Poltergay

This is a gay/straight film starring straight and gay people. To explain, the subject is sexuality, but presented in a way that straight men can watch it and feel comfortable and understood. For example, the film acknowledges how uncomfortable it is to be a straight/questioning man in a gay bar, it makes jokes about being gay as well as being straight and talks about sexuality so casually, with jokes and a lot of silliness (its called 'Poltergay' for heaven's sake) that it makes everyone feel comfortable without hitting anyone over the head with heavy-handed politics. Political films about sexuality like 'Philadelphia' and 'Boys Don't Cry' are important, necessary, often fantastic and can change people's thinking, but life isn't just about misery and seriousness. Sometimes its about fun (hopefully a lot more than it's about misery). Frankly, if more films and books could hide their serious political arguments in frothy silliness with winged penises and Boney M's 'Rasputin' playing throughout, maybe this'd be a slightly happier world. Because what this film is saying, in the style of Stonewall ads, while dancing in flares and holding snooker balls in the air in a faux-spooky fashion, is 'some people are gay. Get over it!'

It's one of my top five gay films, and one of my top five French films. Because it's a clever, silly, gay- and straight-friendly story anyone can keep up with and it's funny. Occasionally a joke falls flat, and sometimes the acting feels a bit forced. But the psychic with the McDonald's makes everyone I watch this with laugh out loud, and you find yourself really routing for the lead man to sort out his life, and for the gay poltergeists to get what they want too. It's just the right length and it's not off-puttingly filthy (insert dirty joke here). It's just fun.

The foreman Marc Modena (Clovis Cornillac) and his beloved girlfriend Emma (Julie Depardieu) buy an old house expecting to raise a family of their own. Soon Marc sees five gay clubbers partying all the nights in the basement and disturbing him with the loud music. However Emma does not see the men and believes Marc is getting crazy; then she leaves him. Marc researches the Internet and finds that the basement of his house was a gay nightclub. In 1979, it has blown-up and five bodies have not been found. Marc also contacts a medium that explains that only straight people are able to see the ghosts that are trapped in the house. Meanwhile Marc befriends the gay ghosts and they decide to help him to get Emma back.

"Poltergay" is one of those films that a straight viewer has lower expectation; however, it is surprisingly witty and funny since it is not racy. Most of the jokes are silly and even naive but make laugh. But the characters are charismatic and the film is entertaining. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Poltergay"

We've just got back from France where this movie has just started showing. Although our French is a bit patchy - well, very patchy, we decided to go and see this movie as it looked like it might be really good.

It includes great music including Boney M's Rasputin which, for reasons that will become clear when you watch the movie, is played more times than I've had hot dinners this year.

Despite missing some of the dialogue jokes (we could tell when others were laughing) I really enjoyed this movie. There are good performances from the cast who really enter into the spirit of camping it up. I guess what I liked about it was that it wasn't as spoof as something like the scary movie films - but at the same time it took the opportunity to be a bit silly whilst preserving a certain level of realism.

They didn't really make a huge amount of use of special effects which actually worked really well as when they did pull the stops out for a scene it was actually pretty impressive which enabled you to share in the characters sense of disbelief.

In short, it was funny and basically just a bit silly - the perfect evenings entertainment. Can't wait for the release of the DVD which I am now desperately hoping will have English sub-titles so I can go back and fully enjoy the poltergay experience!

I'll have to admit that Poltergay is a lot of fun, for straight folks and gay folks alike. It's probably something that Kelvin Tong's Men in White could have been - smart, witty and with that level of cheekiness, without almost always falling flat on its jokes. If it could have been at least what Poltergay was, then it won't have to suffer the misery of a relatively poor box office, or DVDs that I think most people would stand around the shops to watch for free, rather than to purchase a copy for personal consumption.

The plot for Poltergay is a no brainer. Married couple Marc (Clovis Cornillac) and Emma (Julie Depardieu) move into an old dilapidated house at a bargain price. While slowly converting it to livable conditions, it turns out that Marc begins to hear things (extremely loud music at 0155hrs each time), before suddenly realizing there're 5 queer men living in his cellar. However, it seems that he's the only one who can see these fellas, and before you know it, he's branded mad, and runs into martial troubles because, well, it's a gay themed movie, so naturally, everyone around thinks that Marc is a closet gay, secretly fantasizing about men, and 5 of them no less!

What I liked about the movie is how it incorporated the gay moments into the story and the jokes quite seamlessly, and introduced perhaps in an extremely novel way, the rationale behind ghost-spotting. It certainly took the mickey out of a lot of things, and brought out some laughter in subtle, razor sharp manner. However it is not without its flaws, as the introduction was a tad too draggy, and I thought took about an hour before the pace and the comedy picks up, and suddenly, there was a big squeeze of plenty of smaller subplots into the last 30 minutes, including the resolution and finale. Essentially it boiled down to screwing up, wrecking havoc, before the ghouls decided to help Marc get back to this normal life again.

And the ghouls were pretty hilarious in themselves, with their penchant for tight clothing, and their disco dancing ways to Boney M's Rasputin for instance, injecting a certain amount of retro disco energy when they get down to boogeying the night away. Their individual characters could not be any different from one another, with for instance, a closet heterosexual (oh!), a gay couple, one nursing a broken heart, and one who likes to replicate his male manhood at almost every conceivable object he can get his hands on.

It didn't have to rely on crude toilet humour, nor plenty of slapstick moments to bring on the laughs. What it had was a refreshing take on the horror-comedy genre, with a twist of the queer for good measure. Like I mentioned, it's enjoyable fluff, good enough for those stressed out workdays where you need some light hearted relief to keep your sanity.

It's not the silly slapstick parody the title & plot summation may suggest, there are certainly some good belly laughs, but it gradually becomes more of a romantic feel good comedy.

There's a lot of clever plotting and funny scenes, some a tad cringy but purposely so, for those who may need fair warning there's a fair bit of male nudity and obviously some gay situations, but it's all played for laughs.

It's no La Cage Aux Folles, but I definitely enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than I expected to.

On a final note, I know enough French to know the English subtitles are pretty toned down from what is actually said, which is a shame, but you won't need to speak any to get the full effect, you'll get the idea.

Worth a look!