22nd Nov2016

Shared Rooms (DVD)

by timbaros

alec-manley-left-and-christopher-grant-pearson-right-in-shared-rooms-courtesy-of-wolfe-videoThe story of a set of three couples grappling with life, love, and children is told in the new gay comedy ‘Shared Rooms.’

Set in Los Angeles, these three couples are all somehow connected to each other. There’s married couple Laslo (Christopher Grant Pearson) and Cal (Alec Manley Wilson) who live in a very cozy home and make fun of their friends with children – always telling themselves that ‘they are not that couple’ who ‘always have to arrange play dates for their children.’ And then there are roommates Julian (Daniel Lipshutz) and Dylan (Robert Werner). Dylan travels 36 weeks out of the year for work, so Julian rents his room out to strangers on LGBTQBnB while he’s away. But Dylan comes home early from a business trip to find a stranger named Frank Turner (David Vaughn) in his bedroom, so he has to share Julian’s bed, a thought, and fantasy, Dylan has had for two years! And finally third couple Sid (Justin Xavier) and Gray (Alexander Neil Miller), who casually meet up on an app called Manfinder. They instantly connect, while Sid shares with Gray a deep dark secret about his past, and lucky for us, they spend all of their time together naked.

These men all happily share their lives, and their rooms, with other men, during Christmas, however, there is drama lurking in the background. Houseguest Frank Turner is in town to look for his long lost kidnapped brother, and Cal’s gay nephew Blake (a very good and natural Eric Allen Smith) arrives after having been kicked out of his parent’s house.

‘Shared Rooms,’ by writer and director Rob Williams, is cleverly written and very cute and funny. It’s like watching a gay version of ‘Modern Family’ – everyone is a bit dysfunctional yet sweet and charming in their own way. Everything wraps up a bit too easily at the end, culminating in a New Years Eve Party where everyone has found what they were looking for (if only life were that easy), but it’s a funny and cute journey to get there.

Now available on DVD & VOD via Wolfe Video

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18th Jun2016

Those People (DVD)

by timbaros

VL1_2136Spoiled rich kids on Manhattan’s Upper East side have lots to deal with, including lack of parental guidance, and secret crushes on each other in the gay romance film ‘Those People.’

But it’s Charlie’s story. Played by Jonathan Gordon, Charlie, a painter, is one of five people in his very very tight knit group of friends, which includes two women and two other guys. One of the guys – Sebastian (Jason Ralph) – is who the group revolves around. Every emotion, laugh, anger that is emitted from Charlie has effects on the rest of the group. He’s at the center of everyone’s attention because his hedge fund father has just been sent to prison for swindling money, and it’s up to the gang to rally around Sebastian to make sure he’s protected from the media spotlight (and to perhaps help spend some of his money). And Charlie is at Sebastian’s every beck and call 24 hour seven days a week. When Sebastian asks Charlie to move in with him in his big empty house (poor him!), Charlie does so right away. You see, Charlie, for the past 15 years, has been carrying a torch for Sebastian, and Sebastian has known this but has never let on that he knows. Sebastian gets a kick out of it, without reciprocating back. But when Charlie meets successful pianist Tim (Haaz Sleiman) and slowly starts to fall in love with him is when Sebastian realizes that he might be losing Charlie to Tim. It gets all the more complicated after Sebastian’s father kills himself in prison, and Tim announces that he wants to take Charlie with him to San Francisco where he’s offered a great job. It’s a move that will make Charlie chose between his love for Tim or his loyalty and friendship and more for Sebastian.

‘Those People’ shows us what a group of young, rich, and goodlooking upper east side kids get up to. It’s a life of parties, drama, drinking and secret crushes. It’s a sophisticated, beautifully debut film brought to us by Director, writer and Producer Joey Kuhn. It’s a world he seems to know (he was born and raised in NYC), as he captures the lives of these upper crust young adults very well. And the cast are all respectable and fine. It’s a classy movie without being too snobby.

DVD/VOD release via Wolfe Video

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06th May2016

Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (DVD)

by timbaros

HGBP_cc_21050420.00_40_43_05.Still001It’s Henry Gambles’ birthday and we’re all invited to the party!

It’s the new DVD/VOD release called ‘Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party’ where the viewer is an attendee at Henry’s birthday party – or at least that’s what it feels like while watching the film. Henry Gamble (an excellent Cole Dolman) it turning 17 years old and his family is throwing him a barbecue pool party at their very nice home. Gamble’s family, including his mother Kat (Elizabeth Laidlaw), father Bob (Pat Healy) and collegiate sister Autumn (Nina Ganet), are a religious Christian family where Bob is a pastor and their circle of friends are mostly from the church community, including Henry’s friends.

