Discover great gay stories.

DEKKOO DISPATCH 057 – ‘SCREWED’

Title – ‘Screwed’

Director – Nils-Erik Ekblom

Starring – Mikko Kauppila, Valtteri Lehtinen, Sanna Majuri, Sami Huhtala

Release Date – 2017

______________________

Next week we’re bringing you a gay title direct from the biggest gay film festivals right into your living rooms! On February 15th get ready to be ‘Screwed’…

If the film sounds familiar that’s because right after Frameline (the oldest queer film festival in the world!) we here at Dekkoo made headlines by acquiring the film just for all of you right out of the jam-packed world premiere. We were so impressed by this audacious and sexy coming-of-age film that we just had to immediately grab it and make sure you all were the first to see it. That’s why it will be exclusively available on Dekkoo for a whole month before it hits DVD.

PIHALLA_V1.1.00_42_29_13.Still013-1 — Elias & Miku

‘Screwed’ comes to us from the mind of Nils-Erik Ekblom – a filmmaker who decided to explore the life of a fairly normal gay teenager in Finland and what happens when he comes face to face with desires he decides he doesn’t want to run from. In interviews Nils has explained that he feels gay people aren’t portrayed authentically in Finnish cinema and that for years they’ve been the butt of jokes. He desired to create an accurate portrait of queer life here and now in Finnish culture. Indeed if you look up Finnish gay films you won’t find much of anything sadly. Now we know why ‘Tom of Finland’ wanted to come to California 🙂

PIHALLA_V1.1.00_33_59_12.Still010-1 — Miku

Alright enough of the back-story! Let’s talk about the boys! Meet our cute main character – 17-year-old Miku. Jesus that name is adorable… Miku’s life is very static – you can absolutely tell something needs to change and this is the year that he takes some chances in life. A good way to start is by throwing a house party and losing his virginity his weird older brothers advises him. Thus Miku throws said party and thus his parent’s house nearly gets demolished in the teenage debauchery that ensues. Of course it’s bad enough to feel the wrath of his parents in general, but it’s even worse because they go on summer vacation immediately afterwards and he’s stuck in a small cabin with them!

Luckily there’s a surprise just down the river bend… No I’m not kidding. Literally a hot next door neighbor named Elias rows down the river and comes to introduce himself to Miku’s family. Once Elias sees Miku he’s very taken whereas Miku looks like he wants to run away as far as possible from the feelings that are coursing through him. It’s like watching someone in fight-or-flight mode. After the two finally start talking and taking little adventures in the countryside together it’s clear that they’re both in for a large dose of first love – with all the wonderful earth-shaking feelings it can produce. Of course ‘Screwed’ doesn’t just focus on the gay angle of life, it also rounds it out with sibling trouble, rocky marriages, and general family drama.

PIHALLA_V1.1.01_43_13_16.Still029-1 — Elias

We’re incredibly thrilled to bring you this sexy, amazingly gorgeous film directly to you first before anyone else. We hope you love it as much as us!

Trailer:

___________________________

Watch it with: With lots of friends! Pack ’em in!

Mix it with: White wine.

____________________________

Vote for ‘I’m Fine’ – The Queerties!

We’re so proud to announce that Dekkoo’s ‘I’m Fine’ is up for Queerty’s annual award for Best Web Series!!

Vote for it here!

You can vote once per day and I know that every one of the ‘I’m Fine’ boys would be so happy if you did.

We’re crossing our fingers!!

‘Screwed’ comes to Dekkoo exclusively on February 15 – one month before DVD!

Seventeen year old Miku is trying to come to terms with his sexuality and find his place in the world. After his parents find out he threw a wild party while they were away, he is forced to spend the summer with them at their cottage. A flirtation soon develops with Elias, the boy next door. As they spend the summer escaping their dysfunctional families, a relationship quickly blossoms. But they soon realize that love is not as easy as it seems.

‘Screwed’ is a distinctly sensual, beautifully shot, and sensitively acted drama that arrives exclusively on Dekkoo February 15 – one month before DVD!

Watch the trailer below!

New This Week – 2/2/18

Diego is leaving his hometown and must leave behind everything he has ever loved including Matheus, a handsome young man. Ten years later, back in Brazil, Diego decides to write a novel about their relationship using his camera instead of his pen. This heartfelt biopic shows how passion can increase our motivation in life, but also how making tough choices can affect that passion. Watch ‘About Us’ on Dekkoo.com, available now one-month before DVD!

