2014-15 Good Gay-Related Movies

I've always liked "Making Love," released in 1982, starring Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and Kate Jackson. Very earnest, even plodding, but Ontkean pulled it off, probably ruining his career in the process. Hamlin has stated in interviews that his career stalled for years after playing a fairly callous, sexually active gay man. (Hilarious scened where he's examined by doctor Ontkean, and, ever so casually, rattles off a list of the various drugs he's been known to take.) This film was attempting to break new ground, though now it seems more like yet another topical made-for-TV movie. Perhaps because I was married to a woman and closeted at the time, I identified with it. I remember going to it during the day, in a mostly empty theatre, in Greenwich Village, and wondering if I could ever end up with a hot partner, the way Ontkean does at the end. Ah well...

Another film I enjoy is "All Over the Guy," about a straight couple, each of whom has a gay best friend. So they decide to set up their respective best friends on a date, with interesting consequences. One of the better-constructed gay-themed films, which really investigates what it's like to actually get to know someone. Actually very well done. (Interestingly, it's based on a theatre piece, but with one major change; in the original play the two best friends were a man and a woman.)

Sorry. Just noted title of this thread specifies "2014 - 2015." Apologies. Haven't seen anything lately, except that weird thing, "Stranger by the Lake," which turned into some kind of slasher movie at the end. Very strange. Wanted to see "The D Train," film with Jack Black, where he does a one-night-stand with a male former high school alumnus, but, not unexpectedly, it seems to have come and gone rather fast. Oh well. Will probably catch it on video eventually, something I seem to be doing a lot more of lately.

Stranger by the Lake was like a bad porno.

Really liked 'The Way He Looks' - a Brazilian film about a blind gay kid. I also thought 'The 10 Year Plan' was pretty good too - especially some of the one-liners - but the ending was a bit clichéd for me. (In some scenes the cop guy was the spitting image of Colton Haynes, so that probably helped a bit too.) For something more serious, I thought 'Pride' was pretty good too - it's about a bunch of London-based gay activists who come to the aid of striking coal miners during the 80's and is based on a true story. 'The 10 Year Plan' I think was filmed in 2013 but it only came out on DVD recently.

A few other good ones off the top of my head from probably the last five years are 'Dream On' (about 2 kids at a camping spot in England), 'Bashment' (about a guy who is left with permanent brain damage after being attacked by some thugs), 'White Frog' (about an autistic boy whose brother was killed in a car accident), 'Geography Club' based on a book about a bunch of gay kids who start a secret support group) and 'Southern Baptist Sissies' (a play filmed as a movie about four kids growing up gay in a Baptist church).

I see ads all over for "Lilting." What is the DL opinion of it?

Geography Club was lame. That melodramatic Australian feature "Monster Pies," while very sad, was better than that.

"Pride": very conventional but good. "Lilting": interesting concept but pretty dull. Loved "Stranger on the Lake". Queer women in film: "Violette" about writer Violette LeDuc is pretty great as is "Concussion".

Making Love is on right now (PST). Harry Hamlin and Michael Ontkean are hot. Will there be graphic sex?

I am new to having Netflix.

I could use some recommendations.

Is [italic]Come Undone[/italic] worth one's time?

The British movie "No Night is Too Long" is quite good. Always keeps the audience guessing.

I loved Monster Pies, but it was very sad. One of the actor's picked up some of the production costs.

The Way He Looks was also very good. The actor playing the blind kid was great. I didn't realize he wasn't blind until I read a little about him.

Blackbird was amazing. One of the best gay movies I've ever seen.

Stonewall

Closet Monster. New Canadian gay movie, filmed in St. John's, Newfoundland. It will premiere at TIFF in September.

Those People

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List with Victoria Justice

Holding The Man

Seashore

Lilting

Pride

The Skeleton Twins

Xenia

[quote]Blackbird was amazing. One of the best gay movies I've ever seen.

Were you... raised by wolves? Despite a talented cast, the film is a disaster. Talentless hack at the helm. But, don't take my word for it, check out the rave reviews it has on Metacritic (currently at 33%).

I think 'Tom at the Farm' came out last year - at least in the US. Psychological thriller about a young man who travels to his boyfriend's funeral and gets caught up in some dark shit with his deceased bf's family. Far from your typical gay film. Directed by 26 yr old Canadian Wunderkind, Xavier Dolan.

Blackbird was amazing, yes, I stand by what I said.

Tom at the Farm came out in 2013, and the OP asked for 2014-2015 movies, so tough luck.

Half of the movies mentioned on this thread came out many years ago, they're certainly not new movies that came out within last year or this year. Please read the OP's title again.

If you're complaining about Blackbird and praising Xavier Dolan, you might wanna sit down.

