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 GAY ESSENTIALS: THE 50 MOVI EVERY GAY MAN NEEDS TO WATCH WHILE STUCK AT HOME
• THE GAYT MOVI THAT AREN’T ACTUALLY GAY, OM ‘BARBIE’ AND ‘BURLQUE’ TO ‘VENOM’ AND ‘ROAD HOE’
• GAY FAVORITE TOP OLD MOVIE CLASSICS BEFORE 2000 - LGBT

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

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.

THE GAY ESSENTIALS: THE 50 MOVI EVERY GAY MAN NEEDS TO WATCH WHILE STUCK AT HOME

" Why 's important: The film brought wispread attentn to the story of Harvey Milk, an outspoken gay activist and polician who was also the first openly gay mayor elected to public office California. ) The movie ptur the excellent stage st (pecially Leonard Frey as the wherg Harold and Cliff Gorman as the swishy Emory, aka Connie Casserole) and though thgs get icky, this was the perfect ment for s time, when gay men weren't afford the right to be reee.

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.

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

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. 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.

GAY FAVORITE TOP OLD MOVIE CLASSICS BEFORE 2000 - LGBT

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!

The movie attacked every Amerin nventn (for example, an obe nt played by Edh Massey repeatedly tri to nvce her straight nephew to go gay bee "If they're smart they're queer, if they're stupid they're straight") Cage x Foll (1978)This French-Italian film about a middle-aged gay uple, Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) and Alb (Michel Serrlt), who try to pose as straight to w over their son's fiancee and her nservative parents, walked the tightrope between homage and stereotype -- the gay characters were over-the-top but still lovable (pare that to The Boys the Band). 50) The Boys the Band: I haven’t clud many gay films here – you know, movi about actual homosexuals – bee ually they’re eher too dreary or too earnt and lack that certa “quotable qualy” that mak somethg mp. Cast a few top-shelf gay ins there — your Bette Middlers, your Joan Crawfords, your Faye Dunaways playg Joan Crawford — and pecially have them reparteeg bchy l tearg each other to piec, and have an athetic that’s outre and unironilly mp, and you’ve got the wng-formula starter-pack for somethg licly fabulo and queer, even if not by tentnal sign.

But settg a precent for movi now nonized by gay culture that don’t technilly have any (non-d, anyway) gay characters were some of Hollywood’s most all-time legendary actrs: Bette Davis “All About Eve” ma “’s gog to be a bumpy ri” an idmatic quip, while Elizabeth Taylor then ma Bette Davis’ “what a dump” even more inic aga the openg le of “Who’s Aaid of Virgia Woolf, ” livered while gnawg down on a chicken wg.

Ed Bianchi’s 1981 “The Fan, ” meanwhile, livered perhaps the greatt gift to gay film fans of a certa era stg Lren Ball as an agg actrs stgglg to hold onto her legacy while beg stalked by, what else but, a psychotic gay fan. There’s also, of urse, the trend many of the movi of men beg huiated and based — somethg the gay mal the dience love to partake — leavg our inic women wh all the chips the end and whom we n leave the theater rootg for. Why ’s gay: Ameri’s arguably greatt director is normally regard as heteronormative (Wterns, war films, John Wayne, Amerin history), but his work is full of subtextual gay tert, rarely as much as here.

From the tfight the powr room to the over-the-top dialogue to the jaw-droppg mil numbers and not one but two montag that serve as md-bogglg time psul of the ’60s, the film is so outrageo that spired generatns of gay viewers to scream, “Sparkle, Neely, sparkle! Why ’s gay: A wacky sexploatn film wh high mp productn valu and a killer theme song, Barbarella mt fight the evil Durand Durand (om which inic New Wave band Duran Duran took s name), while scg a shirtls Aryan angel and outlastg an evil sex mache. What is: Although has been staged wh two men ( 2015 London), the straight uple’s suatn “Brief Enunter” — a drama of two married people (Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard) meetg by chance and their growg mutual affectn — works fe as a metaphor for barriers to gay romance.

Why ’s gay: More than the one-act Noel Coward play (the gay wrer expand the screenplay), this ni the possibily of realistic nsummatn, elevat the tratn impossible love, and als wh the sts of turng hont people to liars. Why ’s gay: Although “Mommie Deart” was negatively received at the time of s release, attracted a strong gay fanbase pretty much immediately, due to Dunaway’s performance, which was received by many as mp — most famoly, the inic “no wire hangers” scene.