‘Barbie’: Ken Has Never Been Barbie’s Boyiend. He’s Her Gay BFF.

Contents:

• INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• THE 14 BT GAY/LGBTQ MOVI ON NETFLIX
• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• MARCIA GAY HARN
• IS BARBIE GAY AND WHY IS THE NEW MOVIE RATED PG-13?
• KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG

INTERNATNAL GAY CEMA: 33 LGBTQ MOVI TO SEE OM AROUND THE WORLD

Culled om a longlist of hundreds, movi nsired for the list promently feature gay, lbian, trans, or queer characters; ncern self centrally wh LGBTQ+ them; prent s LGBTQ+ characters a fair and realistic light; and/or be seen as a touchpot the evolutn of queer cema.

For our most recent update to the list, we’ve add mastream edi Fire Island and Bros, thriller Knock at the Cab (featurg two pairs of hbands whose vatn is terpted by the potential apolypse), Disney feature Strange World (wh the stud’s first openly gay lead character), Blue Jean (a Brish drama set durg the Thatcher premiership), the extremely well-reviewed Girl Picture), France’s magil realist The Five Devils, and Cann 2023 buts Monster and Strange Way of Life. Terrific st wh excellent chemistry and some genuely funny moments, Fourth Man Out is a rehg gay edy that I thk many would enjoy (even the "manlit" men of this world), thanks to the rehg and likable performance of Evan Todd as the likable, awkward, r-mechanic Adam and his goofy well-meang straight "bros. In Brish wrer/director Geia Oakly’s but film, a high school gym teacher named Jean (Rosy McEwen) is livg 1980s England when the Conservative party, led by Margaret Thatcher, announced Sectn 28, which prohibed the “promotn” of homosexualy as a “pretend fay relatnship.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

That clip appears The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary based on Vo Rso’s study of homosexualy the movi, along wh untls exampl of how gay characters showed up, per narrator Lily Toml, as “somethg to lgh at, or somethg to py, or even somethg to fear. The performanc are staggerg: Al Paco as the ignom Roy Cohn; Jefey Wright is the sharp-wted gay nurse who tends to him; Mary-Louise Parker as a pill-poppg hoewife wed to a closeted Mormon; Emma Thompson as an imper (and sometim sassy) angel; and Meryl Streep four rol, cludg the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg.

A page-to-screen take on Vo Rso’s semal book regardg LGBTQ reprentatn (and misreprentatn) the movi, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary prents the perfect show-and-tell plement to the late scholar’s work — you n lerally see the evolutn of cematic homosexualy as progrs om punchle to social pundry, sikick-and-stock-villa fodr to queers beg the hero of their own stori. To say that William Friedk’s thriller about a serial killer targetg gay men New York was ntroversial would be puttg dly: Village Voice lumnist Arthur Bell (whose verage of murrs the Wt Village bar scene was a partial spiratn) lled the script “the worst possible nightmare of the most uptight straight”; tablishments that had agreed to operate sudnly whdrew their support; activists dispted filmg at every turn; theaters were picketed; and one massive prott led to a traffic-stoppg s- and arrts. ) But 40 years after Al Paco’s unrver p first stepped to the Mhaft, this lurid exploatn movie has been reclaimed by gay film crics such as Nathan Lee and Melissa Anrson, noticeably for the way prents the late ’70s leather-bar scene wh an almost véré-like sense of observatn.

THE 14 BT GAY/LGBTQ MOVI ON NETFLIX

Mixg herage-drama aspects wh outré postmorn flourish and a heightened sense of homoeroticism, the movie prents the relatnship between the two men as a polil act as much as a romantic one; Edward’s army is refashned as ACT UP-style activists, and the behd-the-scene machatns of Edward’s wife, Isabella (longtime Jarman llaborator Tilda Swton), double as a crique of Bra’s opprsive, historilly strict anti-homosexual laws.