R19 - I watched that on Netflix. It was heartbreaking in places. But both Wishaw and Cheng (especially Cheng) were incredible. It's probably one of the very few films that I found myself a total wreck.

Latter Days (2003, apologies)

R24 - Yes, Tom At the Farm premiered at festivals in 2013, but I'm guessing that most of us don't make it out to Cannes etc. Most of its limited releases to us non-industry plebs happened in 2014-15.

R26 - I'm sorry, but have you seen Blackbird? I did. I think it might be even worse than Noah's Arc and that is REALLY saying something. As dreadful as Noah's Arc was it at least didn't pretend to be a serious work. Patrick-Ian Polk makes Tyler Perry look like a great artist. He has the good taste and artistic sensibilities of a 14 year old girl. The film has a talented cast. With a better director (and better screenwriters) it could have been a decent film. It's a shame that a more talented black director like, say, Ryan Coogler ('Fruitvale Station') wasn't hired.

Xavier Dolan is far from perfect, but I think he's demonstrated a fresh, unique (and, yes, sometimes over-the-top) vision in his short but prolific career and I imagine that if he continues in this direction, he will be an incredibly talented filmmaker by his 30s.

LGBT movies of 2014

LGBT movies of 2015

I'd never heard of "Holding the Man," referenced at R17, but the story is apparently well known in Australia, where it opened this weekend and is getting good reviews. I hope it makes it to the U.S. soon.

"Timothy Conigrave’s 1994 memoir Holding The Man is an Australian literary classic and the stage version by Tommy Murphy, originally mounted by Sydney’s Griffin Theatre, is one of the most successful Aussie plays ever.

Not what you’d expect for a gay tear-jerker about love in the age of AIDS, but the story of Conigrave’s relationship with John Caleo, who met as high school students at Xavier College in Melbourne in 1976, is a story with wide appeal."

[quote] Xavier Dolan is far from perfect, but I think he's demonstrated a fresh, unique (and, yes, sometimes over-the-top) vision in his short but prolific career and I imagine that if he continues in this direction, he will be an incredibly talented filmmaker by his 30s.

If he continues in this direction, his anus will prolapse, as I'm fairly certain that's the key to him getting the money to make his films.

Those wikipedia articles are fairly useless. There are several films that were festival runs in 2012 and 2013 and were released theatrically in 2014 and 2015 and are missing off there.

Free Fall, from Germany. I love the sex Max Riemelt

R35, Free Fall is not from 2014/2015. Read the thread title.

R33, lol. I'm not a fan of the guy but that was a bit harsh. I can see why people like his movies. I think they're too artistic and boring though.. at least for my taste.

There's a couple of English language Canadian movies that will be released in 2015 (not directed by Dolan, obviously). I'm especially looking forward to Closet Monster, with the cute guy who plays Ben on Falling Skies.

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Closet Monster is getting rave reviews at TIFF. Here is a review from The Hollywood Reporter.

[quote]Latter Days (2003, apologies)

You should apologize because it is a terrible B-movie. I don't understand why so many gay men try to hold that in high-esteem, it is not a good movie.

"Fourth Man Out" is one that is doing the film festival circuit now and it is strong.

Not only can Ghilherme Lobo, star of The Way He Looks, actually see, he can also spot.

Lobo reminds me of Thom Bierdz (openly gay and hairy actor who cums by bucket loads) when the latter was young in his Y&R heyday.

Der Samurai, 2014.

r43, some context?

Forget that, I want some context on R42!!!

1. Holding The Man was brilliant from top to bottom, one of the best gay films in years. Smart, subtly sexy and very moving. You can tell it was based on a play because the writing is so good and sensitive. Awesome cast, too.

2. I liked Lilting for the performances but it's so weepy and sentimental at times, heartbreaking when that works but a bit forced when it doesn't. Ben Whishaw needs to be bigger but it's really Cheng's film.

3. Xenia is a big messy cacophony of fun. A flawed film but it's in line with that Priscilla Queen of the Desert sense of fun and quirk, and the film has some genuine moments of pathos too. One of the leads is really hot.

[quote]Another film I enjoy is "All Over the Guy," about a straight couple, each of whom has a gay best friend.

I followed your recommendation and have yet to finish it.

I'm having a lot of trouble tolerating the hoaky dialogue. I know that gay humor from 2001 is hopelessly dated (think of the worst, most contrived moments in Will and Grace where they basically rattle out designer fashion/Cher/Liza one-liners stolen from 90's Fire Island Bitchy-type Retail Queens), given the rapidly changing perceptions of and within the gay community. But even then, "All Over The Guy" had the nerve to continuously zing cheap shots at more commercial (and more successful) fare like "In and Out", when they were guilty of way worse offenses with their clichéd dialogue and hypercute situations.

