21st Aug2016

Holding the Man (DVD)

by timbaros

Holding The Man 1A moving and very emotional film about a gay couple during the height of the AIDS crises is beautifully told in the new film ‘Holding the Man.’

‘Holding the Man’ is based on the 1995 book of the same name by Timothy Conigrave. It’s a poignant true life love story between two Australian men, Conigrave and John Caleo, who met and fell in love at an all boys school in Melbourne in the mid-70’s. It’s a relationship that lasted 15 years.

‘Holding the Man’ is one of the better, or perhaps maybe the best, of all the films that’s dealt with the AIDS crisis. It’s a movie that simply tells a story, a love story so enduring and epic that it’s irrelevant whether the characters are gay or straight. And it’s a story that some of us, who were around in the 1980’s and 1990’s when friends and partners were dying right and left from AIDS, can unfortunately relate to.

Ryan Corr plays Timothy Conigrave, while Craig Stott plays John Caleo. ‘Holding the Man’ is directed by Australian Neil Armfield (2006’s ‘Candy’ with Heath Ledger), with a screenplay by Tommy Murphy, who adapted it for the stage in 2006.

Stott is the football player and football loving Caleo, a man who anyone could fall in love with. But it’s Conigrave, an aspiring actor, who tackles and gets him. (In Australian Football holding the man occurs when a player is tackled without the ball). They start dating and almost immediately fall in love. But these two men were exploring their sexuality in the 1970’s, a time when HIV and AIDS had yet to rear it’s ugly head. So it was a time when gay men were getting infected both in the U.S. and Europe – and Australia was no exception – without knowing it. It is 1985 when they discover that they are both HIV positive.

‘Holding the Man’ continues to tell the delicate and ever increasing sad story of these two men and their caring and loving relationship, how Caleo was the first to get sick, how their parents and family dealt with both men’s illness, and how Conigrave coped with Caleo’s deterioration.

Corr and Stott are terrific and give it their all (Anthony LaPaglia is especially good as Caleo’s stern and unforgiving father). But it’s in the storytelling where this film excels. Credit goes to director Armfield and writer Murphy for successfully bringing this story to the screen. It’s a story that’s been told a few times (‘Philadelphia’), but not in such a meaningful, and very realistic, way. However it’s Conigrave’s book on which this film is based, it’s his book about his relationship with Caleo, a sort of love letter to him, and we’re all very lucky to be able to see what an amazing, yet heartbreaking, relationship it was. This film is highly recommended.


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08th Jun2016

Holding the Man (Film)

by timbaros

Holding The Man 1A moving and very emotional film about a gay couple during the height of the AIDS crises is beautifully told in the new film ‘Holding the Man.’

‘Holding the Man’ is based on the 1995 book of the same name by Timothy Conigrave. It’s a poignant true life love story between two Australian men, Conigrave and John Caleo, who met and fell in love at an all boys school in Melbourne in the mid-70’s. It’s a relationship that lasted 15 years.

‘Holding the Man’ is one of the better, or perhaps maybe the best, of all the films that’s dealt with the AIDS crisis. It’s a movie that simply tells a story, a love story so enduring and epic that it’s irrelevant whether the characters are gay or straight. And it’s a story that some of us, who were around in the 1980’s and 1990’s when friends and partners were dying right and left from AIDS, can unfortunately relate to.

Ryan Corr plays Timothy Conigrave, while Craig Stott plays John Caleo. ‘Holding the Man’ is directed by Australian Neil Armfield (2006’s ‘Candy’ with Heath Ledger), with a screenplay by Tommy Murphy, who adapted it for the stage in 2006.

Stott is the football player and football loving Caleo, a man who anyone could fall in love with. But it’s Conigrave, an aspiring actor, who tackles and gets him. (In Australian Football holding the man occurs when a player is tackled without the ball). They start dating and almost immediately fall in love. But these two men were exploring their sexuality in the 1970’s, a time when HIV and AIDS had yet to rear it’s ugly head. So it was a time when gay men were getting infected both in the U.S. and Europe – and Australia was no exception – without knowing it. It is 1985 when they discover that they are both HIV positive.

‘Holding the Man’ continues to tell the delicate and ever increasing sad story of these two men and their caring and loving relationship, how Caleo was the first to get sick, how their parents and family dealt with both men’s illness, and how Conigrave coped with Caleo’s deterioration.

Corr and Stott are terrific and give it their all (Anthony LaPaglia is especially good as Caleo’s stern and unforgiving father). But it’s in the storytelling where this film excels. Credit goes to director Armfield and writer Murphy for successfully bringing this story to the screen. It’s a story that’s been told a few times (‘Philadelphia’), but not in such a meaningful, and very realistic, way. However it’s Conigrave’s book on which this film is based, it’s his book about his relationship with Caleo, a sort of love letter to him, and we’re all very lucky to be able to see what an amazing, yet heartbreaking, relationship it was. This film is highly recommended.

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21st Apr2015

A Good Marriage – DVD

by timbaros

AGM_Still02What would you do if you found out that your husband was a serial killer? That’s the dilemna Darcy Anderson faces in the new thriller A Good Marriage.

Darcy, brilliantly played by Joan Allen, seems to have the perfect family. Her young daughter Petra (Kristen Connolly) is engaged to be married, her son Donnie’s (Theo Stockman) new advertising business has just picked up it’s first client, and her husband Bob (Anthony LaPaglia – brilliant yet evil) is a successful accountant and well-respected both at his job and in his community, and is looked up to by his children. The Anderson’s have just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and end the evening with a sexual romp, with Bob’s insistence of moving the mirror in their bedroom so that he can look at them having sex. Bob has a busy job, and he also has a busy hobby, he’s a coin collector, so he spends lots of time away from home where he says he’s either working on client’s tax accounts or attending coin conventions, but is that the truth?

There’s a serial killer on the lose in the Anderson’s area who goes by the name “Beadie” who kills young attractive women. One day Darcy is in their garage looking for some batteries for the remote control when she finds an identification belonging to one of the women who was recently killed by the serial killer. Darcy is shocked, more than shocked, she can’t breathe. Is her husband the “Beadie” serial killer? How can this be? When Bob tells Darcy that he knows she knows, she tells him that she forgives him and that they can live their lives back to the way it was. But she’s torn between her loyalty to him and her sympathy for the victims. However, Darcy has other plans, and what she decides to do is both shocking and unexpected.

A Good Marriage is a taut, shocking thriller, and written by the master that is Stephen King, based on his book of the same name. The film’s twist and turns and shocking revelations make A Good Marriage an excellent pyschological thriller. Allen, whose not done much film work in the last 7 years, is excellent as the wife and mother who has her life turned upside down. LaPaglia, in the Alec Baldwin role, plays a man whose facade is not what is in the inside. Crisply directed by Peter Askin, A Good Marriage will keep you glued to the screen throughout, and with very good performances and a great story, it’s a must for all Stephen King fans, as well as for everyone else.

A Good Marriage is now available to buy on DVD and can be watched on VOD.

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