[rating=4]
Cert: 18 • USA: 95 min • Independent • 2014

Fringe! Film Fest picture Boy Meets Girl is a different take on the traditional rom-com genre with authentic and strong characters.

“For viewers belonging or familiar with queer culture, some of the issues this film touches on may be not ground-breaking, but for others unfamiliar, they could be enlightening”

[rating=4]
Cert: 18 • France: 98 min • Sedna Films / Peccadillo Pictures • October 3, 2014

You And The Night follows a suave, young couple and their cross-dressing maid as they prepare themselves for a passionate orgy with strangers.

“Eric Cantona steals a lot of the film’s focus as the hunky philanderer whose youthful dream of becoming a poet was dashed once he discovered his enormous penis and those who subsequently adored it.”

[rating=5]
Cert: tbc • Ger/Bel: 86 min • Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion • July 2, 2014

Before The Last Curtain Falls explores the lives of a troupe of elderly drag artists. It’s a beautifully made, tender tribute to the lives of others.

“What the film draws back the curtain on is exactly what is at stake for these human beings when it comes to living their somewhat difficult lives, negotiating changing and fluid social attitudes, and their own internalised homophobia.”

[rating=5]
Cert: 15 • US: 1637 min • Paramount Home Entertainment • July 29, 2014

Twin Peaks – The Entire Mystery is a comprehensive and fitting collection that will mostly delight the fans of the maverick and groundbreaking television series.

“The sound and picture quality have been further upgraded and each frame now looks truly beautiful – crisp but dreamy, as they were meant to be.”

[rating=3]
Cert: 15 • UK: 85 min • Lionsgate Films • April 18, 2014

Following Ivan Locke’s journey on the M6 from Birmingham to London, Locke is an intense film about one man’s life unravelling.

“Tom Hardy gives an absorbing and natural performance. Looking boyishly handsome and bearded, his expressive face and eyes are the agents of the film; exposing his moments of distress, uncertainty and loss of control.”

[rating=4]
Cert: n/a • France: 58 min • Epicentre films • June 19, 2013

A somewhat old fashioned but thoroughly engaging documentary leaves you wanting more.

“She was, and still is, extraordinarily beautiful. Pruvot acknowledges with classic French insouciance that Bambi and her fellow performers were seen by many in the audience as ‘circus freaks.’”

[rating=5]
Cert: 15 • US: 97 min • Universal Pictures • May 3, 2014

Bad Neighbours is deliciously evil and utterly hilarious, and features some of the most inventive, wicked and outrageous comedy set pieces in cinema.

“Zac Efron is the real revelation here, however, casting aside his High School Musical roots with magnificent aplomb, delivering an incredibly evil performance as a belligerent fraternity leader.”

[rating=4]
Cert: 15 • France: 94 min • Les Films du Kiosque, 27.11 Production • June 19, 2013

Bright Days Ahead (Les Beaux Jours) puts an unrepentantly pleasure-driven, mature female protagonist, centre stage.

“An unabashed vehicle for its fragrant star, the entertaining Bright Days Ahead chimes irresistibly with the current vogue for films exploring ‘Third Age’ experiences.”

[rating=4]
Cert: 15 • US: 8 x 30 min • HBO • January 19, 2014

Whilst Looking is not perfect, it admirably holds up a refreshingly astute and sometimes critical mirror to contemporary gay life.

“Finally, queer filmmakers seem comfortable balancing explicit representations of sex with (or against) the fuzzier feelings, without sacrificing emotional complexity or social commentary.”

[rating=3]
Cert: 18 • Germany/Canada: 51 min • Die Lamb, Hebbel Theatre Berlin, Jürgen Brüning Filmproduktion • February 9, 2014

Bruce LaBruce’s Pierrot Lunaire, set to Arnold Schöneberg’s score, is a meditation on transgender identity – but is the intriguing scenario a success?

“If there is any social point that comes across in the film, it is only that the current hysteria over whether someone is pre-op or not misunderstands what is means to identify as transgender. It restrains and enforces the boundaries of gender within matters of sex.”