Set on the muddy, wdswept moors of Yorkshire, Francis Lee’s but feature follows Johnny (Josh O’Connor), a young gay man leadg a ad-end existence on his fay farm, and Ghehe (Alec Sereanu), a Romanian migrant worker who to help out durg lamb-birthg season. Blendg readgs of his work wh sequenc of geo men tuxedos dancg and cisg each other (or posg naked), the movie specifilly plac Hugh’ verse a homoerotic ntext; the work of fellow gay wrers Jam Baldw, Essex Hemphill, and Robert Bce Nugent also acpany black-and-whe scen of gay clubs, gay celebri (keep an eye out for Bronski Beat sger Jimmy Sommerville as an angel), gay inography, and gay love.

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

Terence McNally, who died March om plitns related to COVID-19, adapted his own Tony-wng play for director Joe Mantello, and the film is the perfect remr that McNally was one of the great chroniclers of gay love, gay relatnships, and what meant to fd a chosen fay who would support you through good tim and bad.

An experimental doc om the legendary filmmaker Barbara Hammer, this llage of personal ttimoni, gay and lbian ephemera, and a profilette of thor Willa Cather is a roundabout mediatn on, per s creator, “a reprsed and margalized history” of queer life the 20th century. And a ltle over an hour, she acplish all that and more — scen of timacy among elrly and biracial same-sex upl will sudnly give way to exploratns of homosexual persecutn Nazi Germany, or one woman’s oral history of tryg to mask her sexual preferenc durg her time the army durg World War II. Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography is filled wh gay characters, gay love, gay sex, and gay sensibili — you n see his punkish late-Seventi shorts, his mpy farc (Women on the Verge of a Nervo Breakdown), his Hchckian thrillers (Matador, Law of Dire), and his melodramas (Bad Edutn, All About My Mother).

MARCIA GAY HARN

The tone slowly but substantially shifts, and you fd yourself already mourng Nick before he’s even gone — a ttament to both Bcemi, one of his earlit rol, and Sherwood’s termatn to prent the emotnal trma suffered by the gay muny as the panmic raged around them. The key movie of what would bee known as the “New Queer Cema” (see also Tom Kal’s Swoon and Gregg Araki’s The Livg End), Todd Hayn’ triptych giv the story of a child who murrs an aber and mysterly disappears (“Hero”), a Fifti-style monster movie about a scientist who turns to a hio creature after drkg a “sexualy” potn (“Horror”), and a bold adaptatn of Jean Ge’s love-among-nvicts tale The Miracle of the Rose (“Homo”). And like his fellow gay filmmakers who’d artistilly e of age a world of AIDS-related afflictn and activism, Hayn’ style of storytellg was nontatnal, somewhat nfsnal, and unabashedly queer, whether he was flirtg wh genre parodi, borrowg TV tabloid sensatnalism, or phg the envelope regardg pictns of same-sex eroticism.

IS BARBIE GAY AND WHY IS THE NEW MOVIE RATED PG-13?

Followg a Belgian sailor named Querelle (Brad Davis) who’s pulled to port and drifts to dg alg, murr, and a number of sexual liasons, the movie prents s story a style that might be bt scribed as gay exprsnism — a heightened mixture of blatantly phallic archecture, Pierre et Gill’ lor-saturated portraure, and Tom of Fland’s he-man roleplayg fetishism. A massive, Osr-nomated crossover h, Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío’s film prented a softer, more tolerant treatment of homosexualy by the Cuban ernment (Diego and David share a platonic hug at the end) that was seen as progrs by some and a savvy public-relatns move by others. Long before G Van Sant’s bpic would share Milk’s story wh the general public, there was Rob Epste’s Osr-wng documentary on the man who beme known as the Mayor of Castro Street, which retrac Milk’s story as he moved om New York to the Bay Area, beme volved neighborhood polics and the gay-rights movement, and eventually found himself a posn to affect policymakg on a granr sle.

