film & television reviews from Philip Bahr focusing on a gay male gaze | gay film | gay movies | gay television | LGBTQ perspective | classics | indie | television reviews
Emma Stone’s Oscar performance as Bella in Poor Things finally gets a disk release. I anxiously awaited seeing this Yorgos Lanthimos film, adapted from the Alasdair Gray novel. I’m now glad I waited until it was available free from the library. I only made it through 50 minutes of the film. I found the imagery and staging pretentious. The story bored me. It felt contrived and unoriginal. I genuinely tried hanging in there, but near the hour mark, Bella was still with Duncan with no end in sight. I realize she goes on to other adventures (I read the synopsis), I just couldn’t handle anymore. Perhaps that’s one drawback to watching film at home. You can get up and turn it off. In the theater, you will, or at least I will sit through nearly everything. I found the black and white beginning too obvious, the steampunk-ish elements about 20 years too late. Pulling things from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein, the film felt like it was trying too hard to be hip and edgy. Didn’t feel natural or organic to me. 2 out of 5. Next.
Poor Things currently streams on Hulu and is available on disk from your local public library.
Why not mix in a little camp with your Halloween fright this year? Travel back 64 years to 1959 and watch the delightful Vincent Price/Agnes Morehead b-movie, The Bat. Click here or on the image below to read Reel Charlie’s complete review.
The Bat streams on Kanopy and Amazon Prime, and on YouTube with ads (unless you have YouTube Premium), and is available on disk from your public library.
It’s rare I watch horror. Normally not my genre. I appreciate it. And I am in awe of the horror fan base who are single-handedly keeping physical media (DVD/Blu-ray, 4K) alive. Yes, it’s true, no other genre is more supportive and obsessed about physical media than the horror kids. What’s that all about? Back to the review. I discovered The Horror of Dolores Roach listening to Rosie O’Donnell interviewing Cyndi Lauper on O’Donnell’s podcast, Onward. That episode alone is worth catching. During the show, Cyndi spoke about how Dolores was her first project after her mother died. Between Cyndi and Justina Machado (Six Feet Under, One Day at a Time – reboot) starring as Dolores, I was in. It’s eight 30-minute episodes. In the beginning, the gore was minimal. Throughout the bulk of the series, the gore escalates. Dolores is an interesting combination of classic 20th Century horror full of lots of camp/cheese, smarty pants/hipster dialogue (think Only Murders in the Building), and urban black comedy. It’s also female lead. And Delores is definitely not a victim. Machado nails it with a roller coaster performance of emotion. The story’s based on the one-woman off-Broadway play Empanada Loca and the podcast of the same name, created by Aaron Mark. It’s smart and sophisticated, yet still feeds the horror fans what they truly crave – lots of repulsive gore. Definitely not my type of show, but I made it through to the end. 3.5 out of 5. For those true gore-loving horror fans out there, go binge now.
The Horror of Dolores Roach currently streams on Amazon Prime.
I cherish indie films and unfortunately find them less and less these days since I am not going to film festivals as much as I used to. It’s also hard to search for content on the streamers. Something in the Dirt came out in 2022. It’s a hybrid indie sci-fi/horror/comedy with two characters, both male, one gay – although there’s no love life for either guy. They live in a run-down apartment complex in L.A. There seems to be something apocalyptic going on that’s never acknowledged – fires burn in the sky and helicopters constantly fly low. The two guys discover a piece of quartz floats in the air and figure they can create a documentary to cash in on the phenomenon. And that’s about where the interest ended for me. I watched a full 40 minutes before I began fast-forwarded and eventually bailed. It was definitely worth the watch. I am always interested in which indie might rise to the top in any given year. And I look forward to the filmmakers next project. Meanwhile, Something in the Dirt didn’t make the mark and gets a 2.5 out of 5. Next.
Something in the Dirt currently streams on Hulu and on disk from your local public library.
Post-apocalyptic television series, The Last of Us boasts the largest television production in Canadian history, as well as the first HBO series based on a video game. I heard a bit of hype and decided to watch. It’s a zombie show for sure. I like post-apocalyptic stories, and I watched a few seasons of The Walking Dead and loved it until they killed my favorite character. Unfortunately, The Last of Us feels like more of the same. It’s extremely high quality so if any of this description peaks your interest, definitely check it out. For me, I am happy to let it go. 3 out of 5. Next.