A young gay pianist, Sasha, confronted with the everyday prejudice of his homophobic immigrant family, struggles with his urge to come out. ‘Sasha’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo!

David goes about his life unaware that he is being followed by a stranger recording his every move. As the stranger gets closer he sees more of the dark secret that David is hiding from his boyfriend and the world around him. ‘Watch Me’ is available to stream on Dekkoo!

__________________________

Coming next week: A French drama about the sensitive passage into adulthood and the awakening of sexuality in four youths at the end of the Algerian War.

DEKKOO DISPATCH 056 – ‘L’HOMME BLESSÉ’

Title – ‘L’Homme Blessé‘

Director – Patrice Chéreau

Starring – Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Roland Bertin, Claude Berri

Release Date – 1983

______________________

RARE CINEMA ALERT!! RARE CINEMA ALERT!!

Wow I can’t believe the boys at Dekkoo managed to pull this one off. ‘L’Homme Blessé‘ aka ‘The Wounded Man’ is an extremely rare piece of older queer cinema that has been completely unavailable in the U.S. besides a VHS from ’97! And it’s a crying shame because this is a bonkers gay-as-hell film from one of France’s most famous directors; Patrice Chéreau. While famous in France for his theatrical productions, he was famous abroad for movies like Palme D’or Winner ‘Queen Margot’, ‘Intimacy’, and ‘His Brother’.

‘L’Homme Blessé‘ was made in 1983 by Chéreau after working on a script for 6 years with his writing partner Hervé Guibert. In it the pair explore a young man’s awakening to intense homosexual desires that blossom into masochismic longings for one man in particular – Jean – an enigmatic hustler who prowls train stations looking for weak homosexuals he can bully into giving up their wallets. Yup folks – this is not a feel good movie where you’ll feel safe and secure. It doesn’t support the illusion that being gay is all rainbows and unicorns. But I like that sometimes! It’s important to realize how tough it used to be back in the day to be queer (and honestly that still holds in many places). Plus bisexual rough trade is definitely kinda hot sometimes 😉

Jean-Hughes Anglade (before making his star turning role in ‘Betty Blue’) plays the shy young Henri who visits the train station with his family. While there we begin to see his first tries at ‘cruising’ – obviously something that train station must be very well known for. In a bathroom he stares wide-eyed at Jean – a spectacularly handsome rugged man in his 30s and after re-entering the bathroom finds Jean mugging someone. While trying to run away from the situation Jean catches him and instead of beating him up begins wildly caressing him and urging Henri to help him finish mugging his victim. It’s one of the sexiest criminal queer scenes that exists.

Afterwards Henri becomes something akin to a slave to Jean. He follows him around, does his bidding, and becomes increasingly annoyed at Jean’s indifference towards him. Of course Jean isn’t completely gay and has a wife which complicates things to be sure. His wife tolerates Jean’s bisexual leanings and criminal lifestyle, but isn’t happy about it. The closest comparison I can draw to this film that exists in the Dekkoo catalog would be ‘Fogi is a Bastard‘. It shares a lot of ideas such as the corruption of innocence, dependency issues, and crime begetting crime. But I think Chéreau’s film delves a little deeper into the darkness of the human soul which I think is why the film divides so many audiences.

Besides being able to brag to your friends that you saw one of the most hard-to-find pieces of queer cinema you’ll also experience one of the most heartbreaking, outrageous, and melancholic films in Patrice Chéreau’s filmography. Cruise it tonight!

___________________________

Watch it with: By yourself or with a dark lover.

Mix it with: French wine.

____________________________

New This Week – 1/26/18

In season 2 of the acclaimed Dekkoo-original series, Nate decides it’s time to move on from his breakup with Joey…but Nate’s fall-out with his best friend Jeff continues to loom. Meanwhile, Nicole is back in town on the hunt for a new career move, Andy takes control of his open relationship with Brian, and Jeff finds companionship in someone new. Turns out they might be the ones who are fine after all, while Nate still only claims to be. Watch season 2 of ‘I’m Fine’ only on Dekkoo!

In this award-winning erotic 1983 classic from acclaimed French director Patrice Chéreau, a young man discovers his homosexuality and begins a relationship with a manipulative hustler and petty criminal that he meets at the train station. Watch ‘L’Homme Blesse’ on Dekkoo.com!

