"Gay" movies that were obviously made for fraus

Philadelphia

Love, Simon

Call Me By My Name

Love, Simon

Making Love

and definitely... Philadelphia.

Rocketman

What does this thread even mean?

Aren’t they all made for fraus cause without them they won’t make much money?

In & Out

Birdcage

Longtime Companion

Can we add reasoning to all the suggestions?

R6, Absolutely yes. In & Out. It felt like a TV movie made for Lifetime or Hallmark.

Dawson’s 50 Load Weekend

It means the gay is desexualized, played for laughs and made more palatable for fraus. "Isn't it sweet that Tom Hanks dances with Antonio Banderas." "And Kevin Klein actually kisses Tom Selleck."

The opposite of the spit and shove scene in Brokeback mountain.

any that don't show nude guys fucking

Philadelphia and Longtime Companion were NOT "made for fraus."

Love, Simon immediately came to mind. It is definitely a "gay" movie made for straight people.

Simon as a character feels incredibly neutered, the movie focused on being very cute and sweet and teaching a lesson to the straight audience. That was a pretty common sentiment, lots of stuff written about it.

[quote] I’m just pointing out what feels like a pretty inarguable conclusion to draw from Love, Simon: that it is a movie about gay people made for straight people. I mean, it’s pretty upfront about who its intended audience is. The movie opens with a voiceover by the titular Simon character where he says something like, ‘My name is Simon and I’m just like you except I have this huge-ass secret, you see?’ That “you” is really telling! Like, if he’s just like “you” except for his secret and his secret is that he’s gay, that means that the “you” he’s addressing is “straight people,” and that the movie therefore assumes a straight viewer.

I can give Longtime Companion a pass because it was ventured into other uncharted waters bravely. Philadelphia was just Longtime Companion packaged for fraus. Which was needed at the time and I'm grateful it was made, but it was pure Hollywood being as brave only as far as the ticket receipts could justify.

R15, Phildadelphia? Yes. Longtime Companion? No.

"Weekend" is the opposite of this, that movie was meant to speak specifically to gay men.

Finally watched all of "In & Out" (after walking out on it early in theatre) and, dear God... that, for me, is officially the SINGLE WORST MOVIE to ever be nominated for an Oscar. Hands down. Horrible from start to finish.

[quote] Phildadelphia? Yes. Longtime Companion? No.

Correct.

THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION where Jennifer Aniston’s soon-to-be-pregnant character falls for her gay roommate played by Paul Rudd, and she decides he’s going to co-parent the future child of her ex-boyfriend.

More giggly cutesy cuddly gay guys with no heat and no dick. I never liked Paul Rudd so that didn't help. And that cliched "Hard to Say" song they played to death in the ad. A parody of bad '90s film.

[quote]It means the gay is desexualized, played for laughs and made more palatable for fraus

Yes, anytime a movie shies away from the fact that gay men are sexual beings, you know this is a decision made so the straight audience feels more comfortable.

In & Out was particularly bad and blatantly aimed at women. Even making sure his squeaking fiancé is rewarded with the hot guy in the end

1. In & Out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not only was it made for "housewives", it was also one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The entire movie was cringeworthy!

2. Any Jennifer Aniston or Julia Roberts movie with a "gay best friend" character

3. Philadelphia

I don't understand why anyone here is saying that Philadelphia was made for fraus. It was sad as fuck, the first movie (mainstream) to show the horror and discrimination against AIDS victims in those days. I was around and I remember it. Was it because there were no fucking scenes? Was Tom Hanks not gay enough for you? Was it too "sanitized?" HOW?

R27, your use of the phrase “AIDS victims” says it all.

Gay men are HUMANS. If all you know is sex there is an issue.

[quote]It was sad as fuck, the first movie (mainstream) to show the horror and discrimination against AIDS victims in those days.

Yes, it meant to make the straight audience emphasize with what was happening to gay men in the AIDS crisis, a worthy cause. But the straight audience was obviously the target audience. I mean you can watch many movies about the AIDS crisis that were aimed at gay men and you can't pretend you can't see the difference.

True, I agree with most of these but "Philadelphia" didn't seem so frau as it did safe drama formula. Springsteen and Neil Young helped give it some edge, for starters.