2/2023: I did watch episodes 2 & 3, mainly to get to episode 3 which my dear friend Mark told me to watch. So happy to see the entire hour devoted to Bill and Frank’s relationship. As Mark said, it was great seeing a gay male couple of a certain age be celebrated. Such an amazing departure. Still not going to continue the show, but the showrunners should be commended for including this story into the mix. Outstanding.
Spoiler alert:The good news is after eleven seasons, Ryan Murphy and crew produced an American Horror Story focused on gay men. The action happens in 1981 NYC as a mysterious illness begins circulating throughout the gay male community. There’s also a serial killer (maybe two) on the loose targeting gay men. Once the first killer is captured, I realized the second killer is not a killer, he’s the grim reaper. And he’s a giant bodybuilder in full leather. There lots of in-your-face gay content which Murphy’s become known for and I’m grateful for his matter-of-fact inclusion. As much as I like having some details kept amongst ourselves, I realize that’s very old school of me. What Murphy’s doing is showing gay, queer, LGBTQ culture in all of its forms which make the affection and love on the screen completely normal to most folks. Especially important as we continue to fight for equal rights around the country and the globe. Great cast including Russell Tovey, Joe Mantello, Billie Lourd, Denis O’Hare, Charlie Carver, Leslie Grossman, Sandra Bernhard, Isaac Powell, Zachary Quinto, Patti LuPone, Jeff Hiller, Rebecca Dayan, Matthew William Bishop, Kal Pennm and Casey Thomas Brown. Lots of heavy hitters, so the acting is first rate until the scripts went campy and silly in places. The final two episodes transitioned from serial killer as a metaphor for AIDS – to AIDS as a reality. Unfortunately, the lengthy montage felt too heavy handed. And I didn’t realize Joe Mantello’s character would morph into Larry Kramer. I wasn’t feeling that. I am not a fan of blood and gore, but I thought within the genre, they did a great job creating a period horror show using metaphor for the burgeoning AIDS crisis, and as I said, actual AIDS by the end of the season. Overall the season was uneven. But I do like a show that takes risks and they certainly did with AHS: NYC. Definitely a 3.5 or 4 in places, but overall a good even 3 out of 5.
American Horror Story currently streams on FX and Hulu.
In episode 5 of Reel Charlie Speaks, the podcast spin-off of Reel Charlie, a film and television review blog, I explore all things Halloween from the perspective of someone who’s not a huge Halloween lover, nor am I a huge viewer of gore and violence. So this episode reveals some of the best movies and television where the focus is on camp and suspense, rather than blood and guts.
Three years before Orange is the New Black premiered, and and nine years before Russian Doll stormed Netflix, Nathasha Lyonne starred in the B-movie horror flick, All About Evil along with Mink Stole, Cassandra Peterson, and Thomas Dekker. From Google,
A mousy woman inherits an old movie house and starts making a series of grisly shorts, but her fans do not realize that the murders in the films are all real.
Directed by Peaches Christ, the San Francisco drag persona of Josh Grinnel, All About Evil reminds me of early John Waters films with a bit more sophistication. 12 years later, the film has its Blu-ray remastered release. I realized early on, I am not the audience for this film. It’s campy, outrageous, revolting, silly, and most of all fun. If you’re in the mood for camp, B-movie horror, keep this one in mind as we move into the Halloween season. 2.9 out of 5 (that means I didn’t like it, but it’s a good representation of its genre).
All About Evil currently streams on The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime, Sling TV,and YouTube TV, and is available on Blu-ray disk from your public library.
HBO Max creates a real smarty pants African-American led drama, Lovecraft Country. From Wikipedia,
Lovecraft Country is an American horror drama television series developed by Misha Green based on and serving as a continuation of the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff. Starring Jurnee Smollett and Jonathan Majors, it premiered on August 16, 2020, on HBO.[2] The series is produced by Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, and Warner Bros. Television Studios.
