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Weekend, from writer and director Andrew Haigh, is a moving, heartwarming, sexually graphic depiction of the interaction between two men over the course of one weekend – a simple idea portrayed with a frank openness. Russell, played by Tom Cullen, is a reserved life guard who after skipping out on a bunch of his straight friends finds himself picking up Glen, Chris New, at a local gay bar and subsequently the pair develop instant chemistry.

The morning after Glen, an aspiring artist, records Russell’s experience (albeit drunkenly muddled) of the previous night on a dictaphone for an art project and the tentatively awkward interaction between the two characters as they sit in bed talking is at once realistic and devoid of pretence. The unabashed realism of the movie is consistent throughout as this intuitively written drama skips the need for reliance on any of the festival of cloying cliches that sometimes plague the depiction of gays in cinema. What develops is a genuine story of mutual attraction through absolutely stellar performances from the two stars. Set largely in Russell’s apartment, though occasionally moving around, Weekend is remarkably simple in its execution taking a mixture of handheld and static, documentary style camera work that really pulls in the viewer with plenty of intimate moments.

Powerfully intense chemistry between Tom Cullen and Chris New, along with an intelligent script, really bring this modern kitchen-sink drama to life. Russell’s character is shy, reserved, out but not in your face about it, and filled with anxiety – avoiding public displays of his homosexuality. In antithesis Glen is in many ways his mirror image, unfalteringly honest and brash, he is the political gay – arguing with straight people in a bar over the underlying homophobia, that may or not have been present, in their complaint about noise. The new relationship between the two hits a bump when Glen reveals he’s about to leave for Portland on a two year course, and it’s indicative of the level of acting that the anxiety of feelings between these two guys is highly apparent. Unable to stay away from each other they spend the time they have together, they go out, drink and take drugs and share the intimacies of themselves, covering a range of topics, trivial and profound, with the kind of rawness that his helped along by the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Andrew Haigh’s previous work editing on a plethora of well known movies, like Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, has led to this movies very fluid scene momentum and a brilliantly self-aware script that is honest and graphic in it’s depiction of emotion, sex, drug use, and relationships. In discussion of Glen’s post-coital dictaphone art project the film discusses the idea of its own audience stating that the gays will come to see it in order to glimpse some cock, but the straights won’t because it’s got nothing to do with their world – a view that perhaps has some merit, but is a massive over generalisation.

This self-awareness is present once again at the end, with Glen asking “so, is this our Notting Hill moment?”, drawing attention to the dramatic expectation within the viewer for a happy resolution, the film takes the altogether more natural approach in giving us a heartfelt and believable ending. In a scene recalling the end of Lost in Translation, dialogue is drowned out by background noise as Russell confronts Glen at the train station. A brilliant and emotional moment, hilariously fractured by catcalls of abuse from onlookers.

Emotionally intelligent and relevant, Weekend shows a frank reality of a male on male relationship heretofore unrealised in cinema. To call this a triumph of ‘gay cinema’ is to cheapen the reality of it as such semantic distinctions are irrelevant – good cinema is good cinema regardless of sexuality. Weekend is heartfelt, honest, filthy, and definitely good cinema.

Weekend is out now on Blu-ray and DVD

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a gloriously fun, comedy infused, movie whose effervescent stream of English talent provides a stunning success of geriatric entertainment. Unfulfilled by their twilight years and faced with concern for their future, both from a financial and an enjoyment standpoint, a group of pensioners uproot their lives from drab England to India for a life of promise at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the elderly and beautiful. In an amusing turn of events their plan to outsource their own retirement goes awry when the hotel is not everything it promised to be in the brochure.

Featuring a cast of some of the most respected and best loved British actors’ and actress’ over the age of 50, and almost like a geriatric take on The Inbetweeners Movie, there’s a character to represent everyone; A widow, an unhappy married couple, an enfeebled racist, a gay high court judge, a randy old man, and a tired old cougar. Upon arriving at the hotel they realise that false advertising has run amok as the hotel is a mere dank shell of its former glory, but under the unrelenting happiness of its manager Sonny, played by Dev Patel, the characters are (mostly) all slowly brought around the charm and beauty of not only the hotel, but also the country.

Putting aside the marvellous confluence of events that brings together Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton and Celia Imrie onto our screens all at the same time the movie is funny, moving, and enjoyable right from the start. The movie cleverly and humorously balances the alarmingly indignant treatment of older people with scenes depicting their bafflement with a modern world – the perfect example being a telephone exchange about wireless broadband. Meeting on the plane to Jaipur, and bonding through the adventurous journey they have to make to reach the hotel (after their connecting flight is cancelled), the characters bounce off each other wonderfully and are a pleasure to watch, be it Judi Dench’s sheltered widow, Evelyn, or Maggie Smith’s crabby racist, Muriel. Smith here showing that she’s queen of one liners even when far removed from Downton Abbey, her frequently unabashed racist remarks serve to illustrate the preposterous, and laughable, nature of ignorance – after all we do love it when our old people say something inflammatory don’t we.

Each character gets their own story – be it of love, loss, lust, or leisure – and each one is concerned with finding a place in the world. The product of going to India is that they ‘find’ themselves or discover that the lives they thought they had were either less than they’d hoped, or less than they could have. Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup try to slut around to hilarious effect. Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton’s characters have come to terms with the state of their marriage. Judi Dench finds realisation about her life, a job, and companionship. Tom Wilkinson searches for his first true love and to fix a life he feels he might have broken. Finally Maggie Smith is forced to reassess the boundaries between peoples and cultures and find a new way to help and be happy.

The older generation are influenced by the hotel’s charm, the country, and by Sonny’s youthful cheer and in turn influence him in making the decisions in his life, dealing with his family, and with the girl he loves. This is a movie about living, about staying relevant and refusing to fail. As Judi Dench’s character in the movie says, ‘real failure is the failure to try’ and the movie has a wonderfully positive attitude summed up beautifully by Sonny’s catchphrase ‘everything will be alright in the end, and if it is not alright then it is not yet the end.’

Anglophiles will be elated and charmed as this movie celebrates a wealth of British talent – indeed it’s only missing Patrick Stuart, Ian Mckellen, and Julie Walters, actors who presumably had to remain in Great Britian for fear of good ol’ Blighty ceasing to exist if everyone left at once. Moving, heartwarming, hilarious, perfectly acted, and well written The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is simultaneously poignant, believable, and thoroughly enjoyable.

In cinemas now.

Well, I still can’t believe this film exists…

Kill Keith is directed by Andy Thompson, with no apparent budget, yet it looks like a very polished production.

Kill Keith is a slasher/horror comedy and advertised as Richard and Judy meeting Saw.

A piss take of Kill Bill, Kill Keith focuses on breakfast TV show The Crack of Dawn, featuring co-hosts Dawn (the pretty Susannah Fielding) and Cliff (David Easter, not so pretty).  Cliff is leaving the show and they are finding a replacement.

This movie isn’t going to be for everyone. The Tony Blackburn are… a little weird, and I think films seem longer than it actually is.  Maybe I’m getting old.  And Cheggers isn’t in it much!  Saying all that, it is enjoyable and a bit of fun.