BALLS
Balls strikes many other fouls, especially with it's perfunctory soundtrack of amorphous jangly rock tunes which overlay every second scene. As a sports film, it's notably un-sporty, with not a single memorable game scene in the film.


BEAUTIFUL BOXER
Banal odes to cosmetics ("if you want to fight with make up, you should" and "the more make up I wear, the harder they kick - then I kick them harder back!") keep telling us the same thing and beyond Nong's wearing of make-up and increasingly feminine deportment we don't ever learn a thing about his sense of gender identity or his sexuality.

BLADES OF GLORY
Of all the Saturday Night Live alumni to hit movie pay dirt, Will Ferrell is the only one who never acts as if he's bigger than his material. In one sense, that's fitting. His body is only moderately expressive (he uses his flab to droll effect), and his face is mild to the point of blobbiness.

IRON LADIES, THE (SATREE LEX)
The Iron Ladies follows the true story of the 1996 Thai National Volleyball champions, a team made up of drag queens, trannies and gay guys that attracted a huge popular following and enjoyed a post-Championships run of Thai media fame.

THE IRON LADIES 2
Both films don't exist to teach the people of Thailand that laughing at gays is not the same thing as accepting them, but to coax passive stereotypes into the country's daily way of life. (Someone tell the old ladies at the market square that it's not a compliment to tell an attractive a man that he's a "waste" for not liking pussy.)

SOMMERSTURM (SUMMERSTORM)
I think it's interesting that hetero coming-of-age, teen-love films tend to be broad frat-house comedies a la American Pie while gay versions on the theme lean towards a lushly romanticised, almost tragic vision of innocence lost.

SPOKES
Spokes is an absolutely sensational, white-hot gay porn classic. A team of five cyclists - "The Club" - pull in at an abandoned barn to initiate a new member by gang fucking him half to death.

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