Nyte Flyte
The Film Geek's Guide To Gay Cinema
Going in, please understand that this is my personal and purely subjective rec list of flims that I consider the cream of the m/m crop, not a an attempt to catalogue all the gay-themed movies out there. Nothing amateurish, trite or unintentionally cheesy makes the cut with me. Campy is fine -- if. Budgetary restrictions aren't a factor here. Overall excellence in writing, direction, and acting is.
My criteria for including a film here are:
1. It has a predominant m/m element or features a gay male character in a leading or supporting role.
2. It's not "just" a gay film. It can hold its own in front of any audience because it's a damned good movie
that transcends genre.
3. It's a truly unique cinematic experience that breaks new ground or operates "outside the box" in some way.
I've included movie trailers with most of the listings. If no trailers were available or accessible through this particular web builder program -- or if I felt the existing trailers did not fairly represent the actual film -- I included fanvids, clips, etc. wherever possible. If I've left off a film that absolutely blew you away, feel free to let me know here, comment on my cross-post at LJ or drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll be glad to take a look at it. I'll be updating this list whenever something new and wonderful falls into my lap, so stay tuned for further recs!
My criteria for including a film here are:
1. It has a predominant m/m element or features a gay male character in a leading or supporting role.
2. It's not "just" a gay film. It can hold its own in front of any audience because it's a damned good movie
that transcends genre.
3. It's a truly unique cinematic experience that breaks new ground or operates "outside the box" in some way.
I've included movie trailers with most of the listings. If no trailers were available or accessible through this particular web builder program -- or if I felt the existing trailers did not fairly represent the actual film -- I included fanvids, clips, etc. wherever possible. If I've left off a film that absolutely blew you away, feel free to let me know here, comment on my cross-post at LJ or drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll be glad to take a look at it. I'll be updating this list whenever something new and wonderful falls into my lap, so stay tuned for further recs!
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
This is the film To Wong Foo only wishes it could have been. Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce are simply outstanding as all three play against type in the best damned drag queen movie ever.
Period.
Exclamation point.
Alexander
As Good As It Gets
Beautiful Thing
Bent
Clive Owen gives the performance of his lifetime as a gay man and self-described "rotten person" who discovers his own capacity for love while in a Nazi concentration camp. Wrenching, powerful, moving, and absolutely unforgettable. Based on the play by Martin Sherman, Bent also stars Lothaire Bluteau, with Mick Jagger (in drag!!!) and Ian McKellen.
Big Eden
This quirky romantic comedy/fable about a gay artist returning to his hometown to care for his ailing grandfather is far from perfect, but the way it joyfully wallows in its Northern Exsposure-esque weirdness sure makes it a helluva lot of fun to watch! The supporting cast is a scream, and you won't be able to get the oddball, off-the-wall music out of your head.
The Birdcage
Normally, I can only take both Nathan Lane and Robin Williams in very small doses, but in The Birdcage, they play off each other beautifully as a middle-aged couple who are coping (or not) with their son's impending marriage to the daughter of an uber-conservative senator. Hank Azaria is hysterical as their Guatemalan gay housekeeper, and Gene Hackman looks wonderfully scary in drag. One of my all-time favorite comedies.
Borstal Boy
Boy Culture
Brokeback Mountain
A gut-punch of a movie. It still hits me just as hard as it did the first time I saw it. Oustanding writing, acting, and direction. Both Ang Lee and Heath Ledger at their best!
:::whispers::: Plus you get to look at Jake Gyllenhaal in jeans....
Burnt Money
Ciao
This quiet, low-key, almost minimalistic little story about missed opportunities and coming to terms with grief works as well as it does because it doesn't stoop to cliches or easy fixes. Some viewers may be impatient with the film's leisurely pace, but I found it realistic and incredibly moving.
The Crying Game
A film that redefines the perimeters of love. We all know what the punchline is now, of course, be it raised quite a stir when it was originally released. Unforgettable performances by the strangely hot Stephen Rhea, Miranda Richardson, Forest Whitaker -- and of course, Jaye Davidson.
