Blue Briefs

Continuing with the series of similar themed short gay films in a series, this collection comprises of 6 gay short films which explore the longing and pain of love. Most of the stories do a pretty good job of delivering the message  with shorts dealing with love, growing up gay, coming out and jealousy.

Requited
A wonderfully shot short film, this film is about Nicolas who is spending time with his boyfriend Greg. Greg is soon leaving NY to go to west coast and Nicolas has mixed feelings about it. The feelings get even mixed up when he receives an invitation for a wedding from a former straight classmate, whom Nicolas was secretly in love for a long time and probably still is. He can't decide but ends up finally going for it and in the end misses the time that he could spend with his boyfriend who is leaving him soon. This film very effectively shows us the pain that we go through when we so endearingly pine for something we can never have.

Boys Like You
Sal and Jimmy are roommates. Sal is gay and Jimmy is very very gay friendly. Needless to say that Sal is deeply madly in love with Jimmy because not only he is a genuinely friendly guy but Jimmy on various occasions keeps leading him on. Their easy going, friendly relationship gets a test when Jimmy invites a woman he met at a bar and Jimmy, the girl and Sal have a 3-way. Life will not be the same for Sal again. I loved this film. The performances by the lead characters were excellent and very understated. I loved the homey, casual and the warmly inviting feeling of the film.

We Were Once Tide
Read Here We Were Once Tide

Revolution
Set in 1989, we see an upper middle class Iranian family getting adjusted in LA life. The film primarily focusses on the teenage son Jack, as he comes to terms with his being gay, his loving but distant mother and a fairly conservative father. The tension in the family becomes more evident with the arrival of the new nanny and her teenage openly gay son who takes alining for Jack. This film again had excellent performances. Mostly in Iranian language, this was very very different from the usual crap of short films that we get to see.

The In-Between
Based on short snippets and true accounts of people in New York, the film showcases how 2 people grow apart over a period of time. Jared is relieved that he has found true love in Robert but after they move in and start living together, a series of red flag make Jared doubt about Robert's fidelity to him. WHy is Robert spending too much time on the sleazy porn websites and hook up sites. An interesting exercise which uses apparently real narration paired up with enacted footage, was my favorite from this series. But the reasons are very different because this one is pretty close to home. Brilliant !

Frozen Roads
We see lives of 3 friends in a small canadian town. When Christian gets bullied in school, he gets respite from his more outgoing sister Lyla, but things are very different for his friend Bal, who is the only child of a devoutly religious family. At a local party, Christian finally gets a chance to tell Bal his true feelings for her, but will he be able to or something else will happen? This short in my opinion was the weakest of the entire series.Acting was decent but it wasn't clear enough of what was going on.

Barring a weak last story, this collection of stories was excellent. (7/10)