Here I am again, emerging from the shadows. I don’t have much in the way of good excuses or anything this time around. Writing is hard for me when I’m not vomit-drafting unedited reviews on Letterboxd! It’s a process. Anyway, I come to you today with some recommendations for some movies to check out this month. Hopefully, you leave this list with a new favorite movie. The list is a bit mlm centric even if there are a few wlw ones in there. There’s only one movie centering a trans person listed because I haven’t seen too many. I wanted to highlight more underrated movies and bringing up Paris is Burning is a bit cliche at this point. Addressing my blind spots is another thing I’ll be doing this month and hopefully, I’ll be back with you at the end of the month with another ranking.
It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on gay tv. In all seriousness, a big conversation that Twitter talks about every week is whether sex scenes are needed in media. Some people think that it never really adds anything to a movie. Just serves as a useless addition to thrill some and make the rest uncomfortable.
Anyway,
Shortbus (2006)
Here’s Shortbus, a movie featuring a whole lot of unsimulated sex. It uses the sex to just make a really emotionally (pun intended) naked story about human connection. It’s an ensemble movie but at its core focused on a gay couple meeting another gay guy. I don’t want to spoil too much about this one (couldn’t if I tried, I don’t remember much) but it’s just so surprisingly heartwarming. It’s very early 2000s with an earnest tone and a nice indie soundtrack. Gets a little bleak at times but the ending put the craziest smile on my face. Speaking a movie that puts a smile on your face…
Desert Hearts (1985)
One of the sweetest love stories I’ve ever seen. It’s about a literature professor who travels to Reno to get over a breakup when she falls in love when a girl there named Cay. Within around ninety minutes you get to see them slowly fall for each other despite the adversities they face by being in the town. Top Tier. I don’t fully understand the whole connection between queer people and western related settings (maybe it’s connected to loneliness) but it adds so much here. Something fun for the summertime.
Maurice (1987)
One of my newest favorite movies. Follows the lead Maurice as he slowly falls a friend in college and over a number of years watches that relationship change and shift. It’s a slow burn but it’s so rewarding in the end. Also notable is that the book its adapting started being written back in 1913! Crazy that something of this magnitude was written around then and that it survived and thrived this long. Fantastic movie. Peak gay Hugh Grant, you can’t miss it.
Saving Face (2004)
In my humble opinion that Alice Wu is one of our best filmmakers. Sadly, she only has two movies to her name right now but they’re both masterpieces. Saving Face is a fantastic story where a lesbian and her mother both share secret lovers they can’t go public with in fear of family disapproval. It’s cute, fun, mildly problematic, and a great time. Saying any more would either be unneeded spoilers or just not that fun. Watch for yourself and see!
Weekend (2011)
I have written so much about this movie and I don’t think I ever could stop. A guy meets another guy in a club and they fall in love over a weekend. Of course, this is before one leaves for another country. Might be one of the most important love stories to me ever. The dialogue is so great, the chemistry is on point and the way it comments on gay culture still feels relevant more than ten years later.
Totally Fucked Up (1993)
Possibly the most conventional and easily assessable Gregg Araki project. It’s just so fun watching these gay and lesbian teens go about life and deal with the world. It’s such a relatable movie too in terms of content and it meant so much to me when I first saw it. Also made me realize how much I should settle down and make my own movie. So much creativity bursting from this one.
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Famously known as the movie about David Bowie that is not about David Bowie. This movie could be easily described as gay Citizen Kane. If you don’t know what that means then I could also describe it as a fun queer biopic for a rockstar that doesn’t exist. You get Christian Bale, Toni Collette, and Ewan McGregor. It’s not something I wanna spoil and you’ll see why. Just deranged Queer Cinema from Todd Haynes, one of the greats.
Kajillionaire (2020)
Such an incredibly weird and strange movie. Yet it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever seen. Evan Rachel Wood plays the daughter of a con family who spends more time focused on getting over in life than loving her. When they absorb a stranger into their group capable of showing genuine kindness and warmth to her, a genuinely moving story comes about. It’s an experience of a movie and if you haven’t seen it yet I think you really need to.