But it’s Henry’s big day, and lots of people come to the party. But each member of the Gamble family are struggling with issues that may go against their belief in the church. Kat confesses to Nina that she had an affair with a close family friend who was terminally ill, Nina, meanwhile, is having trouble with a guy she likes (and whom she slept with – a no no in her religions’ beliefs), but she’s angry at him for not being in contact. And Henry is not struggling with but accepting the fact that he is gay. So theirs, and lots of other friends’ issues come to the fray during the party. It’s lots of splashing around the pool, with the young lithe teenagers in their skimpy bathing suits offending one of the older female attendees, while the son of the wife of the husband who Kat had an affair with is having a hard time coming to grips with the death of his father. But all these people come together for Henry, he’s the nicest guy around, goodlooking enough so that the girls fancy him and the young men want to be his friend, including closeted young Logan (Daniel Kyri), who likes Logan but has a hard time penetrating into his circle of friends. It makes for a lot of celebration and drama in this 86-minute movie.

‘Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party’ is a coming out story that’s not, forgive the pun, all preachy about being accepted for being gay. It’s a celebration and a masterfully directed film not just about a young man who happens to be coming out of the closet but also about the Evangelical Christian community. And Director Stephen Cone masterfully interweaves several stories going on at the same time that’s not a bit confusing but provides an element of actually being there and eavesdropping on everybody’s conversations. Dolman is a true find at Henry Gamble. His face (and smile) practically lights up the screen – he’s a natural and hopefully will have a very successful acting career in his future. But credit goes to award-winning filmmaker Cone (who also wrote the script) for creating a film that makes it a fun experience to be a part of. Bring your swimsuit.

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25th Oct2015

Big Eden (DVD)

by timbaros

Grace comforts HenryThe award-winning gay romance film Big Eden is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary by being re-released on VOD and Blu-Ray.

It’s a film that takes us back to the simpler times; pre 9/11, a time when the hardest thing one had to most worry about was being single in a large city.
Henry Hart (Arye Gross), a very successful NYC painter, and eternally single, finds out that his grandfather, who lives alone back home in Big Eden, Montana, has had a heart attack. So foregoing a big opening for his latest artwork, and much to the behest of his very pregnant assistant Mary (Veanne Cox), Henry jumps on a plane to be with his grandfather Sam Hart (George Coe).

Going back home, to a state with beautiful lakes and mountains, brings back lots of memories for Henry. First of all, it’s where he met his first love Dean (Tim DeKay), a man who ended up leaving town and getting married. It’s taken a while for Henry to forget about him, including years of therapy. Back home is also where lots of his old friends still live, including Grace Cornwell (Oscar-winning actress Louise Fletcher), now a schoolteacher who was the one who informed Henry of his grandfather’s condition. Henry goes back home to a place that accepts his sexual orientation, times have changed and so has the community. Local busy body Widow Thayer (a very funny Nan Martin) makes it her job to nose into other people’s business and arranges teas for local people to ‘meet.’ Once she sees Henry back in town she arranges a tea lunch for Henry with the local single women, but when she realizes he’s gay, she arranges a tea lunch with the local gay men. But it’s not any of these men that Henry is interested in. He’s back in town specifically to take care of his grandfather and is not interested in dating any of them. But soon enough he finds out that the very good looking Dean has moved back to town with his two sons. Seeing Dean again brings back memories from the past, and also questions as to why they never got together. Meanwhile, Widow Thayer has volunteered to cook dinner for both Henry and Sam as Henry claims that, being a New Yorker, he simply doesn’t know how to cook. So for the first few nights Thayer makes and brings over dinner, but it’s local store owner Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig) who volunteers to take over the cooking duties. He buys recipe books to make the most delicious meals, meals that he delivers to the Harts but always saying that they come from Widow Thayer. When Pike delivers the dinner, he quickly leaves, never staying to join Henry and Sam when asked to. Pike is something of an enigma in town, he’s quiet, reserved, but at the same time tall and strong. Pike seems to be hiding something, is it something about Henry’s homosexuality perhaps? Henry stays on in Big Eden as his grandfather continues to improve, he appears to be in no rush to get back to New York. Will Henry decide to stay in Big Eden permanently and leave the big city behind? Do Henry and Dean finally hook up? Why is Pike to mysterious? And what does Widow Thayer have up her sleeve next?

Director and writer Thomas Bezucha crafts a beautiful romantic film with characters who could be from anyone’s hometown. The actors are all wonderful in their roles. And it’s a credit to Bezucha and his team that the setting is perfect. Every last detail is thought of and captured on film, and certain shots are set up perfectly, from the beautiful landscapes to the items in the local grocery story. Plus the country and western soundtrack gives the film a perfect flavor. It’s a must that you watch ‘Big Eden’ as it takes us back to a simpler time. It’s one of the most romantic gay films of all time, and proving that yes, you can always go back home again.

‘Big Eden has won numerous Audience Awards at several film festivals and in 2001 was named Best Fiction Feature at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Best American Independent Feature Film plus Best Film at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

‘Big Eden’ is available for the first time on Blu-Ray, new HD version for VOD, which includes new bonus materials

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