The Donald Strachey Mysteries
Assuming you've spent any time at all poking around on this website, you already know I love 'em. See DSM pimp here Art films they ain't, but they are top notch entertainment. Major thumbs up for the positive and realistic portrayal of a long-term gay relationship. Chad Allen and Sebastian Spence have incredible chemistry as happily married odd-couple Donald Strachey and Timmy Callahan. Based on the series of books by Richard Stevenson.
For a Lost Soldier
A unique coming-of-age story from the Netherlands. Based on Rudi van Dantzig's autobiographical novel, this movie is ridiculously hard to find due to its controversial theme -- a romantic relationship between a young soldier and a 12-year-old boy. Subject matter many would consider "taboo" is handled with sensitivity and grace. In Dutch with English subtitles.
Gods and Monsters
The Hanging Garden
The past bleeds into the present and alternate versions of reality overlap in this sublimely quirky indie film from Canada about a gay man returning home to attend his sister's wedding after a long absence. There's no way to describe this movie about the most complex of family dynamics in a quick blurb and do it justice. Darkness and light, pain and redemption -- it's all there, and presented in a completely unique manner. For me, at least, this is what indie film is all about.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
A Home at the End of the World
Home for the Holidays
Home for the Holidays is one of those wonderful movies that tends to fall through the cracks because it's impossible to pigeonhole. Part family drama, part romantic comedy, and part holiday movie, this is a film is a remarkable little gem that's worth so much more than the sum of its various and sundry parts. Previews don't do it justice because they can't -- there's no way to reduce this witty, emotionally loaded, and sometimes harrowing study of family dynamics to a soundbyte.
Holly Hunter stars as Claudia, a single mom who's just lost her job, been informed that her teenaged daughter (Claire Danes) is about to have sex with her boyfriend, and is deathly sick with a cold. The last thing she wants to do is fly home to spend Thanksgiving with her off-the-wall parents, played to eccentric perfection by Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft. Tempers flair and secrets are revealed as she encounters an overly managing sister, a farting spinster aunt, a perpetually depressed ex-boyfriend, and a handsome stranger named Fish. And at the heart of it all is her brother, Tommy (played with fiendish intensity by Robert Downey, Jr.) , a gay man who uses combative humor to mask the pain he feels because his parents refuse to deal with his sexual orientation. Jodie Foster more than proves herself a director to be reckoned with as she shows us the humor to be found in each of these characters without making fun of any of them. We laugh at them, but they are all too real, too multidimensional, for us to ever lose sight of their humanity.
At the heart of this movie is a single question: What was the one perfect moment of your life, the moment when you were happiest? Before the movie ends, we know each character's answer. Then we can't help but ponder our own.
Holly Hunter stars as Claudia, a single mom who's just lost her job, been informed that her teenaged daughter (Claire Danes) is about to have sex with her boyfriend, and is deathly sick with a cold. The last thing she wants to do is fly home to spend Thanksgiving with her off-the-wall parents, played to eccentric perfection by Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft. Tempers flair and secrets are revealed as she encounters an overly managing sister, a farting spinster aunt, a perpetually depressed ex-boyfriend, and a handsome stranger named Fish. And at the heart of it all is her brother, Tommy (played with fiendish intensity by Robert Downey, Jr.) , a gay man who uses combative humor to mask the pain he feels because his parents refuse to deal with his sexual orientation. Jodie Foster more than proves herself a director to be reckoned with as she shows us the humor to be found in each of these characters without making fun of any of them. We laugh at them, but they are all too real, too multidimensional, for us to ever lose sight of their humanity.
At the heart of this movie is a single question: What was the one perfect moment of your life, the moment when you were happiest? Before the movie ends, we know each character's answer. Then we can't help but ponder our own.
The Hours
Johns
Just a Question of Love
Lilies
Poignant, heartbreaking, and achingly beautiful, Lilies is an elegantly conceived tale of first love, loss, betrayal, and revenge. Based on a play by Michel Marc Bouchard, this stunning art house film by John Greyson is a masterpiece. If you love gay cinema and are into serious film, this is the movie for you!
