My Ten Favorite Films for Pride Month!
Hello friends! It has been quite a while since I've put "pen to paper" (or fingers to the keyboard, as it were) over here on this blog but I recognize that I've hit a bit of a rut in my life lately and am in search of a creative outlet, so hopefully this will just be the first of many new articles/essays/choose your own nomenclature that I'm going to cook up over here. And since it is June, and I am a proud and open member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I figured that it would be an ideal time to celebrate some of my favorite Pride/queer cinema!
The rules I set for this for myself were quite simple: I have picked 10 films that I love that involve queer/Pride themes. At first I considered not including films that deal with more difficult or painful topics within the queer milieu, but then that would ultimately be doing a disservice to the full breadth of queer living and queer storytelling. So with that simple goal in mind, here are 10 great queer/Pride films that I love that make for great viewing either now during Pride month or at any time of the year, plus a handful of honorable mentions that are also well worth a watch!
Honorable Mentions:
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, All About My Mother, Beginners, BPM, Brokeback Mountain, Dog Day Afternoon, The Favourite, The Fear Street Trilogy, Jennifer's Body, Love Simon, The Matrix, Milk, My Beautiful Launderette, My Own Private Idaho, Mysterious Skin, Other People, Pariah, Paris is Burning, Philadelphia, A Single Man, Shiva Baby, Tangerine, Y Tu Mama Tambien and so many other wonderful films...
10. But I'm a Cheerleader (Dir: Jamie Babbit, 1999)
Poorly received upon its release (at least by the mainstream) this delightful film has endured as a cult classic and one of the best ever works of lesbian cinema. With an incredible cast featuring the iconic Natasha Lyonne, Melanie Lynskey, Clea DuVall, and RuPaul (!) the movie soars with its gorgeous and vivid color palette, its intentionally hilarious stereotypical/satirical approach, it's heavy influence of other 90s teen comedies, and the fact that it is a lovely queer love story that spoiler alert actually ends happily! This is the lesbian romantic comedy of my and your dreams!
9. Rope (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, 1957)
I (as many others have) can talk for days about the brilliance of Hitchcock's filmmaking in Rope and the exceedingly clever gimmick of making it all seem like one shot. It makes the film elegant and propulsive and a curiosity in a filmography filled with curiosities. But there's obviously something deeper at play here - it's on the list, after all! - and it makes this film particularly fascinating. The film's screenwriter, Arthur Laurents (he of West Side Story and Gypsy and La Cage Aux Folles musical theater fame) was a gay man, and two of the film's leads, John Dall and Farley Granger (Mr. Laurents lover at the time) were both gay as well - as are their characters. The film's narrative that two intellectuals want to see if they are smart enough to get away with murder has an extra layer of subtext when you consider that the characters are intended to be gay - it really does make one think of the be gay! do crime! meme. In fact, Dall and Granger often discussed this subtext while making the film although the story goes that Jimmy Stewart, the film's other lead, was perhaps not fully aware of the subtext or the fact that his character was intended to be gay as well - although who knows who actually knew what at the time due to the Hays code. Regardless, the intent and subtext of the film is clear, and it makes for a fascinating examination of gay men at a time where films simply did not deal with anything of the kind. It's a joy to watch, and an even bigger joy to dissect.
8. Velvet Goldmine (Dir: Todd Haynes, 1998)
How does one describe this lavish, maximalist magnum opus that examines that world of 1970s glam rock while also being heavily narratively and structurally inspired by Citizen Kane? It's a joy, it's overwhelming, it's gorgeous, it's in your face, it's rock n roll, it's theatrical, it's queer as hell and sexually expressive and inventive. It has stunning performances from Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Toni Collette, and Christian Bale. At times it plays out like a standard musical biopic, but the magic trick is that these aren't actually real people at all - we just feel that they are through expression and intent. Bowie, Ferry, Bolan, Slade, Wild. They're all stunning, as is this film.
Based on the classic French play La Cage Aux Folles (which was turned into a musical in 1983 by a team including Harvey Fierstein and Arthur Laurents, mentioned above) The Birdcage is, for my money, one of the funniest movies ever made. It just also so happens to be a big campy gay classic, always teetering the line between farce, warmth, love, and caricature but staying just enough inside the line to make it work. Who can forget Nathan Lane's interview with Oprah when promoting this film where she pries and pries, trying to get him to admit his own sexuality, and how valiantly Robin Williams obfuscated for him? Who can forget Gene Hackman, as Senator Kelvin Keeley, dressed in drag and dancing in a South Beach nigh club? Who can forget the brilliant work of both Williams (Fosse! Martha Graham!) and Lane (who brings immense empathy to a role that could've veered into offensive stereotypes,) not to mention the screamingly funny Hank Azaria? This film is a classic for a reason. As GLAAD said the film, "goes beyond the stereotypes to see the characters' depth and humanity. The film celebrates differences and points out the outrageousness of hiding those differences." It seems to me that we all still need that message in 2023.
6. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Dir: Céline Sciamma, 2019)
This is cinema as sonnet, a lush and deeply romantic love poem that just so happens to be a film. It is a film that builds like love builds in our heart, as we get to know someone and slowly but surely give ourselves over to them in fits of passion and rapture and vulnerability. It is a film about myth, about the lines drawn between artistic creation and falling in love, about the power of art and music, about the bond and connection between Women. It is a masterwork of modern cinema. Press play and lend yourself over to this film. You can thank me later.
5. Weekend (Dir: Andrew Haigh, 2011)
There is a rare intimacy achieved in Andrew Haigh's Weekend that cinema rarely affords us. Not sexual intimacy, necessarily. Not passionate, yearning romance. The intimacy of two lonely strangers who meet on a Friday night at a gay club and end up spending the whole weekend together. They have sex, yes. They have to go to work, to bars, to parties. But they are continuously drawn into each other's orbits as they talk and share and lean on each other for emotional support. There is a naturalism at play, in both the filmmaking and performance, that makes it feel as if you are peering in on friends simply having these conversations. The breathtaking authenticity, the meeting point of sex and love, the never-ending quest for the understanding of our own self identity. And it all feels so lived in and real.
4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Dir: John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
Sharing more than just a little bit of the glam rock theatricality as Velvet Goldmine, Hedwig is also an altogether different kind of movie that has more than just rock on its mine - although the original songs and musical numbers are fabulous and iconic, long now adorned in the hallowed halls of musical theater. This is a film about pain, about identity, about gender. It's a trans film, but not about the character you might initially think its about. It breaks apart the conventions of queerness and drag and gender surgery, and I fully understand and respect that it doesn't play well for some. For me, I have always deeply connected to and identified with the themes at play, the hard questions it asks, and the charming ambiguity of its ending. And oh yeah, did I mention that it excels as a movie musical? John Cameron Mitchell's work as actor, writer, and director is a sensational triple threat magic trick. This film is a conversation worth having, and an album worth listening to time and time again.
3. Pride (Dir: Matthew Warchus, 2014)
The most obviously titled film on the list and, in fact, the only one to actually deal with the notion of a Pride march, Matthew Warchus' film is heavily inspired by real life events in England in 1984-1985 when the British miners were on strike in opposition of Margaret Thatcher and a small but passionate group of gay and lesbian activists came together to help support the miners in their cause. I have long felt that there is distinct merit in groups that are similarly oppressed or fighting similar causes to join together in their fight, and Pride is a gorgeous paean to that very notion. Filled with a murderers row of acting talent (Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Andrew Scott, George MacKay, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, and more) and imbued with so much love, pain, and queer joy this film serves as a testament to the power of activism, to fighting for what you believe in, and to the belief that we are all far more similar than we are different. It doesn't hold back or cut corners, but it's also a deeply exuberant film that should make anyone feel, well, proud.
2. Carol (Dir: Todd Haynes, 2015)
I'm not saying that Haynes is the best queer filmmaker of our time, but for what it's worth he is the only director with two films on this list. And what a gorgeous film this is - diametrically different than Velvet Goldmine but equally as important in the queer canon. Much like Portrait, this is an ode to romance, to passion, to the bond and connection that can form between two women. It is a lush period piece, so stunningly composed, with gorgeous cinematography and a beautiful score by Carter Burwell. It is a film of glances and moments, of two people from very different walks of life that find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other in an age of repression and stasis. The film is like an elegant warm blanket on a cold day, and Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are outrageously good.
1. Moonlight (Dir: Barry Jenkins, 2016)
I am often at a loss for words when it comes time to describe this masterpiece, a film I personally have earmarked as the best of its decade and that has slowly worked its way up my list of favorite films of all time. It is a film told in three chapters, a coming of age story, as it were. A story of Black male identity and masculinity and fragility in a tough world. A story of connections made and lost. And yes, a story of being gay and intimate amongst all of this. The visual language of this film, the use of framing, of furtive glances, and close-ups is second to none. The chemistry of the actors, most notably Trevante Rhodes and André Holland, lends an indelible intimacy that has rarely been matched. There is grace and elegance at play here that always leaves me in a near hazy, dreamlike state. It is a film about being found and understood for the very first time, and I believe it is a work that has the ability to make a massive impact and change lives for the better. And, you know, the whole La La Land best picture fiasco was pretty fun as well.
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