My Review of My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

 

Written by Hanif Kureishi

Directed by Stephen Frears 

Omar: "When we were in school, you and your friends were kicking me around the place. And what are you doing now? Washing my floor and that's how I like it."

Continuing my look into LGBT movies for the month of June, I had to watch one that came out the same year I was born. I've heard of this film but until this month, I'd never properly seen it. I'm now glad to say that I have.

This movie focused on a Pakistani-Brirish man named Omar Ali (Gordon Warnecke). It's South London in the mid 1980s and Omar's looking after his father, Hussein (Roshan Seth) as the latter has descended into alcoholism and no longer works as the left wing journalist he once was.

Being a caregiver isn't a vocation that Omar particularly wanted for his life, not to bear the brunt of his father's resentment over the social politics of the time. Of course, there's other family members who have bigger plans for Omar, much to the latter's reluctance.

Throughout the movie, there's a constant attemot to marry Omar off to his cousin, Tania (Rita Wolf) by his uncle, Nasser (Saaed Jaffrey). It's a prospect that doesn't appeal to either Omar or Tania but it's the latter who made sure that neither of them had to go through with it.

Unwanted attempts of arranged marriage aside, Nasser had Omar running his friend's laundrette and working with Omar was his lover and general bad boy, Johnny Burfoot (Daniel Day-Lewis). Johnny had something of a fascist past that the movie explored as well as the growing tension between the Pakistani and punk communities within the movie.

The exploration into Omar and Johnny's relationship certainly had some of its ups and downs along with illegal activities in the mix. Saying that, it's a relationship that did manage to endure throughout with a surprise happy note ending for the two of them during the last scene.

- The movie was originally shot for Channel 4 before it ended up getting a theatrical release. Gary Oldman nearly played Johnny before Daniel Day-Lewis was cast.

- This was one of the first films that publicly made jokes about Margaret Thatcher.

- Standout music: Aaron Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man.

- Chronology: South London in the mid 1980s.

My Beautiful Laundrette was a delight of a movie with very compelling performances from both Gordon Warnecke and Daniel Day-Lewis. There's a good exploration into class and race issues of the time along with the romance between Omar and Johnny. 

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Clown In A Cornfield (2025)

 

Written by Carter Blanchard And Eli Craig

Directed by Eli Craig 

Cole: "Sorry about tonight, Quinn."

Quinn: "Oh, it's okay. Don't worry about it. You know, except for the clowns trying to kill us and all. That kind of sucks."

An unexpected one for Pride Month would be this movie. Yeah, I was surprised too about this one. I mean, it's a horror slasher with a clown named Frendo who loved killing teenagers and there's a gay love story in the mix.

The reason why I'm emphasising the gay storyline was not only was it genuinely unexpected but it worked very nicely in a slasher movie that's pretty funny. As long as you're not expecting anything groundbreaking, you're in for a good time.

This movie had a grieving father, Dr Glenn Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) and his daughter, Quinn (Katie Douglas) move to the strange town of Kettle Springs. All the adults are either hostile or straight up weird. Fortunately for Quinn, the townspeople in her age group are more friendly.

It didn't take Quinn long to befriend social media pranksters, Cole (Carson MacCormac), Janet (Cassandra Potenza), Ronnie (Verity Marks), Tucker (Ayo Solanke) and Matt (Alexandre Martin Deakin). They're a decent bunch of teenagers who quickly brought Quinn up to speed about the town's Founders Day custom and local mascot, the clown Frendo.

As the movie progressed and Quinn and her father clashed over the former's new friend group, Frendo was also dispatching of that friend group. Frendo made sure they were inventive with the body count method and Frendo was also more than one person. There's a reason why the adults are off in this movie.

It's because all of them are Frendo, notably the Sheriff Dunne (Will Sasso) and Cole's conservative father, Arthur Hill (Kevin Durand). The latter's willingness to murder his own son definitely added to the tension as the few survivors of the movie banded together to take down the Frendo circus, once and for all.

Going back to the gay love story, it's between Cole and outcast Rust (Vincent Muller). It's nicely handled, added a bit of depth to both characters and didn't detract from the main story. It was also an interesting subversion as I assumed the love story was supposed to be between Quinn and Cole. Then again, so did Quinn before she became aware of Coleand Rust.

- This movie's based on a book of the same name by Adam Cesare. It has two sequels. Expect the same with this.

- Frendo would leave little Jack in the boxes as a calling card for his victims. The last scene set up the inevitable sequel.

- Standout music: Dummy's What Do I Owe? and Mother Mother's Get Out Of The Way.