Longtime Companion
The Lost Language of Cranes
The Kiss of the Spider Woman
The Man of My Life
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Milk
The Mudge Boy
My Own Private Idaho
The Night Listener
When I hear that Robin Williams is appearing in a film, my first reaction is to roll my eyes and groan, "Oh gawd, here we go! Robin Williams is going to be playing Robin Williams again! Enough already!" Thankfully, that isn’t the case in The Night Listener. As Gabriel Noone, a middle-aged gay man whose longtime partner is leaving him in search of “more space,” Williams gives his best performance since Awakenings. Abandoning his usual tendency to ricochet between the frenetic and the maudlin, he portrays a man whose life is quietly coming apart at the seams with an air of hushed and utterly believable melancholy. Bobby Cannavale and Sandra Oh, along with an adeptly creepy Toni Collette, round out the cast.
You're never quite sure what's real, what's not, and what's simply a matter of perception in this film -- probably because the author isn't quite sure himself. Based on Armistead Maupin's semi-autobiographical novel by the same name, this dark little thriller tells the tale of a writer/radio personality who becomes emotionally involved with a disembodied voice coming to him across the telephone wires, a voice that may -- or may not -- belong to a 14-year-old, sexually abused novelist with A.I.D.S.
Noone searches for the truth both in the town where the boy supposedly lives and within himself, but in the end, he turns up empty-handed. What really happens here? Does the boy die, or does he go into hiding? Does he exist at all, or is he simply the product of a sick and twisted imagination? Though the conclusion of Maupin's screenplay is more definitive than his novel's, it still leaves enough questions unanswered to provide a shiver or two. Who was the night listener, really? And is he/she still out there somewhere, patient and perhaps malevolent, quietly waiting, silently listening?
You're never quite sure what's real, what's not, and what's simply a matter of perception in this film -- probably because the author isn't quite sure himself. Based on Armistead Maupin's semi-autobiographical novel by the same name, this dark little thriller tells the tale of a writer/radio personality who becomes emotionally involved with a disembodied voice coming to him across the telephone wires, a voice that may -- or may not -- belong to a 14-year-old, sexually abused novelist with A.I.D.S.
Noone searches for the truth both in the town where the boy supposedly lives and within himself, but in the end, he turns up empty-handed. What really happens here? Does the boy die, or does he go into hiding? Does he exist at all, or is he simply the product of a sick and twisted imagination? Though the conclusion of Maupin's screenplay is more definitive than his novel's, it still leaves enough questions unanswered to provide a shiver or two. Who was the night listener, really? And is he/she still out there somewhere, patient and perhaps malevolent, quietly waiting, silently listening?
Parting Glances
Philadelphia
Queer As Folk (Original UK Version)
Grittier, more raw and ballsy than it's Americanized rehash
Rent
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Shelter
Shortbus
A Single Man
The first thing you'll notice about fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut is that it contains none of the usual earmarks of a maiden voyage into moviemaking. Faithful to the spirit of Christopher Isherwood’s modern classic, this beautifully understated film is all the more powerful because of its quiet, controlled delivery. Like the novel, this probably isn’t a tale that would appeal to the young. If you’re looking for a roller-coaster ride or fireworks, hot sex or neatly packaged happily-ever-afters, you’re not going to find them here. What you will find instead is mature, brilliantly realized art on every conceivable level.
Set in 1962, A Single Man is true to the attitudes and aesthetics of its time while managing to remain completely real and relevant today. It is a tale simply told, yet astonishingly rich in subtext. I’ve always believed the concept of perfection to be a myth, so I watched this film twice in succession, the second time putting it under a microscope as I searched for the telltale flaw that would support my theory. I searched in vain. There is not a single misstep in this remarkable piece. Every choice made here is absolutely, inarguably the right one.
