kcousins

Based on Makoto Takayama’s novel, ‘Egoist’ is a sexy and heartfelt drama about love and family

Kosuke (Ryôhei Suzuki), a fashion magazine editor in his mid-thirties, revels in the blessings of his comfortable lifestyle. When he hires Ryuta (Hio Miyazawa), a personal trainer, in order to get into shape, he ends up getting far more than he bargained for.

The two young men begin falling in love, but when Kosuke discovers that Ryuta has been secretly working as an escort to provide for himself and his mother, the two men strike a financial agreement.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Kosuke and Ryuta’s mother grow closer and must confront a new future together.

Sensual, beautifully rendered, and featuring rich and nuanced performances from the three lead actors, Egoist is a haunting romantic drama infused with warmth and energy.

Watch the trailer for Egoist below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Take a sexy trip through São Paulo with the winning workplace comedy ‘Body Electric’

Body Electric is a warm-hearted, understated debut feature from Brazilian writer-director Marcelo Caetano. The film follows Elias (Kelner Macêdo), a carefree young man who migrated from Northeastern Brazil to São Paulo, works as an assistant designer in a clothing factory.

Elias’s daily life is divided between his job and the ephemeral encounters he shares with men. With the arrival of Fernando, an African immigrant, he starts to look at the production line with a sudden renewed interest.

With the holiday season approaching, work intensifies, and he finds himself increasingly trapped within the factory. As the distance between his professional and personal life closes in, he starts to explore his desires, invigorated by the freedom offered through his companions.

Against the warnings of his superiors, Elias takes to socializing into the night and sleeping with his co-workers.

An erotic tale of identity and sexuality, Body Electric captures the beauty and delicate excitement of sexual awakening, as seen through the intense color and vibrancy of modern-day São Paulo.

Watch the trailer for Body Electric below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: 14 Days

Sexy, heartfelt, and deeply romantic, 14 Days, a 25-minute short film from Filipino writer-director Narciso Nadal Santos Jr., follows two lonely young men who start falling for one another under intimate, but incredibly unusual circumstances.

Having previously attended nursing school, police trainee Elijah (Arvin Balageo) is assigned to the Philippines’ COVID-19 task force during the earliest days of the pandemic. With little yet known about the virus, an abundance of caution is taken.

He’s tasked with observing Arvin (Io Balanon), a law student and part-time tour guide who was exposed to the virus, during his two-week quarantine.

Spending time together from opposite sides of a window, the two men form a companionship during their shared isolation. Even though physical contact is strictly forbidden, the temptation to get closer to one another grows as the days go by.

Under the ominous shadow of doubt, sickness, and even the threat of death, a love story blossoms that cannot be ignored.

Watch the trailer for 14 days below. The short film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A gay artist tries turning tragedy into opportunity in the moving Polish drama ‘All Our Fears’

Triggered by an unexpected tragedy, a religious artist and gay activist tries to get his local community to grieve together in the emotional drama All Our Fears.

Dawid Ogrodnik stars in the film as Daniel, a well-respected young artist from the Polish countryside who finds himself torn between small-town values, urban art galleries, the Catholic church, and his gay identity.

When a queer friend commits suicide after suffering a homophobic attack, he becomes determined to redeem his community with the ultimate work of art – a deeply personal interpretation of ‘The Stations of the Cross.’

All the while, he’s slowly, carefully, and secretly building a relationship with Olek (Oskar Rybaczek), a younger local lover who is not yet ready to embrace his sexual identity.

Based on real events, All Our Fears tells the moving story of one brave man, raised in the countryside and engaged in the activities of the Catholic Church, who attempts to peacefully merge the important aspects of his life while refusing to accept hate and intolerance.

Watch the trailer for All Our Fears below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

‘The Sons of Tennessee Williams’ charts the evolution of the Mardi Gras drag scene

Paying homage to monumental queer documentaries like The Queen and Paris is Burning, director Tim Wolff’s film The Sons of Tennessee Williams interweaves archival footage with contemporary interviews to chart the evolution of drag and politics in the gay Mardi Gras scene.

Having come of age in New Orleans in the 1940s and ’50s, gay krewe members reminisce fondly of being inspired by the opulence of the Mardi Gras festivities, a hotbed for decadence and dress-up.

Seven years before the first rock was thrown at Stonewall, the gay krewes began throwing lavish balls as a sendup of their straight society counterparts and have since become a powerful force in city politics.

Members, many of them now in their seventies and eighties, discuss the importance of creating safe spaces at a time of police crackdowns in gay clubs, gaining a seat at the political table, the toll of AIDS and Hurricane Katrina on the community, and the importance of passing on the torch to a younger generation.

With oversized wigs and lavish costumes, these unlikely political activists strut their stuff with style, grace, and an eye toward the future.