"In & Out" is still the clear winner. What a piece of shit.

I think Love, Simon is the winner. It was made for straight teens and their suburban moms.

I lost interest in Love, Simon less than half and hour in. It just felt like it was aimed toward straight women and not gay men.

[quote]Gay men are HUMANS. If all you know is sex there is an issue.

Yes, and humans are sexual beings. For a long time Hollywood was terrified of acknowledging gay men as sexual beings thus the comic sissy archetype and the gay bff archetype.

Tom Hanks could have been an infected straight female and it would have been the same movie.

"your use of the phrase “AIDS victims” says it all."

What does that mean? What is "it all?" Philadelphia was a film about an AIDS victim. And if you don't think anyone was a victim of AIDS in those days, I want what you're smoking. Isolation, ostracization, society's pariah. Fuck you and your gaslighting, "wrong nomenclature" smugness.

R22 I think that movie turned many a teenaged girl into a frau.

Tango & Cash

R12 That's exactly what kinds of films I mean.

After Call Me By Your Name Came Out, every fucking frau I know wanted to tell me how much they loved it. When I saw it, I understood why: it's a "gay" movie with not one, but two heterosexual sex scenes. We saw a boy and girl have fairly graphic sex for a mainstream movie, but the two men get a tasteful pan away to a moonlit tree at night even before their pants are off.

I'd say Philadelphia was aimed at str8 audiences of either sex, whereas films like Call Me By Your Name or Love, Simon (especially) are clearly designed as M/M frau bait. And what's astonishing about them is that they were directed by gay men.

Gay men are just not big enough demographic, sadly they have to appeal to women to make box office safer, you could still make a movie only for gay men and be successful of course, it's just riskier, baiting the fraus to watch it makes it safer that it won't flop.

I think having a teenager wear a man's swim trunks on his head and a cummy peach used to masturbate discovered by his lover disqualify CMBYN from frauhood.

I think Brokeback Mountain is the ultimate gay movie made for women. It's romantic.

Not a movie but definitely Modern Family

"Love, Simon" was not made for fraus. It was made for their daughters.

Many of the movies mentioned here are hardly "gay" movies. More like comedies with one or two gay characters, like the one with Paul Rudd or Rupert Everett for example.

I'm not sure flipping your wife over so you don't have see her face and pegging her butt so you can fantasize about your male lover qualifies as catering to fraus.

R43 Some of us like romance.

The Third Party - Max breaks up with Andi. Max hooks up with Christian. Max and Christian want to start a family. Lo and behold, Andi winds up pregnant! Hey, lets take in Andi and adopt her baby! Andi and Christian compete for Max's love and affection. Max is confused--does he like Christian or Andi? Fun, romantic romp. Chaste, gay embraces, no sex, personal questions like who's the top and who's the bottom go unanswered. Perfect frau confection.

I once saw that Rose director who did "Go Fish" get CREAMED at the SF Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for her godawful follow-up where the gay man turns straight. The Q&A was brutal and the more she tried to rationalize it, the worse it got. She crawled away at the end.

What was it called, "Bedrooms and Hallways" or something like that?

Ah yes R49 and it stars Sam Milby.

Torch Song Trilogy

Call Me By Your Name = Definitely. Broke Back Mountain = Maybe. God's Own Country = Definitely not.

The one where Madonna has a baby with a gay guy. I can’t remember the name

By that definiton TRICK would fit the requirement. Two guys looking for a place where they can have sex.

The next best thing

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

What about MAURICE? It has a bit of a Harlequin romance novel vibe to it.

The film Maurice follows the book pretty faithfully. Forster specifically wanted a happy ending, even if that meant that the book had even less of a chance of being published.

"In and Out"= yes. Brokeback Mountain? No.

[quote]Call Me By Your Name = Definitely.

Andre Aciman's life was "made for fraus"—or, at least, not a very good gay life. The ending is so sad, all I can say about it is, well, at least the tire iron didn't win in this one.