- Chronology: Flashbacks to 1991 Kettle Springs, Missouri as well as the present day. Quinn and her father are from Philadelphia.

I didn't go with huge expectations but I gotta say that I enjoyed Clown In A Cornfield. It doesn't do anything to reinvent the wheel with the slasher but it's fun, got some inventive kills, a nicely handled love story and room for further exploration.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Brokeback Mountain (2005)

 

Written by Larry McMurtry And Diana Ossana

Directed by Ang Lee

Jack (to Ennis: "Tell  you what... the truth is... sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it."

I genuinely cannot believe that this film will be celebrating it's twentieth anniversary and confession time, I've only ever watched this film once and that was shortly after it's initial release. Of course, it was time to revisit this one.

In some ways, this movie really was important. It's one of the most mainstream cinematic depictions of a romance between two men and it was also a career breakthrough for both Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Both men are incredible in this movie.

The romance itself stirred an interesting debate. Were both men really gay but unable to come out due to the time they were in? Were they really bisexual as both of them did settle down with women and fathered children? Or was it something more complex than being either gay or bisexual? After watching this film again, I'm none the wiser. 

The men in question being ranch hands, Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal). Both were hired by a rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to heard his sheep during the summer on Brokeback Mountain. The more time that Ennis and Jack spent together, the closer they got. That closeness became physical as they started a sexual relationship.

However both men insisted they weren't gay and at no point was the idea of either of them being bisexual outright said by either of them. Eventually they went on to have much different lives from one another but at the same time, both Ennis and Jack found themselves also drawn back to each other as well. That caused anguish among themselves and the families they had build in their older years.

Ennis's wife, Alma (Michelle Williams) was very much aware of Ennis and Jack's relationship and eventually divorced him. Ennis ended up living a rather solitary life with a strained relationship between older daughter, Alma Jr (Kate Mara) and a failed attempt of another romance with Cassie Cartwright (Linda Cardellini). 

Jack's life with Lureen (Anne Hathaway) and their son wasn't much better. Lureen might not have known explicitly about the true extent of Jack's relationship with Ennis but the one interaction she had with him was sort of telling. Jack got an ambiguous death that clearly affected Ennis, especially with that quietly beautiful moment Ennis had with Jack's parents and the final shot of the movie.

- I had forgotten that both Anna Faris and David Harbour appeared as a couple that Jack and Lureen made friends with. It's implied that Jack slept with Harbour's character.

- Fishing trips became a way for both Ennis and Jack to spend time with one another. 

- Ennis kept Jack's shirt and then Alma Jr's jacket when the latter forgot it. Alma Jr was engaged to an oil worker named Kurt.

- Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams met on this movie and became a couple afterwards.

- Standout music: The Raven Shadows/Tim Ferguson's Trust In Lies and Gustavo Santaolalla's Angel Went Up In Flames.

- Chronology: Between 1963 to 1983 in Wyoming and Texas.

Seeing as it's been a while since I've seen Brokeback Mountain, I'll admit that my first impression was more mixed but I think I liked more the second time around. Both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are superb, even if the pacing's a bit slow at times.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 6-10 Reviews

For this second batch of episodes, there's a sequel, focus on adult characters and serious daddy issues at play.

Episode 6: Saturday Night Special 

The second episode this season to have an adult cast, this one had unlucky in love Gordon (Scott Burkholder) fantasise about getting together with the hard to get, Lana (Shari Shattuck). Of course he mostly told harmless white lies to impress her but those lies came back to haunt him when a romantic date in an ice rink ended in a bloody mess. Then the second half focused on Lana manipulating her co-worker and housemate, Mary into getting a makeover. The end result of that being a rather grim ending for poor Mary. 6/10

Episode 7: Sister's Keeper 

And here's a sequel to the opening episode. I'm surprised they didn't save this for the finale as a bookend to the season. Twin sisters, Lisa and Merritt are trying to cope with the loss of their father with one of them being more attuned to Freddy's malevolence than the other. Of course as the episode and both were done pretending to be the other, there was an attempt by the twins to get rid of Freddy for good. It very nearly worked but at the last minute, Freddy regained the upper hand and one of the twins died. Oh and Zod himself, Michael Shannon popped up as a boyfriend to one of the twins. 7/10

Episode 8: Mother's Day 

Okay, this one certainly lived up to its titles with two teen protagonists having very different but equally toxic relationships with their mothers. First of all, there was Billy (Byron Thames) who seemed very jealous of his mother remarrying while his new neighbour Barbara (Jill Whitlow) had her own issues with her radio psychologist mother (Elizabeth Savage). Billy's story really came second place with him being an early death. The back and forth between Barbara (under the pseudonym of Weeping Wendy) and her mother made for a stronger story as the latter's spate of bad advice caused all sorts of problems for her. 8/10