Watch the trailer for The Sons of Tennessee Williams below. The documentary is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A troubled teen finds love in the emotional Canadian indie ‘Beneath the Skin’

Writer and co-director Aaron Ellis also stars in the sensitive gay indie Beneath the Skin as Joshua, a young man who is forced to move to Canada to live with his estranged father after his living situation falls apart.

Once there, Joshua meets Jay (Justin Liles), a local tattoo artist who fled the violent actions of his parents back home in Alabama.

Both young men, abandoned and lonely in their own way, find themselves falling for one another… until a pair of high school brats intrude on the boys’ growing relationship.

Originally released in 2015, this quiet, sensual romance is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Though it’s not a very well-known film, it won numerous awards at film festivals when it originally screened. It’s worth checking out if only for the two leads, who share a magical chemistry in the film – and will leave you both swooning and reaching for the tissues.

Watch the trailer for Beneath the Skin below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Visionary filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues takes a wild, metaphysical trip with ‘The Ornithologist’

Fernando (Paul Hamy), a strapping young ornithologist, is on an epic journey, searching for endangered black storks along a remote river in Northern Portugal.

Suddenly, he finds himself swept away by the rapids. Rescued by a mysterious pair of Chinese pilgrims, he is soon plunged into a dark, eerie forest while trying desperately to get himself back on track.

As he encounters unexpected and uncanny obstacles – along with a variety of people who put him to the test – Fernando is driven to extreme, transformative actions. Gradually he becomes a different man: inspired, multifaceted and finally enlightened.

From acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues, the director behind the sexually explicit queer classic O Fantasma, The Ornithologist is a mind-bending arthouse delight – a metaphysical gay adventure film packed with delicious homoeroticism and absurdist humor.

Watch the trailer for The Ornithologist below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Short Film Spotlight: Physical Therapy

Jason Genao, star on the Netflix series ‘The Get Down’ and ‘On My Block,’ leads the short comedy Physical Therapy as a cute young doctor faced with a difficult life decision.

Genao plays Ronnie, an openly gay doctor whose life takes an unexpected turn following an innocent mistake at work. Young and deeply compassionate, though somewhat naïve, he doesn’t let the incident deter him from getting back on his feet and doing what is right.

When he’s faced with a tricky ultimatum – keep his unstable job working with low-income communities or take a financially-attractive new job at a private practice for children of the mega-rich – he’s forced to reexamine his ideals and his future.

A passion project, Physical Therapy was created in an effort to celebrate the lives of brown, Latinx and LGBTQ+ health care and physiotherapy workers… whose stories have been, up to this point, largely invisible in Hollywood productions.

Watch a short trailer for Physical Therapy below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

Two Hawaiian schoolboys fall in love in the heartwarming new romance ‘My Partner’

Two high school boys from seemingly different worlds fall in love in My Partner, a charming and colorful new gay romance from Hawaii.

Directed by Kanaka Maoli filmmaker Keli’i Grace and based on an original story by Lance D. Collins, the film explores the relationship between Edmar (played by Jayron Munoz), a high-achieving Filipino student, and Pili (played by Kaipo Dudoit), a Native Hawaiian student-athlete.

As they navigate budding young love and self-growth in Hawaii, their journey reflects the complexities of the area’s evolving cultural landscape.

Sexy, heartwarming and deeply romantic, My Partner breaks some new ground, offering up a unique take on love and identity and marking the first time that the wildly popular ‘Boys Love’ subgenre has been portrayed through a modern Hawaiian story.

Check out the poster for My Partner below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.

A religious man faces intense urges in the acclaimed Polish drama ‘In the Name of’

Released to great acclaim in 2013, In the Name of is a powerful, sensitive and complex religious drama about a lonely, but devout Polish priest who is struggling with his sexuality.

The story follows Father Adam (Andrzej Chyra), an attractive man who joined the priesthood at a young age – mainly in an effort to outrun his desires. Having been transferred from Warsaw to the countryside, he is tasked with running a home for troubled boys.

Initially, Father Adam commands great respect as he supervises the boys in work, study and sport. His sexual urges are ignited, however, when the young wife of one of his assistants makes an unsuccessful pass. Though he’s not interested in women, there is one youth in particular that has caught his eye: the strangely quiet, long-haired Lukasz (Mateusz Kosciukiewicz).

His faith and commitment to celibacy prevents him from acting on his urges until a playful game in a wheat field with ignites his passion and compels him to act on his physical desires. When rumors begin to spread about his sexuality, his future at the school and his relationship with Lukasz are threatened.

Winner of the coveted Teddy Award at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, In the Name of is an impassioned, eloquent and, at times, humorous queer melodrama from director Malgorzata Szumowska about a man of faith consumed with forbidden love and longing.

Watch the trailer for In the Name of below. The film is now streaming on Dekkoo.