I think in several instances here people are conflating fraus with just a general audience (as opposed to gays). Call Me By Your Name was definitely aimed at a general audience, which is why they panned to the trees with the guys but the girl getting naked and receiving head was no problem. Brokeback was toned down a bit but definitely was not aimed specifically at the mug-cradlers. In and Out had no interest in a gay audience, it was for straights - but not necessarily just women. Philadelphia was also intended for a general straight audience, including but not limited to women.

Love, Simon on the other hand was made for teenage girls (fraus to be?).

How about "Prayers for Bobby," the TV-Movie where Sigourney Weaver *is* a frau who can't cope with gay son Ryan Kelley?

The movie version of "Jeffrey" has a scene when Steve Weber and Michael Weiss kiss. It flashes to a movie theater where two girls go "ahhh...." and the boyfriends they dragged along begin to gag. It was cute in 1997, but now it just grates on my nerve.

Philadelphia was for a general audience, not for gay men or fraus. It could not have done the Brokeback scene, nor should it want to. The subject matter was HIV AIDS and discrimination. It pushed multiple controversial ideas for the time but sex wasn't one of them.

R35 If the infected person were a woman it wouldn't have been the same movie. It would have been so much safer to do a movie about how some housewife was infected with HIV from her husband or a blood transfusion. It was risky to say this was a disease that affects many people but gay men were the most affected.

Call Me By Your Name was for fraus. God's Own Country was for gay men.

Soooooo.... "gay movies that were obviously made for fraus" is a slur, right?

Stranger by the lake

Theo & Hugo

Call Me By Your Name was made for the arthouse crowd, not "fraus"

It's the kind of movie that fraus usually get outraged over (He's 17 - gasp!)

Philadelphia is an archetypal "cross-over film"---everyone except the partners at the law firm are just too nice. It's main purpose was to allow someone to make a much better film--with more professional production values than Longtime Companion or Parting Glances, but w/o the "uplifting mawkishness" of Philadelphia.

In & Out is completely different--it's fun, it's for a broad audience, but it's not a tear jerker or a life lesson, and the stuff that could be "very special" is done as a self-parody. The whole thing is much more clever.

Love, Simon is definitely for faghags in training.

"In and Out" barely acknowledged that being gay was about desire toward one of the same sex. It made one think it was because of the way one dressed and the music they listened to and how they danced.

Don't know if it was a gay movie but the fraus turned it into one -- somewhat like how they turn the vibe in a gay bar when they show up en masse.... that Julia roberts movie with Rupert Everett where they sing Say A Little Prayer. It's so bad I won't even look up the name.

[quote]"In and Out" barely acknowledged that being gay was about desire toward one of the same sex. It made one think it was because of the way one dressed and the music they listened to and how they danced.

And with a gay man writing the script, no less.

Paul Rudnick was never as funny as everybody claimed he was.

Don't remember the name of the movie but a young man's college girlfriend who he was about to propose to is hit and killed by a either a truck or bus. Then many years later the man has become a professor and finds himself drawn unexpectedly drawn to one of his male students which confuses him until he later on "figures out" that the male student who he finds himself attracted to is his dead college girlfriend who got reincarnated as a man. Which now explains his "new" attraction to another man.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Basically any gay themed movie where the gay couple act like straights. Any movie where gay people interact in a way WE know they don't in real life. Some movies you can just see have a straight template placed over a gay romance.

CMBYN duh

I also suggest Love Simon. The idea that a gay teen-age boy would be in love with his email pen-pal without ever seeing a photo is ludicrous! Simon is a cute guy. Once he comes out of the closet, he could get on Grindr or any other website and immediately find other hot boys to hook up with, but unrealistically, he was still obsessed with the boy he’s never seen. This is not how gay men act.

R79. Right. That is strictly frau behaviour.

That movie Love Simon is nonsense.

In the parallel universe to DL, where bisexuality (of both men and fraus, not to mention many other animal species) actually exists, movies are made for them also.

My Best Friend's Wedding

Julia Roberts-check

Rupert Everett as her gay bff-check

Miss Warwick cover-check

My Best Friend's Wedding is by no-one's standards a gay film; it's a classic frau-targeted rom-com, though interestingly the ending was reshot and Rupert Everett's part expanded because the GBF was a big frau-hit. And Rupes thereby saved Julia Roberts' career after a string of duds. Not that he got any thanks for it - you don't upstage the star, even if she benefits.