In a more than Oscar-worthy performance, Colin Firth plays George, a middle-aged college professor who is grieving for his longtime partner, Jim (Matthew Goode). We see George dress for work and beat the hell out of a frozen loaf of bread, teach a class, share dinner, a dance, and a kiss with his best friend (the always excellent Julianne Moore), fantasize about pissing in the face of a neighbor's obnoxious child, remember his life with Jim via a series of flashbacks, skinnydip with a beautiful and persistent young student (Nicholas Hoult) and wrap up his affairs -- even to the point of buying ammo for his gun and laying out his own burial attire -- as he goes through the motions of a single day, a day that he fully intends to make his last.
"Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty," someone tells him. In that instant, we see what George sees, that in an odd way, that is true of his grief. Ford’s background in design is evident in the stunning visuals, and an almost subliminal vein of sensuality that has both nothing and everything to do with sexuality runs throughout the course of this piece. Deeply personal without becoming self-indulgent, smart as hell, darkly droll and ultimately ironic, this is another prime example of indie film at its finest.
Simply put, I’m undone.
Set in 1962, A Single Man is true to the attitudes and aesthetics of its time while managing to remain completely real and relevant today. It is a tale simply told, yet astonishingly rich in subtext. I’ve always believed the concept of perfection to be a myth, so I watched this film twice in succession, the second time putting it under a microscope as I searched for the telltale flaw that would support my theory. I searched in vain. There is not a single misstep in this remarkable piece. Every choice made here is absolutely, inarguably the right one.
In a more than Oscar-worthy performance, Colin Firth plays George, a middle-aged college professor who is grieving for his longtime partner, Jim (Matthew Goode). We see George dress for work and beat the hell out of a frozen loaf of bread, teach a class, share dinner, a dance, and a kiss with his best friend (the always excellent Julianne Moore), fantasize about pissing in the face of a neighbor's obnoxious child, remember his life with Jim via a series of flashbacks, skinnydip with a beautiful and persistent young student (Nicholas Hoult) and wrap up his affairs -- even to the point of buying ammo for his gun and laying out his own burial attire -- as he goes through the motions of a single day, a day that he fully intends to make his last.
"Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty," someone tells him. In that instant, we see what George sees, that in an odd way, that is true of his grief. Ford’s background in design is evident in the stunning visuals, and an almost subliminal vein of sensuality that has both nothing and everything to do with sexuality runs throughout the course of this piece. Deeply personal without becoming self-indulgent, smart as hell, darkly droll and ultimately ironic, this is another prime example of indie film at its finest.
Simply put, I’m undone.
A Summer Storm
The Sum of Us
Tales of the City
Total Eclipse
Twilight of the Golds
Yossi & Jagger
I can't remember the last time a film got under my skin the way "Yossi & Jagger" has. This is a painfully low-budget, made-for-tv Israeli movie with English subtitles that's billed as a gay romance. Based on a true story and barely over an hour long, it's cheesy and cliche-ridden, almost amateurish by American standards and completely predictable. Yet...it's not. A three-way blend of "M*A*S*H", "Brokeback Mountain", and "Gallipoli", this film has heart. The performances by Ohad Knoller as the uptight and deeply closeted Yossi and especially by Yehuda Levi as his playful and sweet-natured lover, Lior/Jagger, are so natural and engaging and the chemistry between them is so obvious that you can't help caring what happens to these folks, even though you know from the get-go what the outcome almost certainly must be. You know it, yet you spend the next 50 minutes praying you are wrong. And when the inevitable finally does happen, it breaks your heart. Reportedly a major box office draw once it was released theatrically in its home country, this film won several awards and receieved much critical acclaim. However, it's a relatively obscure title in the U.S., so don't expect it to be an easy find at your neighborhood movie rental outlet. After reading about it online, I had to break down and buy it from Amazon in order to see it for the first time. It was worth every penny. This stark and surprisingly tender little movie is going to haunt me for a very long time....
* * * If Only * * *
Have you ever really want to love a movie? I mean really, really want to love it because the basic concept is truly unique or it contains certain elements that you honestly admire, but you just can't make that leap because the overall execution falls so woefully short of the promise that you feel cheated in the end? This is a list of my "if onlies."