Episode 9: Rebel Without A Car 

I got a strong sense of deja vu watching this episode. Yet again, we had a young man, this one named Alex (Craig Hurley) wanting to get out from working in Beefy Burger to leave Springwood, only to be killed within the first half of the episode. We already covered that in the second episode and the second half focused on his grieving girlfriend, Connie (Katie Barberi). Only here, we had Connie jumping through hoops during Hell Week by a Sorority that had no intention of accepting her in the first place. Connie managed to get her own back with a little murder spree that she ended up getting away with. 8/10

Episode 10: The Bride Wore Red 

Getting back to the adults, we got a wedding here between Jessica (Diane Franklin) and Gavin (Eddie Driscoll) and it's a good case for why some people shouldn't marry. They're horribly mismatched and both with their own issues. By comparison, Gavin's issues aren't as bad. Jessica's on the other hand are a severe case of daddy issues as flashbacks showed her skewered views on men stemming from her father's (Arthur Roberts) inability to stay faithful while exposing a lawyer's (Gary Wood) infidelity would come back to get her in the worst way. Oh and there's Freddy's bondage punsas well. 7/10

Next blog I'll look into Do Dreams Bleed?, The End Of The World, Deadline, Black Tickets and School Daze.

The Future Of Ryan Murphy Shows - Part 4

A surprise update here. I was going to hold this off until later in the year but a few tantalising bits have materialised the last few weeks.

Filming for 9-1-1: Nashville has begun and the cast has further expanded. Last time I mentioned Chris O'Donnell as Captain Don Sharpe and Jessica Capshaw as Blythe Warde along with LeAnn Rimes and Kimberly Williams-Paisley in undisclosed roles. Added to the cast include Michael Provost, a cowboy firefighter as well as Don and Blythe's son. Then there's Hunter McVey as haunted bad boy firefighter, Blue, Juanita Felix as former trauma surgeon, Roxie and Hailey Kilgore as singer Taylor. Both Roxie and Taylor are also firefighters. The show will premiere in the Fall on ABC with the ninth season of parent show, 9-1-1.

Speaking of filming, FX's next anthology series, American Love Story has given us some goodies here. First of all, this rather nice photoshoot with leads Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon as JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette in character mode. On top of that they will be joined by Grace Gummer, Sydney Lemmon and Alessandro Nicola as well as the previously announced Naomi Watts. It was also confirmed the show will premiere on FX from February 2026.

After months of radio silence, we finally got the tiniest of crumbs for American Horror Story. Now, it's nothing to get too excited about but someone did ask Ryan Murphy if we were going to get Season 13 in 2025 and while Murphy didn't exactly confirm that we would, he did give something. He confirmed that both him and Sarah Paulson were working on something cool in regards to the long running FX stalwart. It's not really anything to go on but here's hoping that more concrete information will surface soon enough. I'd be surprised if Season 13 does air this year but stranger things have happened.

Announced after my last blog on Ryan Murphy shows, it does look like he's collaborating with Kaia Gerber once again. This time, it's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards for FX. The book released in 2023 focused on a coming of age story set in 1981 where a group of privileged prep school students navigate their senior year as well as the presence of a serial killer. Gerber's character will be the lead and so far, she's the only cast member announced with Max Winkler set to direct the pilot episode. Filming has yet to start, so this one might be a while yet. I hope this fares better for Murphy than Scream Queens did a decade ago for him.

Last but not least, there's Doctor Odyssey. It's been a month since the first season wrapped up on an unsatisfying note on ABC. The lack of an update on the nautical series is definitely frustrating as both ABC and Ryan Murphy seem to yet to decide on its fate. If it is returning, it's definitely moving to another night on ABC and will likely be a mid season return. If it's cancelled, then why not just the few people curious about the show out of their misery and tell them? I expect this with streaming and cable shows but not a network TV show. Make a decision already.

That's my update for now. Unless major news is revealed about multiple Ryan Murphy soon, it'll be a while before I do another of these blogs.

My Review of Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)

Written by Eddie Berganza And Alan Burnett And Todd Casey And Dave Gibbons And Michael Green And Marc Guggenheim And Geoff Johns And Peter Tomasi

Directed by Christopher Berkeley And Lauren Montgomery And Jay Oliva

Arisia: "I guess this is the blackest night everyone talks about."

Sinestro: "No, my dear. Only dusk."