What was GBF??

Gay Best Friend

Most all “mainstream “ gay movies are made for fraus.

R26: My best friend wedding is not a gay movie.

This remind me of a saloon article about the failing of writing the big american gay novel and they mentioned The interestings, The emperors children and The art of fielding, none of them is a gay novel by any means, all are novels with important gay character (writen by straight writers).

In mainstream gay sex means way more difficulties to sell the movie and reach bigger audiences. If america didn't have such homophobic way of rating the movies it would be different.

And yes, some of the movies have that after school special vibe. But i'm not that sure about Love, Simon, it's based on a young adult novel and it's obvious they wanted to reach a bigger audience but in the novel there's nothing really explicit (even in one of the final scenes where Simon and Bran are in the bed making up a bit, it's pretty tame). I think the fact it was the first big studio movie for teens with a gay main character is the key (a big faliure and it would be the last for a good while) not the fact that it was intended for a women audience exclusively

And i don't think sex scenes or the lack of those is what really shows the intention of the film maker

Cruising

The Object of my Affection

The Opposite of Sex

Ok... since every gay related movie is being mentioned, this may be an easier question:

Which gay movies WEREN'T made for fraus?

r89 really? FFS. It showed fisting!

I think he was being sarcastic

[quote]a cummy peach used to masturbate

Is something that no gay man would have anything to do with, ever.

R94. You're right that was downright bizarre.

I found Call me by my Name, moving but very implausible in parts. The peach and that weird watching him have a shit because he didn't want their bodies to have secrets from eachother, was strangely gothic, like something from an 18th century novel.

If Call Me By Your Name wasn’t graphically homosexual enough for you, you can suck my cummy peach.

So it appealed to both fraus and gays alike. It was done in a sexy, romantic way rather than shamed and the straight sex doesn’t negate the gay sex, or Armie Hammer’s beefy thighs spreading, or Chalamet humping him aggressively, or the kissing.

Movies are not porn. They serve a different purpose. Don’t write off a great movie just because there’s no sex or penetration. It says nothing about who it’s for.

Well I'm gay but when I was a kid I watched In & Out so much. The scene where KK dances to the cassette tape is still a favourite of mine. I just find it to be a feel good movie. And Debbie Reynolds is in it.

Gay movies for fraus make more money than gay movies for gay men only.

"So it appealed to both fraus and gays alike. It was done in a sexy, romantic way rather than shamed and the straight sex doesn’t negate the gay sex, or Armie Hammer’s beefy thighs spreading, or Chalamet humping him aggressively, or the kissing"

It didn't appeal to fraus, which is why it didn't do well at the box office despite all the hype

Why shouldn’t a gay man produce a show for any kind of audience he likes, R40?

You think straight people always know what they’re doing? You think there’s no room in the world for frau bait AND gay porn?

There’s room for every kind of show and audience. There should be no sexual requirements for the director.

No, I don’t like Greg Berlanti’s content or Ryan Murphy, but I don’t think they have to do exclusively gay material for gay men, either.

BTW John Waters and Luca Guadagnino are gay men who serve fraus and their content is terrific!

"THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION where Jennifer Aniston’s soon-to-be-pregnant character falls for her gay roommate played by Paul Rudd, and she decides he’s going to co-parent the future child of her ex-boyfriend."

Agree on this, based on a book by Stephen McCauley and adapted by fag hag Wendy Wasserstein (who had a sexual relationship with the generally gay playwright Terrence McNally according to the recent PBS special about him).

McCauley's entire oeuvre is made for fraus. Each is a variation on the same Will & Grace-like scenario as OBJECT. I haven't read them all, but none that I've read depict a successful gay relationship. McCauley reminds me of the type of sad sack posters here who post in the "I'm 40 and I'll never have a relationship" vein.

The movie of OBJECT is actually more affirming of the two guys' relationship at the end than the book is.

IN AND OUT is absurd, even for a farce. The idea that Kline's character has no idea he's gay (and he looks like he's 40 at least) is too idiotic even for a comedy - even a farce has to be grounded in something credible. The only funny part of the film is the scene where Shalom Harlow tries to dial a rotary phone like it's a touch-tone device.

