identity crisis. Only recommended if you have had serious issues with your own sexuality. It often feels patronising with heavy-handed direction.