Oh and I hate the overcompensating straight friends, meant to come accross as fabulous because they are so in tune with gayness, but they end up looking like people with no lives.

I really want to see Holding The Man, R46, Variety's tepid review notwithstanding. (The Hollywood Reporter was much more positive.) I can't find a release date for the US, though.

I'd love to get ahold of the novel, too, but it's out of print in the U.S. and prohibitively expensive from used booksellers.

[quote]"Fourth Man Out" is one that is doing the film festival circuit now and it is strong.

It looks like a fun movie :)

Closet Monster won the best Canadian Feature award at TIFF. I'm so happy! Finally an English Canadian movie can measure up to the French ones.

Salvation Army

This is amazing.

[quote]In trying to relay its values to a mainstream audience, these films forget the people in the story that matter most. My favorite LGBT-themed film at TIFF this year, Closet Monster, succeeds because it has no expectation of accolades. The Best Canadian Feature winner is a personal story about a human being, not a political act masquerading as art.

[quote]Closet Monster is an assured first feature from Stephen Dunn, a young Canadian filmmaker, and it contains a specificity that is sorely lacking in the big-name LGBT films. Connor Jessup plays Oscar, a closeted teenager with a few distinct quirks. He loves horror-movie makeup and plans to go to school to study it. He also has had the same pet hamster since childhood and she talks to him in the voice of Isabella Rossellini.

[quote]If he’s going mad, which seems like a distinct possibility, it has something to do with his strained relationship with his parents (his mother left the family and remarried, while his father is an immature jerk) and his discomfort in his own skin. The idea of a young person struggling with coming out is not a new one in film, but Dunn’s details — the idea of “horror” is a strange and wonderful running theme — and Jessup’s quiet, heartfelt performance evoke far more about the LGBT experience than The Danish Girl or Freeheld. In essence, it communicates one story effectively instead of trying to speak for a movement.

I just saw Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List. It was a sweet movie, I'd recommend it :)

Stranger by the Lake was like the best porno.

Well, best gay thriller.

I want more gay-themed genre movies or genre movies with gay leads that have nothing to do with being gay. James Bond is a sex spy. If he were gay, he'd be a sexy spy with hangup about being gay or he'd be saddled with a family with problems with his being gay.

The Test is good, sort of detached but better than expected, it also has some really cool choreography that I watched repeatedly on YouTube afterward. It came out last year. Come Undone is excellent too, it's not new by any stretch but the leads are hot and the setting in Provence will make you want to book a trip stat.

Akron

Front Cover

I will echo "Pride", it came out last year and was really good. Tells a true story that isn't well known.

Do not watch 'Such Good People', it has Michael Urie and Randy Harrison as the leads and looked somewhat promising as a light comedy, but I turned it off after the first 40 minutes because it was so unentertaining.

The D-Train, despite having gay sex make up part of the plot, is not really a gay film. The gay sex is not sexy, but isn't really done for gross out comedy either. It is all about hero worship really, and is actually half-way decent film. I admit I did watch it because of the promise of James Marsden fucking a guy, even if it is Jack Black he fucks.

Four Moons (2014), terrific Mexican film about four stages in the lives of gay men -- childhood experimentation; teenage first love; thirtysomething relationship woes; elderly longing.

Featuring some very hot guys, with lots of nudity.

Garrett Clayton's new movie based on a murder in the gay porn industry? Though it probably won't be out until sometime next year.

I second Four Moons. Also The Ten Year Plan is better than most.

I'm hoping that "The Front Runner" gets made.

I just saw 'I Kissed A Girl', a french rom-com. It explores the whole sexual fluidity thing when a gay man, engaged to his longtime partner, finds himself developing feelings for a particular woman. It's quite light-hearted and the actors were attractive.

[quote]It's quite light-hearted and the actors were attractive

That does not sound like the description of a good movie.

R65, I was trying to describe it without giving too much away about the story. What else would you like to know about it?

OMG!! I'm watching Lilting on everyone's recommendation in this thread and I've seen drying paint that's more engaging. I couldn't imagine being that person who speaks Mandarin and English, having to spend 75% of this movie listeniong to everything twice.

Plus ALL the characters are very dull people.

I usually cry in movies about gay relationships, but in this case, I'm so bored I'm ready to join Kai. Look, my eyes are dry.

Oh, and repeatedly they love showing people talking while their lips are not moving, as if they were in some surreal state that the director seems to think is ethereally and sublimely artistic. Fuck that and fuck "Lilting." For gay ghost movies, stick with "Undertow."

I just saw a Chilean movie, In The Grayscale, it was a good movie with some good acting. It had a fairly graphic sex scene too, I even think the main character went full frontal at one point. The ending was annoying though, it sucked.

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List - this movie is now available on Netflix in Norway and probably other countries too.

R60 that elderly longing phase is sad to live let alone watch.

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