Angora Ranch
Indescribably awful on every level, yet you gotta have a certain grudging respect for the tenacity of the moviemaker. Obviously shot on the barest fragment of a shoestring with deplorably bad acting, horrible writing, and non-existent direction and production values, it still found a distributor and made it to DVD. Obviously, this film was a labor of love for writer/director/actor Paul Bright. Misdirected love, to be sure, but love nonetheless. If John Waters (Hairspray, Cry Baby) had been at the helm, he could have turned the ridiculous premise into unforgettably outrageous camp. Alas, Bright had neither the skills nor the vision. Still, the man was obviously following his passion, and I have to admire that. Also, you do get to see a bunny yawn at the end, and that's certainly worth something....
Dream Boy
Gone, But Not Forgotten
Every bit as awful as Angora Ranch, but the concept held promise and it contains one of the most beautifully choreographed scenes of male-on-male lovemaking I've ever seen. A pity the rest of the film wasn't that good. The acting's so bad it'll literally make you cringe.
Long-Term Relationship
Save Me
I wanted to be blown away by Save Me. After hearing all the hype, I fully expected to be.
I wasn't.
Nothing makes me sadder than seeing great potential unrealized. You have no idea how much it hurts me to have to include this film here instead of in the previous list. After all, what could be a more intriguing or emotionally wrenching premise than a gay drug addict trying to find a "cure" for his homosexuality after he hits rock bottom? Yet there are too many missed opportunities here, too many chances for in-depth character study and relationship development that are never explored. The plot is so underdeveloped and full of quick and easy fixes, screenwriter Robert Desiderio et al could serve as poster children for future Band-Aid ads.
Mark's transition from angry, self-destructive drug/sex addict to sweet young man at peace with himself and the world is unbelievable because it happens in the blink of an eye, without any explanation or exploration of the two-steps-forward, one-step-back journey a real-world addict would have to make in order to gain control of his addiction and his life. Mark's victory is meaningless to us because we never see him run the race -- we simply read the results in the next day's sports section. If we care about the character, it's because Chad Allen brings his trademark sensitivity and appeal to the shallowly written role, but director Robert Cary wastes a great resource here by failing to pull a more intense performance out of this uniquely gifted, quirky actor.
Robert Gant is blandly solid -- if uninspired -- as Mark's prerequisite love interest, Scott. Frankly, I question the wisdom of placing Gant in this role, because the chemistry between the two of them is low-key to the point of being almost non-existent. The only sparks that fly over the course of this film happen in the first few minutes, during Mark's brief but steamy tussle between the sheets with a toothsome bad boy named Trey, played by Chad Allen's longtime partner, Jeremy Glazer. Is it really necessary for Mark to hook up with a boyfriend du jour at the Christian-run mission? Certainly, their attraction seems circumstantial at best and hardly the stuff lifelong love affairs are made of. Presenting Scott as a friend and mentor to Mark would be a more believable option, but apparently not one the writers choose to explore. It wouldn't be an easy enough fix.
Judith Light's portrayal of the bitter and fanatical Gayle was another casting faux pas. She brings such an unyielding stiffness to the role, such an unappealing hodgepodge of coldness, brittleness, and seething, misdirected anger and wrong-headed prejudice that she comes across as a completely unsympathetic character with no redemptive qualities whatsoever. She is a cardboard cutout villain and nothing more. The tragedy here is, she didn’t have to be. I know Gayle is the way she is because the dialogue tells me so. Frankly, I don't care. Light's portrayal is too glaringly lacking in nuance to make me care.
Is Save Me a terrible movie? Of course not. I have a huge soft spot for low-budget indie film and applaud the fact that this piece, which obviously speaks to many in a way in which it fails to speak to me -- received the exposure and recognition that it has. Its heart is definitely in the right place, even if its head rarely is. I'm also a huge Chad Allen fan, and anything that brings him the attention and kudos he deserves earns an unequivocal "thumbs up" from me. In this case, however, that “thumbs up” comes with qualifiers.
