Top 10 LGBT Films
I’ve been meaning to get a list like this done for a while now, and since we’re in Pride month 2021 I figured I’d give it a go. Over the years I’ve been making an effort to view more LGBT films, wanting to see more of the culture and of the people who I know very little about, it’s a task that’s still ongoing which is why this list isn’t finalised, this is just 10 LGBT films that I currently think are worth watching, and even if some are knocked off the list down the road they’re still worth checking out.
I may come back and update this list on another day, until then here’s the current line-up.
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10: Weekend
Weekend would be higher on this list except it’s been a while since I last saw it and the minor details escape me, what I remember overall though was a simple story about two men falling in love over two days before one of them had to leave the city. It’s complete lack of drama, antagonism or struggle past the character drama of these two men was honestly refreshing, allowing their relationship and their differences to push the narrative forward. It’s a film I’ve been wanting to return to for years now and stands a good chance of jumping up a few places on this list when I do.
9: But I’m A Cheerleader
Conversion Camps are up there with mosquitoes, landmines and Tory voters as the biggest mistake of modern society, so to have a comedy about them is an odd choice. But what director Jamie Babbit is able to do is take the absolute absurdity of trying to “Pray Away The Gay” through an oversaturated Pastel colour scheme and awkward Pro-Heterosexual performances and contrasts it against the normal life of newly discovered lesbian Megan and how she actually turns out more gay after going to camp. It’s very 50s Kitsch and some people might not get the satirical approach, but it’s one of the first film to push the genre into modern cinema and deserves the recognition.
Plus it has RuPaul out of drag playing one of the closeted Camp counsellors and that’s worth the admittance alone.
8: Imagine Me & You
On the surface, Imagine Me & You is basically a lesbian Rom-Com, complete with a lot of the same clichés and mistakes that straight films of the same ilk make. But it’s on this list for two reason, firstly because in the effort to normalise LGBT viewings, having clichés rom-coms is a small but worthwhile step to give everyone equal footing. And secondly because the romance between newly married Rachel and wedding florist Luce as they deal with their growing attraction and Rachel’s husband is charming as all hell, surprisingly emotional and even with all the clichés I still found myself more invested in this relationship than most of the straight ones that are forced down my throat. It’s simple, it’s silly, it’s fun, and that’s all you need.
7: Pride
Pride is one of the only feel-good movies where I actually feel good by the end of it, the true story of solidarity between two marginalised groups in 1980s Britain as they come together to face off against the oppressive government. Add in some disco dancing and you’ve got yourself a comedy film. Pride exists in an optimistic world, one that paints a bright future after the war when in reality it was one victorious battle in a sea of hundreds of others, but taking as it’s own slice of history, the humour, the emotional stakes, the fact that you can actually find yourself liking Dolorous Umbridge and the fact that I can’t watch the ending without tearing up are all reasons why this film still stands up as one of the best LGBT films around.
6: Blue Is The Warmest Colour
Disclaimer, I originally had this film higher on this list, around about top 3, but after hearing the actions of the director and discovering what a skeezy perv he is I had to knock the film down a few spots because I can’t condone his behaviour. The reason I’ve not taken the film completely off the list is because everything else about the film is kinda brilliant, the rise and fall of a young woman’s first lesbian relationship and trying to understand the pain of the real world is something very relatable and the raw, unfiltered approach given to the film makes it hit that much harder. If nothing else, see this film for the performances between Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos, the two of them together make this film with the highs and lows of their relationship driving the whole 3 hour run-time. It’s a goddamn shame that the director is a piece of shit because this is honestly one of the best films around and absolutely worth seeing regardless.
5: God’s Own Country
Yorkshire’s answer to Brokeback Mountain, God’s Own Country features one of my favourite cinematic romances - gay or otherwise – between famer’s son Johnny and Romanian migrant worker Ghoerghe because the issues they face in the relationship is not from the outside world, but from themselves, most notable the self-destructive tendencies of Johnny who can’t allow himself the luxury of being happy. It’s a film that balances the wild, unpredictable nature of lust with the tenderness of first love and the fear of getting the two confused, it’s a magnificent romance regardless of gender and the chemistry between Johnny and Ghoerghe as they love and hate and fight and fuck is incredible to witness.
4: Brokeback Mountain
Nowadays Brokeback Mountain might just be remembered as the gay cowboy movie that everyone made jokes about because we suck as a society, but in truth the film is one of the best examinations of sexuality put to the screen, acknowledging that to love is to be human, whether the characters are gay, bi, straight or something else entirely, they fall in love regardless. The romance between ranch-hands Ennis and Jack is just the jumping off point for what is to become their lives across 1960s America, filled with self-doubt, regrets and anger but also tenderness, care and love as the idyllic days atop Brokeback serve as both a reminder of the carefree beginnings and a dream that the harsh ending can never achieve. Anchored by career best performances from Jake Gyllenhaal as the emotionally driven Jake wishing for a life he can’t have and Heath Ledger as the repressed, lonely Ennis too afraid to live a life he so desperately wants, this easily stands out one of the best and most important LGBT films ever made and for good reason.
3: Mulholland Drive
One of the more unique films in the LGBT catalogue, and strange to the point where I actually questioned if I should include it or not. But so much of the film’s plot – especially in the second half – has to deal with the love affair of two women and the juxtaposition between the dreamlike fantasy and the ugly reality they have between them. Lynch’s examination of unrequited love and desires of all forms in Hollywood takes the film to some really dark places with twinges of horror peppered throughout alongside a failing director, a shitty hitman and a cowboy with no eyebrows. But it’s core is the romance between Naomi Watt’s Betty and Laura Harring’s Rita as well as the broken affair between Diane and Camilla later on, these two woman find a love story in a mystery movie while the reality brings an extra, heart-wrenching depth to what we’ve seen. It’s weird as hell but goddamn is it good.
2: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
The newest film on this list and already a firm favourite, Portrait Of A Lady manages to do what very few – if any – other romance films have never done, create a film so tender and intimate but completely devoid of gratuity, there’s no male gaze which sullied Blue Is The Warmest Colour, there’s no pointless sex scene, nothing but the slow-burning romance between painter Marianne and model Heloise as their time together opens up an emotional battleground filled with subtle looks, soft touches and silent longing. Celine Sciamma deserves every piece of praise she can get for her work on this film, it is an utter masterpiece, both as its own bittersweet love story and for taking the next step laid by Brokeback in examining sexuality on a more fluid basis than society has allowed for.
1: Moonlight
Moonlight isn’t my number 1 LGBT film because it won the Oscar, in fact when I first saw it I didn’t see the hype, finding it good but not great. Then I let it sit with me, and the more I thought about it, the more the story of Chiron’s life from confused child to angry teenager to repressed adult and his struggles with identity, racial heritage and sexuality in a time of Black Lives Matter, gun violence – the Orlando Pulse Club shooting happened just a few months before the film’s release – and a growing divide across America through culture, wealth, race and politics that is still being felt to this day. The film hit the worst zeitgeist at the best time to make an impact but now five years later, the film as it’s own creation still holds up as a beautiful, melancholic and tragic look into one man’s life who at any point could factor in for any LGBT person. The young child bullied for being gay when they don’t even know what gay is, the teenager hurt by confusion and betrayal from those who pretended to understand, and the adult, so withdrawn from their own true self that they don’t even recognise who they are anymore. Moonlight takes the top spot because it is an incredible piece of film-making on its own merits, and because it’s stature in the annuls of LGBT cinema and the bounds it made for the genre cannot be overstated.