Gay cult films
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— “Steel Magnolias” explores the highs and lows of sisterly dramedy like a heaving sob rolling into a deep belly laugh. —J.P.
‘Keep the Lights On’ (2012)
Addiction and commitment are the intertwining themes of director Ira Sachs’ semiautobiographical portrait of a couple whose intense bond keeps threatening to shatter.
It’s known as “The Dickson Experimental Sound Film,” and dates back to 1895, the same year movies were born. She is a fantastic woman, indeed. With Mysterious Skin, though, he ventured into slightly more mainstream terrain — only slightly, however — with this tale of two men forever impacted by their intense relationship with their Little League coach.
If they can’t be together, saloon owner Vienna (Crawford) and angry townie Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge) will murder each other instead. Then acerbic British composer John (John Glover) brings his hunky new playmate, Ramon (Randy Becker), to the gang’s Hudson Valley getaway, and the dynamic immediately changes. There’s the HIV-positive Buzz Hauser (Jason Alexander), described as “the love child of Judy Garland and Liberace” (if you’ve ever wanted to see Seinfeld’s George Costanza frolicking about in nothing but a floral apron, red heels, and a Panama hat, this is the movie for you).
While conversation around the film has evolved to question the casting of a cisgender actress in the role, Hilary Swank’s deeply sensitive portrayal (for which she won her first Oscar) helped open a wider audience’s eyes to the trans experience. —J.S.
‘Parting Glances’ (1986)
One of the first American films to directly address the specter of AIDS, writer-director Bill Sherwood’s indie drama initially focuses on Robert (John Bolger), whose New York job has just transferred him to Africa for a few years, and his boyfriend, Michael (Richard Ganoung), who isn’t coming with him.
—J.S.
‘Brokeback Mountain’ (2005)
Two cowboys — the stoic Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and the slightly more social Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) — are hired to tend to a rancher’s flock of sheep in Wyoming circa 1963. But if you need more convincing, ‘The Wizard of Oz’s’ campy, colorful musical story has long been interpreted through a queer lens, as a metaphor for LGBT people who venture outside of black-and-white middle America for gay communities in cities like New York or San Francisco.
(Just maybe don’t snack on any peaches while watching.)
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Challengers (2024)
With sharp cinematography, an electric score, and Zendaya playing with two men like toys, what’s not to love about Challengers? “Because you’re beautiful and you’re young,” says Crystal LaBeija, uttering what will become the film’s iconic quote, “you deserve to have the best in life.” —J.P.
‘Querelle’ (1982)
You could include any number of prolific German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s movies on this list, from the fear-and-self-loathing portraiture of Fox and His Friends to his Sirkian transgender melodrama In the Year of 13 Moons. But it’s his last film, a loose adaptation of Jean Genet’s 1947 novel, that’s arguably his most unabashedly queer work in terms of both storytelling and aesthetic.
Except these guys aren’t quite done with each other yet, and they end up hanging out some more that afternoon. stands for “gay best friend,” and it’s an acronym that’s been used to refer to a woman’s gay friend, often in a tokenizing way. As the couple negotiate a farewell party, we begin to find out why Michael is staying put: His old flame, Nick (Steve Buscemi), is dying of the disease.
It was still considered a bad career move for a movie star to play a gay role in 2005, and Hollywood’s track record was less than stellar when it came to treating homosexual romances with the same depth as heterosexual ones (if it deemed it fit to tackle such stories at all). AIDS was not something you simply saw in a newspaper headline.
—D.F.
‘Cruising’ (1980)
To say that William Friedkin’s thriller about a serial killer targeting gay men in New York was controversial would be putting it mildly: Village Voice columnist Arthur Bell (whose coverage of murders in the West Village bar scene was a partial inspiration) called the script “the worst possible nightmare of the most uptight straight”; establishments that had agreed to cooperate suddenly withdrew their support; activists disrupted filming at every turn; theaters were picketed; and one massive protest led to a traffic-stopping sit-in and arrests.
Throughout his school years, Chiron is bullied mercilessly, finding comfort only in the occasional company of a local drug dealer (Mahershala Ali, who won his first Oscar for the role) who offers fatherly guidance, and, as a teenager, in a single intimate encounter with a childhood acquaintance. Almost a quarter of a century later, the movie still feels like a scrappy, cheeky, sui generis story about lesbians of color, courtesy of singular voice.