A few weeks ago, I watched and reviewed Green Lantern: First Flight, so of course, I had to catch up with this one. A sequel of sorts to that movie, this one told a few different stories about various ring heaters in this part of the DC Universe.

The first story focused on Avra (Mitchell Whitfield). He's the Guardians humble scribe and one of the first chosen by the Corps rings, despite not being a warrior. He's got a team to help him take out the Dominators. Avra's responsible for the way the rings made constructs while his own ring went from Abin Sur (Arnold Vosloo) and eventually, Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion).

Hal's role in this movie was to mentor newcomer, Arisia Rrab (Elizabeth Moss). He introduced her to Kilowog (Henry Rolins) and then we learned more about Kilowog. Kilowog's story involved his training with Sergeant Deegan (Wade Williams), which included not being dependent on the power ring and defending a nearby planet from the Khunds.

The story of Laira (Kelly Hu) delved into her family and homeworld of Jayd. This meant hostile reunions with both her brother and father as well as addressing war crimes and a suicide from Laura's father. It's a fairly dark story in this batch.

Then there's Mogo. Yes, there's a Green Lantern that's a sentient planet who'd prefer not to socialise with anyone. For Mogo's story, he's got the warmonger, Bolphunga (Roddy Piper) to deal with. Bolphunga's realisation as to what Mogo really was certainly made this the strongest of the stories. Also Mogo would come in handy by the conclusion of this movie.

The last two stories gave some backstory for both Abin Sur and Sinestro (Jason Isaacs) as well as the origins for Atrocitus (Bruce Thomas). Then you had the current Lanterns fighting Krona and his shadow demons. This came with severe casualties, including Oa itself. It's a good job that a sentient planet was able to be the Corps current base.

- The movie was broken into the following segments - Green Lantern, Kilowog, Laira, Mogo Doesn't Socialize, Abin Sur and Emerald Knights.

- Other Lanterns who appeared include Tomar-Re, Ganthet, Salaak and Boodikka to name a few.

- The animated series, Young Justice (different continuity) used the same animation style as this movie did.

- Chronology: Various timelines as the stories all linked to one another before the big battle with Krona.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights mostly succeeded as a series of vignettes that connected to a bigger story. Some of the stories are stronger than others but none of them are bad. A solid follow up from the previous animated movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

Doctor Who - CBeebies Animated Spin Off In The Works

Well, this was news I wasn't expecting to be honest. Sorry for the #RIPDoctorWho crowd I guess.

This morning, it was announced that CBeebies was looking to expand the Doctor Who universe by commissioning an animated spin-off. Details revealed include.

• Aimed for the pre-school audience.
• Will see the Doctor travelling through time and space and solving mysteries with companions and other friends.
• Will be independent from the main show itself.
• CBeebies are looking for companies to pitch for the show as they commit to the UK's animation industry.
• 52 episodes, 11 minutes long. 26 for a first season for 2027-2028 and the other 26 for a second season for 2028-2029 transmission.

Now, Doctor Who entering the world of animation isn't that new a concept. For the last few years, we've had various episodes from the classic series restored in animation. We've also had animated spin-offs with The Infinity Quest, Dreamland and Daleks!. Even the live action show itself has had animated sequences in episodes such as Can You Hear Me? and Lux. Perhaps this was inevitable after all.

So far, the idea does seem rather vague but if I were to make an educated guess, I'm not expecting this show to focus on a recent Doctor. In fact, I'm willing to bet that the Doctor for this show will either be a younger version of the First Doctor or a new Doctor from an unspecified timeline but either way, I expect movement on this spin off to happen pretty fast.

Now what about the main show itself? It's been nearly two weeks since we saw Ncuti Gatwa regenerate into Billie Piper (or did he?) in the divisive finale The Reality War. The BBC haven't exactly rushed to confirm what to expect next and it's gotten fans and detractors alike assuming the worst. However two rumours have been floating around the last week with the tabloids lasering in on one of them.

Rumour 1: David Tennant and Billie Piper will head up a Christmas special for this year. If that were true, filming would really need to start soon. I'm not sure of this one but it's also not one I'd dismiss out of hand either. File it under "maybe".

Rumour 2: The show's time with Disney+ has come to an end. Other streamers are interested in taking on the show with the BBC but want more creative control. This one I suspect is true. I have mixed feelings on that tbh.

Right now, we still don't know for definite what's going on with Doctor Who. I will say that by commissioning another spin-off, it does seem to me that the BBC aren't quite ready to retire the ongoing series just yet.

I'll keep posting more updates about the show and it's expanded universe as they come to light.