The Gayt Movi That Aren’t Explicly Gay: 28 LGBTQ Cult Classics – IndieWire

Contents:

• 16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
• THE GAYT MOVI THAT AREN’T ACTUALLY GAY, OM ‘BARBIE’ AND ‘BURLQUE’ TO ‘VENOM’ AND ‘ROAD HOE’

16 MT-SEE CLASSIC GAY MOVI FROM BEFORE YOU WERE BORN

Director Stephen Frears tells The Guardian, “If you’d asked me what was important about the film, I’d have said enomics, sce the homosexual element was really que straightforward. 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. And we regnize that some of the films the list will re-igne healthy bat that have been fixtur of discsn around LGBTQ+ films — straight actors playg gay characters, cis actors playg trans characters, and the historil domance of whe male perspectiv.

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. Spoiler alert: Sebastian ed Cathere to lure attractive young men for him to have sex wh, and a group of them killed Sebastian an pecially barbaric the time, the release of a film pend on whether met the standards of the Productn Co (this was before the Motn Picture Associatn of Ameri's ratg system) and the film was approved to pict Sebastian as gay only "sce the film illtrat the horrors of such a liftyle, n be nsired moral theme even though als wh sexual perversn. Spoiler alert: One of the women is ed gay and love wh her worker, and thgs don't end well for a box office flop, the movie opened to cril acclaim, and received five Amy Award nomatns and three Goln Globe nods, cludg one for MacLae for Bt (1962)This Brish film, wrten by a woman (Ja Green wh John McCormick), was a repudiatn of that natn's harsh antigay laws.

A blackmailer is targetg London's gays, mandg money exchange for keepg secret their same-sex affairs; many fancially strapped victims m suici rather than face prison or huiatn. The sidns of ernment-sponsored homophobia is at the foreont of the movie, which is revolutnary for s pictn of a bisexual protagonist not to be msed wh; he's the furtht thg om a victim.

THE GAYT MOVI THAT AREN’T ACTUALLY GAY, OM ‘BARBIE’ AND ‘BURLQUE’ TO ‘VENOM’ AND ‘ROAD HOE’

Midnight Cowboy (1969)This prsg drama om gay director John Schlger stars Jon Voight and Dt Hoffman as htlers who enter to a "plited" bs relatnship while workg the streets of New York. The film received an X ratg om the MPAA due to s "homosexual ame of reference and possible fluence upon youngsters, " and end up beg the only X-rated film to w the Bt Picture Amy Award. The homosexualy was more implied than featured -- the relatnship between Voight and Hoffman is not what you'd ll passnate -- but there is a memorable scene wh Voight beg serviced by a young man at a movie theater.

You n cred gay director John Schlger for that; y, the same John Schlger who directed the ld Midnight Cowboy and the absolutely rid Madonna vehicle The Next Bt Daniel Day-Lewis, then a teenager, has a small, uncreded role. Wrten by mored lovers Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perks (that would be the famo poser and the star of Psycho), The Last of Sheila lifted a mpy veil on the gay athetic that remas so tegral to Trouble (1974)For any lennial unfaiar wh out wrer-director John Waters: Shame on you!