P.H. Davies's Blog, page 3

My top ten favourite fictional characters

As someone who has loved books their whole life, I have grown a certain sentimentality for various fictional characters from children’s books, plays, novels, and poetry. When I read a book, I live with it and the characters become as real to me as any flesh and blood person I know. Their problems become my problems, their hopes and desires my hopes and desires, their perspectives areabsorbed into my own. Over the years one reads more and more widely but there remain a number of characters who...

Burning Blue (2014) trailer

Apparently Burning Blue (2014) has been available on-demand for about a year but I’ve only just become aware of its existence. Directed by D.M.W Greer, the film is based on his 1992 play about a US Navy accident investigation that slowly unravels into a gay witch hunt during Clinton’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. The film follows two best friends – navy pilots Daniel (Trent Ford) and Will (Morgan Spector) who hope to become the youngest pilots to be accepted into the space programme. After...

Snails in the Rain (2013) review

As prevailing attitudes about homosexuality in Israel have become more progressivein recent years, andTel Aviv continues to establish itself as amecca for gay men, Israeli filmmakers have attempted tocreate stories that capture these changes in their society.Since the start of the millennium, a number of films have emerged which underline Israel’s increasing willingness to tackle gay issues –Yossi & Jagger (2002), Eyes Wide Open (2009), and Out in the Dark (2012). These filmsdepict the lives...

Truman Capote – Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) review

Truman Capote’s debut novel is possibly his most autobiographical and his most explicitly gay. Other Voices, Other Roomscaused a sensation when it was published in 1948, not least of all for its author photograph on the dust jacket in which Capote, aged 23, is seen reclining on a chaise longue looking seductively out at the reader with big eyes that suggest sexual longing. A critic for the Los Angeles Times suggested that Capote was “dreamily contemplating some outrage against conventional mo...

Madonna vs. her contemporaries

Whenever Madonna is written about lately she is almost always compared to the younger generation of pop stars currently lighting up the charts. In what has become a common narrative, we are constantly reminded of how old she is (she’s only 56 – that’s not old) and how desperate she has become trying to keep up with the kids. But while it seems completely unfair to compare an established artist with up and coming artists, who generally experience their biggest sales at the beginning of their c...

Grace and Frankie (2015) trailer

Netflix appear to have struck gold again with new TV series, Grace and Frankie,featuring veteran Hollywood stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, and Sam Waterston. The series, created by Marta Kaufman (one of the masterminds behindFriends)follows long-time rivals Grace and Frankie who are brought together after their husbands unexpectedly announce that they have fallen in love with each other and plan to get married. Comedy ensues as each woman is forced to bond in adversity, finding f...