Beautiful Thing (1996)
A coming of age movie centered on three teenagers connecting and growing closer and closer throughout the summer. The romance is sweet as hell and the characters are vibrant. The story gets surprisingly real at some points as it stays grounded in reality for its runtime. Has the feel of a really good episode of tv in the best way. It also has a soundtrack that consists entirely of The Mamas and the Papas (California Dreamin) and Mama Cass (Make Your Own Kind of Music). What more could you ask for?
The Children’s Hour (1961)
This one honestly needs no introduction and would go much better without it. It stars Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine who run a girls’ boarding school. When a child gets punished for lying she makes up a lie that her two teachers are together romantically to escape more punishment at home. It’s a simple setup that results in one of the most interesting and honestly depressing approaches to an important story. It’s honestly insane that it got made in 1961 but wow it’s something we needed. Hepburn and MacLaine are just phenomenal as is Karen Balkin who plays the child.
Victim (1961)
I like to think of this and The Children’s Hour together due to them both being about queer people living in fear of prosecution and they were both released in 1961. Victim differs from The Children’s Hour as where that was a play adaptation that followed a more directly dramatic feel, Victim is closer to a thriller. There’s a blackmailer threatening to expose the lead Ray Farr’s connection to a young gay man. In order to keep his ideal life with his wife together, he steps in to investigate. The stakes felt so much more real than usual for me for obvious reasons and I was just so intrigued by it. Another movie that just feels incredible in even existing.
Cruising (1980)
I’ve never seen The Exorcist but I’ve heard it described as filled with dread. The director, William Friedkin’s other film Cruising could be described the same way in regards to lust. It follows Al Pacino trying to track down a killer that’s specifically targeting gay men. In order to do this he quite literally infiltrates the culture to get closer and boy does he really get into it. It’s incredibly engrossing and despite some allegations of homophobia it’s received, I think it’s pretty fantastic in the ways it depicts the community outside of all the—murdering and all. Then again, I haven’t been gay in 1980 so I can’t be entirely sure. It’s good regardless in my opinion.
Happy Together (1997)
Most of the stuff I put on this list is underrated and I chose it for that reason. This movie, however, at least in my personal opinion isn’t talked about enough. It follows a gay couple in both the worst and occasionally best parts of their relationship. It’s upsetting for most of the time because they’re incredibly toxic but Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung make them so captivating. You feel like you have to root for them despite the complete mess they are. Easily one of Wong Kar-Wai’s best and that’s saying something as Wong’s filmography is filled with them. Easily one of the most transcendent movies I’ve ever seen and the pinnacle of the ‘straight man makes a gay movie’ genre that has given us many gems. Including Moonlight which this funnily enough directly inspired. It’s just a really great story. Not necessarily heartwarming or cute in the way you’d expect but it’s still phenomenal.
The Blue Caftan (2023)
This movie got onto my radar because I saw it being called gay Phantom Thread. I completely understand why they said that and honestly, I connected more with this. It starts with the story already in motion as a closeted man named Halim runs a caftan store with his wife Mina. Their new apprentice Youssef arrives and as usual, becomes an object of affection for Halim. But what this movie does with that typical story is make it profoundly intimate. Each of these characters is incredibly well drawn with Mina getting a great deal of development in a usually overlooked spot in these stories. A top ten movie of the year for me and a movie I’ll rewatch for years to come.
Monica (2023)
One of my favorite movies of the year and a complete surprise for me. The letterboxd synopsis reads ‘A woman reconnects with her ailing mother to find acceptance’. Going in only knowing that is honestly all you need. Trace Lysette and Patricia Clarkston are phenomenal here and I found it to be very uniquely told especially as a story centered on a trans woman. Lysette carries the whole thing on her back and it’s just beautifully done. I wish it was talked about way more than it currently is but that’s just how indie movies seem to go.
Hopefully, you’ll like one of the movies I spotlighted here. Here’s a Letterboxd list link if you need it. If you don’t then I at least hope you watched something you wouldn’t have before reading this. I have more plans for newsletters along with my Pride Month wrap-up ranking but I don’t want to get ahead of myself and end up with more broken promises. So I hope you enjoyed and until next time, I’ll see you on the timeline. Happy Pride!