A gay couple decide to experiment with an open relationship but can their relationship survive it? Watch the gay short film ‘Midnight’ now on Dekkoo!

____________________________

Coming next week: A heartfelt look at the meaning of love.

DEKKOO DISPATCH 055 – ‘I’M FINE SEASON 2’

Title – ‘I’m Fine – Season 2‘

Director – Brandon Kirby

Starring – Perry Powell, Lee Doud, Shaughn Buchholz, Brittney King, Richard Stokes, Ulysses Morazan

Release Date – 2018

______________________

Today is a very exciting day in the Dekkoo-universe! ‘I’m Fine‘ Season 2 launches worldwide right now!!! At Dekkoo we truly believe in the power of gay filmmakers that tell stories about their communities and ‘I’m Fine‘ is the perfect example of that. Brandon Kirby lives in West Hollywood, CA (considered by many to be the mecca of gay life on this planet!) and he plumbs the depths of the craziness and camaraderie that goes on there to create a series that contains plentiful amounts of laughs and feels.

Alright so let’s do a quick recap of Season 1! :Spoilers ahead:
Meet Nate. Nate’s your average ‘figuring out life post-college’ Angeleno living in West Hollywood. He’s trying to get over his breakup with Joey with the help of his fab friends: Jeff, Brian, Andy, and Nicole. Jeff is adorable and has a crush on Nate, Brian and Andy are a couple that have their share of spats and Nicole is the party girl that glues them all together. At the end of the first season Nate has a big fight with Jeff after a drunken hookup that Nate wasn’t into with the result of Jeff being completely pissed at Nate.

We enter Season 2 at the same place we ended Season 1 – with a sunset smothered view on the top of the Hollywood mountains. All seems… strangely peaceful. Nate’s life up until now never seemed this serene. Enter Mick. An adorable button of a twink, he claims to have just moved there and would love make some new gay friends. Nate, although taken aback by such an open and honest proposition (not seen very often in LA) appears taken by Mick and agrees to meet up later on. Nate’s journey in this season seems to me to be a journey of forgiveness. He’s made a lot of mistakes and he knows he won’t find happiness (in the form of Mick perhaps?) until he receives forgiveness from everyone including himself.

But! This season is about a wholeeee lot more than Nate this time around. The bffs from last season are not about to be merely supporting characters. No! This time we get full blown storylines with each and every one of them. Brian and Andy go to a sex party, Jeff has a hilariously bad blind date, and Nicole apparently was once in a lesbian relationship?!? We also get to meet a lot of new characters: Nate’s sexy roommates, his parents and sister, a sexy latino hunk at a pool party, and many more! There’s also a very long and hilarious post-credits scene hidden after the credits in episode 7 so make sure to stick around for that.

We really hope you binge the heck out of Season 2 and we’d of course love for you to tell all of your friends about it and encourage them to join Dekkoo. We love bringing original gay stories to life, but it takes the support of a community to do it!

___________________________

Watch it with: Your friends that you watched Season 1 with!

Mix it with: Mimosas of course!

____________________________

LA Weekly – ‘I’m Fine’ Captures Both the Gay and Straight Millennial Experience in L.A.’

LA Weekly’s Michael Cooper has penned a fantastic article about the second season of ‘I’m Fine’ debuting tomorrow, January 25.

You can check out the article over here!

New This Week – 1/19/18

Set in The Netherlands at the end of WW II, this touching story, told in flashbacks, explores the complex and romantic relationship between an adult soldier and a displaced, lonely adolescent boy. ‘For a Lost Soldier’ is available to stream now on Dekkoo.com!

In the gay short film, ‘Lunch’, a young man plans to relax in the park next to his office, but a zealous street performer has plans of his own.

A pitch black indie comedy from prolific writer-star Mike White (‘School of Rock’, ‘Enlightened’), ‘Chuck & Buck’ follows a socially maladjusted young man who begins stalking his childhood best friend in hopes of rekindling the sexual experimentation of their youth.

________________________________

Coming next week – A beloved Dekkoo-original series returns for its second season!

Behind the scenes of ‘I’m Fine’ season 2!

New episodes of the Dekkoo-original series, ‘I’m Fine’ arrive January 25. That’s one week from today!

We know how hard it is to wait so, in the meantime, check out this behind-the-scenes look at season 2:

Watch the ‘I’m Fine’ season 2 trailer here!

Watch ‘I’m Fine’ season 1!