The series is about a young black man who travels across the segregated 1950s United States in search of his missing father, learning of dark secrets plaguing a town on which famous horror writer H. P. Lovecraft supposedly based the location of many of his fictional tales.
I honestly love this premise and wish I could get into the series. I struggle with horror series. I stumbled through a few outstanding seasons of American Horror Story and The Walking Dead. In the end, I walked away from both. So I was excited about this until the monsters came out in the forest and nearly massacred everyone. Uh, no thanks. Still this is outstanding entertainment for any genre and particularly outstanding for horror series. For me, I need less violence. 3 out of 5.
Hulu Originals premiered Justin Simien’s (Dear White People) latest project, Bad Hair perfectly timed for Halloween this year. From Decider,
With the hacky crap out of the way, we’re free to discuss Simien’s ambition. On a surface level, Bad Hair is a sly spoof of late-’80s pop R&B music and style, a workplace comedy skewering racial and sexual politics and an amusing pastiche of the era’s prevalent horror-movie schlock. It’s a finely tuned melange of laughs and scares, each seamlessly transitioning to the other. This is a terrifically entertaining movie featuring a strong central performance from Lorraine and shot with the vision of a true filmmaker.
Normally I construct my reviews completely from my own perspective. But I looked outside of myself this time because the genre is definitely not something I connect with. I never watched any of the horror spoofs in the past (Scream, Scary Movie, etc.). I do like non-horror spoof films (Charlie’s Angels, Another Gay Movie, all the Christopher Guest films), but not horror spoofs. I can laugh until the blood and gore arrive and then I’m queasy no matter how ridiculous the scene. That’s just me. Bad Hair is smart and sophisticated like Simien’s previous work. He entertains first and then squeezes the message in. Brilliant. And props to whomever came up with the fictitious Jody Watley performer played to perfect by Kelly Rowland. And of course any film with Laverne Cox is always a special treat. For me, 3 out of 5 for Bad Hair. If you’re a fan of the genre, this will be a funny Valentine for Halloween this year.
Emma Stone’s Oscar performance as Bella in Poor Things finally gets a disk release. I anxiously awaited seeing this Yorgos Lanthimos film, adapted from the Alasdair Gray novel. I’m now glad I waited until it was available free from the library. I only made it through 50 minutes of the film. I found the imagery and staging pretentious. The story bored me. It felt contrived and unoriginal. I genuinely tried hanging in there, but near the hour mark, Bella was still with Duncan with no end in sight. I realize she goes on to other adventures (I read the synopsis), I just couldn’t handle anymore. Perhaps that’s one drawback to watching film at home. You can get up and turn it off. In the theater, you will, or at least I will sit through nearly everything. I found the black and white beginning too obvious, the steampunk-ish elements about 20 years too late. Pulling things from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein, the film felt like it was trying too hard to be hip and edgy. Didn’t feel natural or organic to me. 2 out of 5. Next.
I cherish indie films and unfortunately find them less and less these days since I am not going to film festivals as much as I used to. It’s also hard to search for content on the streamers. Something in the Dirt came out in 2022. It’s a hybrid indie sci-fi/horror/comedy with two characters, both male, one gay – although there’s no love life for either guy. They live in a run-down apartment complex in L.A. There seems to be something apocalyptic going on that’s never acknowledged – fires burn in the sky and helicopters constantly fly low. The two guys discover a piece of quartz floats in the air and figure they can create a documentary to cash in on the phenomenon. And that’s about where the interest ended for me. I watched a full 40 minutes before I began fast-forwarded and eventually bailed. It was definitely worth the watch. I am always interested in which indie might rise to the top in any given year. And I look forward to the filmmakers next project. Meanwhile, Something in the Dirt didn’t make the mark and gets a 2.5 out of 5. Next.
Post-apocalyptic television series, The Last of Us boasts the largest television production in Canadian history, as well as the first HBO series based on a video game. I heard a bit of hype and decided to watch. It’s a zombie show for sure. I like post-apocalyptic stories, and I watched a few seasons of 
Three years before 
Hulu Originals premiered Justin Simien’s (
Reel Charlie 