Celebrating 22 unabashedly joyful queer films
Sorry Brokeback Mountain, but we’re putting the spotlight on the happiest gay movies to watch during Pride Month
Film Features Queer
June means Pride Month, and Pride Month means celebrating queer art and audiences—and god knows we could all use that right now. In the spirit of 2022 Pride, The A.V. Club has rounded up 22 unabashedly queer movies featuring unambiguously joyful stories and storytellers. Contrary to what prestige Hollywood dramas like Philadelphia or Brokeback Mountain might have us believe, the LGBTQ+ experience is precious, multifaceted, and fabulous. These films remind us of that fact, and they should be appreciated just as much as the serious stuff.
This list is by no means the definitive document of queer film—it’s merely a jubilee of movies that are both gay (as in LGBTQ+) and gay (as in happy!), presented chronologically to see how this little corner of the cinema world has evolved.
34 Comments
SAVING FACE!!!It’s wild how such a great film has managed to fly under the radar for so long. It’s got its dramatic and sad moments but definitely values queer joy throughout and has a sense of humor that kinda sneaks up on you. And I love me a heightened premise with grounded emotions.
i love saving face!and the half of it (another alice wu film) is great as well.
I saw that one on a cross-country flight. Whoever was in charge of editing films for content forgot to censor the nudity in the (tastefully done) sex scene. That was a bit of a surprise that made me survey the seats around me to make sure no kids or angry parents saw.
Lol I can see how it could’ve slipped by the censors as the rest of the movie is basically a light PG-13, but you’d think the R rating would’ve been a hint.
Not the first time that happened to me on a flight. The other was the scene with the prostitute in The Lives of Others. My guess for that one is it’s such a deep cut they didn’t actually expect anyone to watch it.
Saving Face is absolutely delightful & like But I’m a Cheerleader amazingly ahead of its time & prescient The actresses reacting to it (especially the love scene) is also very fun
Is Hedwig and the Angry Inch “joyful”? Calling it melancholy is kind of an understatement. It’s basically a Fassbinder film as a musical.
For starters, the protagonist has led a very dark and unhappy life but still isn’t very likeable because they take their trauma out on the ones around them, including their lover (who unlike Hedwig* actually is a trans woman but being forced by Hedwig to live as a man).
*John Cameron Mitchell has gone on the record that Hedwig isn’t trans because Hedwig never identified as a woman, transitioning was just a means to an end for them and Hedwig is probably much closer to what would be called nonbinary and their trauma is in part a result of the “binaryarchy” demanding they fit into the role of either man or woman.
One I’ve always loved is 2014’s Boy Meets Girl, a really sweet Trans love story.Sadly, there’s not a lot of explicit representation in film for my particular section of the queer community (asexual/ace) But Netflix’s Sex Education did give us an absolutely beautiful scene in season 2 (see below). Sadly they didn’t bring the character back in Season 3 but it’s still a scene which means a lot to me.
This list aches for 1994’s independent Troche/Turner film “Go Fish.”When I saw that in it’s original theater run with a lesbian friend…Just…Wow.The acting wasn’t the greatest, but it was joyful and authentic.Aside: It was interesting being a gay man in that audience full of lesbians during the sensual scenes…The sense of erotic breathlessness from the audience was palpable and amazing.
Now I want to watch it again!
Pride is such a lovely masterpiece. A perfect encapsulation of why socialism must support queer & trans rights ❤️
Forgot one. Missed a chance for some more promotion work. You know, get in good with the boys at Paramount:
Greatest in movie music video ever!
Tony Scott died on the same day of the week as my pub trivia night, so in honor of him, we named our team “The Tony Scott Memorial Homoerotic Beach Volleyball Tournament”
Ha! Nice.The best pub trivia team name I came across was “Fact Hunt”. If you’re Aussie or British, you can guess why…
Came here to say the same thing. They also left out the Transporter series and Batman and Robin.
“The Adventures Of Iron Pussy” sounds awesome and I am going to find that film right away. I love those 70’s Thai action films (and the even more inept Philippines ones as well – agent 1/2 comes to mind) and the premise of this sounds incredible. Thank you.
I would of went with “22 of the gayest queer movies to watch…”
How you going to mention The Birdcage without Hank Azaria?!
I never wear shoes because they make me fall down.
You’re just afraid of my Latin heat.
Ok. So Happiest Season looks cute but its 2022. Is there any reason to do a gay person physically hiding in a closet joke? Let alone the whole I have not come out to my parents so we have to play straight trope. That being said I will still probably watch it because of the casting.
With the way queer rights are being attacked all over the country it kind of does feel right to have those sort of movies again.
I’ll leave these three 90s classics here
Awwe man, Beautiful Thing just killed me! Love that one!
Great list, mostly. I don’t know that Pricilla is really joyful. Go about one millimeter below the surface and there is a lot (A. LOT!) of anger, pain, and hurt. It’s a great movie, but it’s not a joyful celebration.Special shoutout to Pride and Booksmart. Both are extraordinary! I’d probably add the dearly departed Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. to the list. Maybe also Billy Elliot. (Billy Elliot is definitely firmly on my all-time favorites list, and has strong LGBTQI+ content, but it’s not really primarily a gay film which is why I might not include it. But I’m always happy to rewatch it, the original and the 2014 filmed staging of the musical—seek that out if you haven’t seen it.)
CRAZY just got an excellent new BluRay release (here in Canada but it’ll play in the US…) after being oddly hard to find for a while.
The quiet nervous energy of Kaitlyn Dever was really perfect for the queer romance in Booksmart
great list, some of my other uplifting queer movies aremambo italiano
the mostly unfabulous social life of ethan green
adam and steve
Um, how could you forget Roland Emmerich’s (Moonfall, Day After Tomorrow) iconic, moving Stonewall documentary?
I’m bi and I can’t really relate to going to large, loud parties and having casual sex with strangers, I’m way too socially awkward for that. I’m sure that films about more introverted queer people exist, I just need to find them.
Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet.
I agree that some of these choices are a bit strange if we’re talking joyful—Hedwig, as has been mentioned, is wonderful but not all that happy. I’m not sure Maurice, another fave of mine, is either although it was important for EM Forster to give the character a happy ending, even if everyone told him it wasn’t realistic (the actual ending he wanted with Maurice and Scudder living out their lives as… lumberjacks, was finally abandoned by him). However the Merchant/Ivory movie actually makes the ending a bit more melancholy than the novel by focusing on Clive’s sad reaction to seeing Maurice.
I like a lot of the lighter films on this list–Jeffrey, Trick, but man, I didn’t need reminding about Another Gay Movie.
The Ritz! Still one of my favorite movies. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075144/