One of my primary complaints is that -- to me, at least -- Save Me doesn't have the feel of a "real" film. It comes across as more of a modest, non-commercial little message piece, something that is formulated to play in church basements during movie night, following PFLAG meetings, or even at gay film festivals, but that lacks the general appeal necessary for it to stand on its own in front of a broad audience. Still, many people love it, probably because the subject matter touches a personal chord within them, a familiar longing to reconcile what they are with what they are told God wants them to be. But to a casual viewer who simply wants to be entertained and hopefully moved by top-notch writing and performances, it remains that most disappointing of cinematic experiences -- a promise the filmmakers couldn't seem to keep.
I wasn't.
Nothing makes me sadder than seeing great potential unrealized. You have no idea how much it hurts me to have to include this film here instead of in the previous list. After all, what could be a more intriguing or emotionally wrenching premise than a gay drug addict trying to find a "cure" for his homosexuality after he hits rock bottom? Yet there are too many missed opportunities here, too many chances for in-depth character study and relationship development that are never explored. The plot is so underdeveloped and full of quick and easy fixes, screenwriter Robert Desiderio et al could serve as poster children for future Band-Aid ads.
Mark's transition from angry, self-destructive drug/sex addict to sweet young man at peace with himself and the world is unbelievable because it happens in the blink of an eye, without any explanation or exploration of the two-steps-forward, one-step-back journey a real-world addict would have to make in order to gain control of his addiction and his life. Mark's victory is meaningless to us because we never see him run the race -- we simply read the results in the next day's sports section. If we care about the character, it's because Chad Allen brings his trademark sensitivity and appeal to the shallowly written role, but director Robert Cary wastes a great resource here by failing to pull a more intense performance out of this uniquely gifted, quirky actor.
Robert Gant is blandly solid -- if uninspired -- as Mark's prerequisite love interest, Scott. Frankly, I question the wisdom of placing Gant in this role, because the chemistry between the two of them is low-key to the point of being almost non-existent. The only sparks that fly over the course of this film happen in the first few minutes, during Mark's brief but steamy tussle between the sheets with a toothsome bad boy named Trey, played by Chad Allen's longtime partner, Jeremy Glazer. Is it really necessary for Mark to hook up with a boyfriend du jour at the Christian-run mission? Certainly, their attraction seems circumstantial at best and hardly the stuff lifelong love affairs are made of. Presenting Scott as a friend and mentor to Mark would be a more believable option, but apparently not one the writers choose to explore. It wouldn't be an easy enough fix.
Judith Light's portrayal of the bitter and fanatical Gayle was another casting faux pas. She brings such an unyielding stiffness to the role, such an unappealing hodgepodge of coldness, brittleness, and seething, misdirected anger and wrong-headed prejudice that she comes across as a completely unsympathetic character with no redemptive qualities whatsoever. She is a cardboard cutout villain and nothing more. The tragedy here is, she didn’t have to be. I know Gayle is the way she is because the dialogue tells me so. Frankly, I don't care. Light's portrayal is too glaringly lacking in nuance to make me care.
Is Save Me a terrible movie? Of course not. I have a huge soft spot for low-budget indie film and applaud the fact that this piece, which obviously speaks to many in a way in which it fails to speak to me -- received the exposure and recognition that it has. Its heart is definitely in the right place, even if its head rarely is. I'm also a huge Chad Allen fan, and anything that brings him the attention and kudos he deserves earns an unequivocal "thumbs up" from me. In this case, however, that “thumbs up” comes with qualifiers.
One of my primary complaints is that -- to me, at least -- Save Me doesn't have the feel of a "real" film. It comes across as more of a modest, non-commercial little message piece, something that is formulated to play in church basements during movie night, following PFLAG meetings, or even at gay film festivals, but that lacks the general appeal necessary for it to stand on its own in front of a broad audience. Still, many people love it, probably because the subject matter touches a personal chord within them, a familiar longing to reconcile what they are with what they are told God wants them to be. But to a casual viewer who simply wants to be entertained and hopefully moved by top-notch writing and performances, it remains that most disappointing of cinematic experiences -- a promise the filmmakers couldn't seem to keep.