R68, you’re dreaming.

All the full- frontal male nudity, explicit handjobs and the assertive, gay lead prove that Stranger By the Lake wasn’t just for fraus, or afraid to alienate most of them.

Stranger was in the vein of Philadelphia and Brokeback — an art film aimed at thinking, older people of all orientations and genders. But you have to be really cool and tolerant of graphic gay sex. Don’t lump it in with Object of My Obsession.

R82 = the Everybody Is Bi Troll, so put up with being erased and denied a place of your own.

Call Me By Your Name was a big hit at the box office, r100!

$42 million at the worldwide box office is about 5 or 6 times bigger than a normal art-house HIT. Let alone the average gay indie. It also has the distinction of being the highest-grossing movie of 2017 per screen average. And I'm friends with plenty of women who saw it and loved it!

You don't know what you're talking about, so you should STFU. You're just digging yourself in deeper.

Armistead Maupin is another gay author who makes content for fraus and cool straight people without compromising gay characters or their sexuality / uniqueness / edges.

[quote] Call Me By Your Name was a big hit at the box office, [R100]! $42 million at the worldwide box office is about 5 or 6 times bigger than a normal art-house HIT. Let alone the average gay indie. It also has the distinction of being the highest-grossing movie of 2017 per screen average. And I'm friends with plenty of women who saw it and loved it! You don't know what you're talking about, so you should STFU. You're just digging yourself in deeper.

Oh goody, yet another blowhard on the DL who thinks they know how movie grosses work.

I do.

You clearly don't.

All depends on your definition of "gay movies", having 1 character who is the best friend of the protagonists is not a gay movie on my book, and those are always chick movies.

I've never watched it, but does anyone feel this way about The Wedding Banquet? What I've read about the ending squicks me out.

[Quote]To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

YES. That movie was DEFINITELY made for frauen/fraus. The three leads pretty much portrayed characters that any lonely frau would love to be friends with. It was nothing like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. which actually was more convincing about the turmoils of gay drag queens in the Australian outback.

"42 million at the worldwide box office is about 5 or 6 times bigger than a normal art-house HIT. Let alone the average gay indie."

Most art house movies don't have tons of Oscar hype or a huge publicity campaign. Most gay indies don't get Oscar hype or have well known stars in the cast.

"And I'm friends with plenty of women who saw it and loved it"

The women I know haven't heard of it or think it looked like an endorsement of statutory rape

[quote] I do.

Except you don't. Having the best PSA of the year is a hollow victory, especially when it lasts one week and is the cumulation of grosses on FOUR screens. The indie film circuit is littered with movies who did this sort of one week platform opening business and then went on to die once the film went wider. If you want to see the most current example, look no further than Late Night.

So the film grossed $18m in North America and another $23m internationally. You do know they spent a good $20-$25m in ongoing P&A with another $5m bump for all the awards promotion, and of the $41m they made at the box office, they got back about $17m of it. With ancillary sales and licenses, I'm sure SPC at least broke even if not realized a small profit, which in and of itself is a victory, but to call this movie a big hit at the box office is completely incorrect. The projections based on the hype and awards attention were at least threefold of what it grossed in the US. It was absolutely a disappointment.

Other People

"I once saw that Rose director who did "Go Fish" get CREAMED at the SF Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for her godawful follow-up where the gay man turns straight. The Q&A was brutal and the more she tried to rationalize it, the worse it got. She crawled away at the end.

What was it called, "Bedrooms and Hallways" or something like that?"

Yes, that's the title. Saying the "gay man turns straight" isn't really accurate. It's one of those "everyone is really bisexual" movies, and I think Rose Troche said something like that about the film.

It's been a while since I saw it, but I believe the main gay male character first starts a sexual relationship with a heretofore straight guy he met at a men's discussion group and near the end of the film this same gay guy winds up in bed with his best female friend (played by Jennifer Ehle). Hugo Weaving is also in the film as a rather nasty gay man who's a real estate broker. It's not a very good movie.