Riggs keeps thgs personal but purposefully wins his lens on the subject as well, brgg other queer black voic, highlightg gay dancers and poets of lor, submtg evince that pop culture has tradnally emasculated black men, and openg up about homophobia among the larger Ain Amerin muny. Wrer-director Andrew Haigh’s timate drama has been lled “the gay Before Sunrise, ” a parison that’s both a pliment — like Lklater’s movie, revolv around the power of nversatn and enjoyg the extend pleasure of someone’s pany — and an oversight that don’t que do jtice to the movie’s strengths.

KEN HAS ALWAYS BEEN BARBIE’S GAY BT FRIEND—NOT HER BOYIEND

Documentarians Nancy Adair, Andrew Brown, and Rob Epste’s oral history of gay life giv close to two dozen men and women a chance to tell their stori — and lets the participants share their personal perspectiv on everythg om g of age to g out, om love to heartbreak, om -parentg wh their partners to fg their own paths. Set post World-War II Germany, this Atrian drama follows Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski) who's imprisoned several tim for beg gay and durg his time prison shar an timate relatnship wh his cellmate, Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski), who is servg a life sentence for murr.

The film clus a number of ntroversial scen that uld be triggerg — so, watch at your own Now Advertisement - Contue Readg Below8 'The Bter Tears of Petra Von Kant' (1972) Courty Everett CollectnThe Bter Tears of Petra Von Kant is a sapphic classic that has bee a key entry the largely gay male-domated non of high mp. In I Killed My Mother, Dolan documents the ght relatnship between a gay teenager and his sgle mother dreamy, heart-wrenchg NowAdvertisement - Contue Readg Below13 'Cisg' (1980) ©Uned Artists/Courty Everett CollectnA crime thriller set agast the backdrop of the 1970s leather scene, Cisg is a polarizg film wh a plited legacy.

Set the world of the New York ballroom scene, Port Authory—which was executive produced by Mart Srse—tells of the love story between a whe man who has jt arrived New York whout a penny to his name (Fnn Whehead) and a Black transgenr woman wh ep ti to the cy’s ball culture (Leyna Bloom, the first Black trans actrs to star a film at Cann) Now Advertisement - Contue Readg Below15 'Young Soul Rebels' (1991) Courty EverettDcribed as a “part-thriller, part-gay love story, ” Young Soul Rebels—a film not often clud U.

FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG

The first Hollywood movie to center on Che-Amerins sce The Joy Luck Club some 11 years before , Savg Face tells the story of a closeted Che-Amerin woman fallg love for the first time and stgglg to rencile the relatnship wh her and her girliend’s tradnal (read: homophobic), close-kn New York Cy muny.

However, Margot has clarified what the suatn is wh the character, and others’, sexualy.“They are all dolls,” Margot explaed to Attu durg a recent terview, “so they don’t actually have sexual orientatns bee they don’t have reproductive ans, we figured.”The terviewer mented that he thks the film has a really big gay followg, askg Margot why she thks that is. HULUAdvertisement - Contue Readg Below13 Philalphia (1993)AmazonIn this powerful film about the AIDs crisis, Tom Hanks and Anton Banras give landmark performanc as a lawyer and his client fightg for jtice after a lawyer los his job when he's outed as beg gay and APPLE14 Carol (2015)ImdbA wealthy woman and a partment store clerk beg an illic affair this classic LGBTQ+ film set the 1950s. Armand and Albert are unrervedly happy for the bri and groom, but ’s Barbara’s homophobic parents, Senator Kev Keeley (Gene Hackman) and wife Louise (Dianne Wit), who risk spoilg the fun should they fd out about Val’s fathers and his tranged mother Kathare (Christe Baranski).

Thanks to the shownners drivg thentic stori, filmmakers buckg s-old heteronormative paradigms, actors embolned to live more hontly and platforms bankrollg so much of , beg gay, queer, transgenr or any other other has never been more wily embraced the entertament s gural Pri issue, The Hollywood Reporter homed on the talent and makers helpg boost visibily and creatg opportuni for members of the extend LGBTQ muny.