R115 That's appalling. Amusing to remember in light of that the scene in Go Fish where a chick gets in trouble for sleeping with men while claiming to be a lesbian.

Love, Simon

Birdcage

Rocketman

In & Out

Moonlight

I thought the Wedding Banquet was an indie film, considered slightly edgy for its time with the interracial angle. I didn't care for that plot twist either as incredibly corny, and improbable!

What about Bohemian Rhap. ?

Bohemian Rhapsody for sure

[quote]I've never watched it, but does anyone feel this way about The Wedding Banquet?

Not as strongly, no. It seems like the Chinese guy has the child and his female acquaintance around to appease his family specifically. It's not like he "decided to be straight again" or rather it doesn't seem he's in a relationship with her versus his actual partner (male) who seems to be the one that he wants to be with. It's about supposed familial obligations vs. love not gay male vs. straight female or "creepy gay sex that isn't normal like when we suck cum out of peaches" like most of the frau shit.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was made for Brian and Roger and maybe the fans.

[quote]Paul Rudnick was never as funny as everybody claimed he was.

He can write funny jokes but has difficulty integrating them into a cohesive narrative.

So if I'm reading the replies right, any gay-themed movie that was popular was made for fraus.

Brokeback Mountain and God's Own Country weren't made for fraus. I'd say Moonlight wasn't really - though it was made for straight people more generally.

Any gay film made by a major Hollywood studio is made for fraus.

Gay movies for fraus are usually gay rom-coms and that includes coming of age movies like Love, Simon.

Wedding Banquet, for example, is an art house movie.

Wedding Banquet was made for Asian fraus

What about Baby Steps?

This is just a weird ass thread. Made for fraus? Made for the mainstream, perhaps, but I wouldn’t say Philadelphia was made to cater to the soccer mom set. Tom Hanks gets AIDS by fucking with a stranger in a gay porn theater. This was a film made in the early 1990’s. That was controversial back then. Tu Wong Fu....now that’s a frau flick!

Longtime Companion.

I remember watching the steamy kissing scene in the flat between two of characters (can't remember if they were main characters or not) thinking finally this is getting good only for them to pan out through the window and down the street past some random neighbours flat window and lo and behold! A pair of tits! Hanging out for absolutely no reason! Lol It was like they were saying gays are gross when they do 'gay things' so here look at these titties instead. I'm assuming that was meant for the straight men watching I doubt fraus care for titties since they are oversaturated with it in almost every straight oriented movie. Although I did find the scene funny I was also annoyed too so I didn't bother watching the rest of that garbage. They always put in heterosexual sex scenes/ or naked females to pander to the straights and when they do show something explicitly gay they follow up with some heterosexual crap that has little or nothing to do with the story.

YES, tons of art movies DO have Oscar promotion campaigns behind them, r112, and most of them don't make as much as CMBYN.

CMBYN made more money than THE IRON LADY, THE FAVOURITE, THE WIFE and many, other Oscar nominees.

And the women you hang out with are SQUARES whose bullshit opinions don't amount to JACK SQUAT. CMBYN is NOT statutory rape anywhere except their own, provincial territories and the fact that they only "heard of it" yet still judge sends them STRAIGHT DOWN THE SHITTER.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY is for everybody and everybody should see it!

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was definitely made for fraus -- they were the biggest part of the audience and it was written by Annie Proulx, a frau.

However, it had tremendous crossover appeal to The Thinking Straight Man and credible with The Gays as well. Let's not call it MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING or OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION, mmm'kay?

"CMBYN made more money than THE IRON LADY, THE FAVOURITE, THE WIFE and many, other Oscar nominees."

So it flopped slightly less than other flops? Not a ringing endorsement.

"BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was definitely made for fraus -- they were the biggest part of the audience and it was written by Annie Proulx, a frau."

I remember reading at the time that audiences were pretty much an even split between males and females, compare that to rom coms and stuff that is genuinely frau-centric and the audience will be like 60%+ female

Not a movie but there was a foreign language tv show about a pretty girl who dies but desperately misses her boyfriend and she ends up possessing the body of a boy in order to try to get her boyfriend back.

Don't forget MAKING LOVE. That is the ultimate gay frau movie.